iPad Hands on with the iPad

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by TallMomof2

I suspect that the iPad won't work any better outside than any other non-reflective screen.

I still want my next laptop to have a Pixel Qi screen so I don't have to use the Hoodman.

[DawnFalcon]

Never mind

[nekokami]

As Kobo has already announced that their app will be available on the iPad "day one," I suspect all the eBook apps will be allowed to run. I know Apple has their iBooks store, but that's not their main moneymaker. I don't think they're going to be as protective of it as with some other lines of business. It's even a separate store-- they can drop it later if they want to, or if they get an attractive offer from one of the other ebook giants.

One thing to keep in mind regarding the iBooks store-- we have already seen that if you buy a song from iTunes, you'd better make your own backup, because iTunes does not allow you to download the song again later (even though your account history has been maintained). So I would not have any confidence that you'd be able to re-download books bought at their store.

As for the prices, the screen shot we saw had a wider range of prices than, say, Amazon, with best-sellers going to $15, but the low end looked pretty comparable to me. My understanding is that Amazon takes a loss on the bestsellers (and that the publishers don't much like that sales strategy). Apple seems to have chosen not to impose an upper cutoff on publisher-set prices. We'll see what the market says about how well that works for them.

It's not the right device for everyone, and certainly not a "Kindle Killer" (wrong market). But I think it will sell well, and not just because of the Apple brand name. It looks like a device that will meet a lot of users' needs-- a web appliance. It's not a hacker device or a hard-core gamer device, but there are plenty of other people out there who use computers and just want them to run reliably and perform a short list of functions. This will likely do that.

[daffy4u]

Originally Posted by nekokami

As for the prices, the screen shot we saw had a wider range of prices than, say, Amazon, with best-sellers going to $15, but the low end looked pretty comparable to me. My understanding is that Amazon takes a loss on the bestsellers (and that the publishers don't much like that sales strategy). Apple seems to have chosen not to impose an upper cutoff on publisher-set prices. We'll see what the market says about how well that works for them.

This what I don't understand. If, Amazon is eating the price difference, why are publishers freaking out?

[TallMomof2]

Because it sets a expectation in consumer's minds that ebooks are only worth $9.99. Never mind that the publishers are still making the same amount of money no matter what price the retailer sells the book for.

[Moejoe]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

This what I don't understand. If, Amazon is eating the price difference, why are publishers freaking out?

Because their industry and by extension the power they once had is waning considerably. Macmillan and the other big publishers are owned by even bigger corporations. Macmillan and the others have to justify their own existence at this point; which is getting harder by the day. Lots of jobs are about to be lost across the whole industry as New York, London and Paris cease to be relevant. It's like watching a drowning rat clamber up for air as the ship sinks.

[Harmon]

In line at Hot Doug's, the Sausage Emporium, this morning, I got to talking with a 20/30 year old who works at a private K-12 school in Milwaukee. He said that the kids, meaning the students & younger faculty/admin, reacted to the iPad as "who needs it, I have my phone, my ipod & my laptop." The older faculty/admin reacted with "where's mine?"

So I give you The iPad - The iPod for Grownups.

[Harmon]

Originally Posted by Krystian Galaj

The problem with becoming potential customers for iBooks is that books in iBooks are set to cost 1.5 times as much as books on App Store apps. That's what Apple promised to large book publishers to get them on board. Now if Apple let other eBook readers compete with iBooks, it would cause the customers to move away from iBooks to those applications. So it would be retarded to let those apps compete with iBooks.

Except that you are overlooking the one-stop shopping convenience of the iBook store.

It's like with Amazon - what's the biggest advantage of the Kindle? It's the Amazon shopping experience. They don't always have the lowest prices, but they have the easiest shopping experience.

Same with iTunes & the App Store. You own a Touch, MacBook, or iPhone, & you are set up with an Apple Account that is hassle free. The iBook app will be the same. The eBook apps, not so much.

Apple will position the iBook store to be the first place the new iPad user (someone who doesn't have an ereader) will go to look for books. A large number of those people will never leave to try out the ebook apps. Ergo, Apple will charge a couple of extra bucks of book price for a couple of extra bucks of convenience. Not enough to drive the customers away. Just enough for the customer to say, "yeah, I know it might be a little more, but it's worth it to me." And a large part of the Apple customer mentality works that way.

At the same time, the ebook apps are a kind of honey-trap for people who are already on the ebook bus. Like the people on this board. Sure, they won't buy from the iBook store because they already know about the other stores, & will want compatible ebooks for their DRMed ereaders. But a number of them (us) will buy the iPad because we know we will be able to access the other ebook stores.

