The real beauty of the Apple iPad

After months of speculation and a plethora of ‘is this the new Apple Tablet?’ images, Apple finally revealed to the world: The iPad.

The anticipation behind the iPad release was monumental, something which is now common place with all Apple announcements; day after day there was another blog post about what the tablet would do, what it would look like and what it would be called. Inevitably however, with such a huge amount of speculation there are bound to be split decisions upon the actual device upon its release - the iPad is no different.

A lot of people in the online world are complaining about the iPad, claiming its nothing new, nothing but a bigger iPhone and somewhat of a letdown. Perhaps these views come from the vertigo suffered from placing the iPad on such a high pedestal? Honestly, I think that for some people: no matter what the device did, it would always be a letdown.

For me, the iPad looks to be an amazing bit of tech both functionally and aesthetically (of course!!). The real beauty of the iPad however, is within the intended use - just take a look at the keynote speech Steve Jobs gave yesterday: for around 5 minutes he just sat in a chair browsing the internet, slowly taking the audience through the various aspects of the device, did he need to rest the iPad on his knees? Did he need to adjust the tilt of the screen to counter the glare coming off the screen? Did he need to fumble around with a track-pad or tiny mouse? No. He Didn’t. And there is the beauty of the iPad: a device which can be used in a relaxed manner, a little pad which can be picked up or put down like a book or magazine, a device which you can hold in your hands whilst sitting in the armchair: relaxing!

Another point about the iPad is it’s function as an eReader, Jason Bradbury updated his blog with a really good post on the iPad and the way it could inevitably change the way we read newspapers or even print media as a whole. Perhaps the iPad won’t be THE device which makes the change but I do think it is the necessary first step in the print media revolution.

As with the iPhone, the doubts and complaints over the iPad are almost guaranteed to diminish over time. Once it is released and people actually feel the device - perhaps then they will see the true potential of the iPad.