Here is a list of the main reasons I returned the iPad. I am not the target audience as I was hoping this would be less of a third device, and more of a watered down laptop that was portable and allowed me to be productive, simple tasks well. The iPad, for now, is more of a toy.
Examples:
The iPad is not a good reading device for two points:
1) you can't alter the brightness of JUST the reading application, it affects the whole interface, and applications you would prefer to see brightly like games,
2) its fine as an e-reader until I try to read in bed, this is impossible with the iPad as, light as it is, it's just too heavy to hold for long periods of time. The Kindle wins hands down here.
The iPad is not very good at writing for the following points:
1)You can't lie it flat on a table and type. The curved back means it rocks as you type.
2)Pages is an ok application for writing, but the lack of a desktop concepts means keeping and transferring files between devices is not intuitive. The work does not follow me as easily as it should.
3) I have to buy too many peripherals, keyboard, case, to make it work as a typing device.
4) It's not bad as a keypad, but eventually hitting glass with your fingers at speed, while typing, hurts your fingertips.
5) Screenwriting software is poor at the moment - I can not use short cut keys on the keypad to navigate to various functions, which becomes tiresome very quickly.
Other points:
The iPad is dependent on the consumer having a laptop. A customer cannot throw away their laptop by buying an iPad, as the iPad has to sync to something. This is acceptable with an iPhone, but when it comes to the iPad, it feels like a cop-out.
The lack of flash really is an issue , I'm not sure why Apple underestimated this one. You only get a very underwhelming subset of Youtube videos because of this.
The iPhone 4 is leaps ahead in functionality and hardware, so waiting for iPad v2 makes more sense.
I really hope they rethink the interface and not go the iPhone route. I would love to look at the iPad Pro, a professional extension of the iPad. In my next posts I will be looking at what the iPad Pro might look like.