This is a more subtle game than the one that assumes that the iBook store is in direct competition with the apps at every level. It is aimed at selling some ebooks, and a LOT of iPads. And I think that the game that matters to Apple is selling iPads, not selling ebooks. The ebook sales are just pocket money.

[CCDMan]

That they won't do, because those people might want to buy Apple products in the future. If they bought lots of Kindle books for iPhone, and then the application is removed from App Store for iPhone, I don't think they'd buy anything Apple ever again, and they'd be very loud about it.

I have no doubt that they would be loud (they always are), but for Apple the question is not whether folks would be happy or unhappy, but which would make them more money, in the long run, the books they would sell or the future gadgets they would not sell.
For them it is just a question of which they think is best in the long run and in the long run you almost always make more money on many small content purchases than on a few big hardware purchases. Witness the app store or the Kindle book store or, for that matter, the printer vs. ink model.

Visit this again in a year and we shall see.

[DrFyzziks]

I've been reading thru the comments in this thread and I've noticed that some people have made assumptions & statements about the iPad that need a bit of clearing up.

While I haven't held an iPad in my hands yet, I have done quite a bit of research and I've also been working with the new iPad 3.2 SDK since Wednesday. So with that in mind, I hope I can clear a couple things up:

Drag & Drop files (this one's for exreader):

Unlike the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad will show up as an external "drive" to which you can drag and drop files. This is stated in the iPad developer documentation. Furthermore, this virtual drive operates as a shared filesystem on the iPad - any iPad application can access and use it. Think of it like a "My Documents" folder. You'll be able to drag & drop a PDF file onto the iPad, and any PDF-capable application will be able to access it.

This is in contrast to the current iPhone and iPod Touch filesystems, where each application is limited to accessing files in its own directory.

source: Apple iPad 3.2 SDK documentation & you can find it mentioned all over the net now.

iWork / MS Office Compatibility

Like its desktop counterpart, the iPad version of iWork is capable of reading and writing files in both its own formats as well as standard MS Office formats - including Word, Powerpoint and Excel files. So you'll be able to drop Office files right into that previously-mentioned shared folder (or receive them via email or other method) and open them right on the iPad.

"Most" iPhone applications will work

Apple has stated that "most" of the 140,000 App store iPhone apps will work on the iPad. I noticed a few comments questioning the use of the word "most" - it's actually pretty simple. The iPad isn't a phone. While it does possess a microphone, speaker and 3G connection, the iPad OS lacks some of the phone-specific UIs (dialer, voicemail interface, etc). Any 3rd party app that utilizes the phone APIs isn't likely to work very well (if at all).

That said, VoIP apps like Fring, Skype, etc should run just fine.

I doubt Apple is going to prevent the iPhone Kindle app from running on the iPad. I don't know what they'll do if Amazon updates the app to take advantage of the iPad's larger screen - they'd probably allow it, given that they aren't just in the business of selling books via the iBookstore ... but we'll have to wait and see.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by daffy4u

Yeah, after I read the iPad stats last night I realized how off he was. I told him his hand weighing so I skills were lacking. I had him hold my Kindle without the cover so it's strange that he couldn't tell how much lighter it was. To be fair it wasn't like had just held the iPad within the last few days, so his memory wasn't clear.

I am thinking that maybe the iPad compares in weight to the DX.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by dragonbone

I've read through this whole thread and can't see who had their 'hands on' the iPad?
Maybe I'm missing something.

A friend of Daffy's. See post #1.

[nekokami]

Thank you, DrFyzziks, for your informed comments. And welcome to MobileRead!

[kjk]

Originally Posted by DrFyzziks

"Most" iPhone applications will work

Apple has stated that "most" of the 140,000 App store iPhone apps will work on the iPad. I noticed a few comments questioning the use of the word "most" - it's actually pretty simple. The iPad isn't a phone. While it does possess a microphone, speaker and 3G connection, the iPad OS lacks some of the phone-specific UIs (dialer, voicemail interface, etc). Any 3rd party app that utilizes the phone APIs isn't likely to work very well (if at all).

That was my first thought as well, DrFyzziks. Also, none of the GPS apps will work unless you get the 3G option.

Regardless, the App Store is going to get more complicated...putting aside the obvious speed issues (The iPad looks a lot faster than the iPhone 3GS/16-32G Touch, which are faster than the iPhone 3G/Edge/8G Touch), there are now 2 iPad configurations (3G and no 3G), 2 Touch configurations (mic and no mic), and 3 iPhone configurations (with different cameras, compass, GPS, etc..). And a rumored new iPhone this summer, of course..

Can't wait to see how Apple handles them all

[dragonbone]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

A friend of Daffy's. See post #1.

hehehe.... durian...

P.S. I WANT an iPad NOW!!!