I thought for my first post on the shiny new Slaw format, I should talk about a shiny new object. Over a million iPads have been sold so far. Many comments about the iPad can be found on Slaw, including my thoughts that the iPad will be the disruptive tipping point that will define the category. This kind of device will fundamentally change how we consume information.
Several competing products are expected to be on the market within the next few months, some of which will address some of the iPad's missing features. Of course, fans will say that the missing features is a feature as they allow the iPad to perform what it does very well. I've seen one close up, and it is indeed impressive.
I'm convinced that while an iPad is not a laptop replacement it may be a good alternative to a laptop, especially as a portable companion to one's main computer. For me, its not if I will get an iPad or a competing device, its when. I'm impatiently holding on for a few months to see how the competition shakes out.
These 2 articles are worth a read.
A Gizmodo post entitled: The iPad Is Such A Great Travel Computer That I'm Selling My Laptop
This post entitled: 5 Great Excuses to Buy an iPad for Your Business
UPDATE: And if not for a business tool – make a iPad controlled video blimp.
The power of iPad marketing is awesome and a million sales is impresssive but from a publisher's perspective, it really is just another ebook reader with a lot of gadgets attached.
At the recent DigitalBookWorld Conference in NYC held on the day the iPad was launched, presenters made the following comments about ebooks and ereaders that might be of interest:
1. Ebooks count for less than 3% of the market.
2. 30% of kindles were given way.
3. Book prices on the kindle were well below the cost of producing the content and were set artificially low to support sales of the kindle at the expense of the content – not a formula that would assure ongoing access to new content.
4. Everyone was concerned about the "tipping point" at which ebooks would displace print and the extent to which the iPad launch would move the market towards ebooks. No one had a clue.
I just returned from my local Indigo where the Kobo demo table is placed next to where I have my daily Starbucks. An occasional person briefly looks at the display. Except for the fact that Indigo has become primarily a seller of chotchkas and children's toys, print still looks pretty secure in my neighbourhood.
It might be worth adding the ways that lawyers are using the iPad:
1) a content reader, 2) a yellow pad, and 3) a trial presentation tool.
I can share personal experience about using an iPad at the office. Or rather, testing the iPad as a personal productivity tool.
Positive experience uses
Loading pdfs into PDFReader and being able to bookmark portions as well as see the item with all the coloured red and blue pen annotations
Using Memeo Connect Reader to sync with Google docs including converted PowerPoint presentations (as a portable training tool, it is awesome)
Looking at social media on a separate device – I can now perform a task that used to eat up daylight, otherwise billable at the office time while the commercials are on TV – yes I could have scanned my work related RSS feeds from my comfy home office, but trust me, this is better
I took the best notes of my life at the recent CALL/ACBD/MichALL conference and they were easy to edit and transfer since they started out as digital form
Negative experiences
No java means that I can't use it like a laptop to connect to our VPN – there may be a Citrix based option to connect but I haven't figured it out yet
Mixed ability to multi-task, you can open multiple sites with the browser, and it remembers where you were, but multi-tasking is not robust
Lack of flash for viewing some media (like those on the Canadian Lawyer website)
Despite its limitations, I am very happy I invested in this technology. After having the device for a very short time frame (3 full days in the office) I can see a lot of potential for business use.