iPad... Really?

Ok, I will forgo the discussion about the name,because plenty of other places have beaten it to death. Suffice to say, iTablet or iSlate, or something along those lines would have been a little slicker.

I am not an Apple fanboi by any means. In fact I don't own any Apple products. (At one time I did have an Apple IIGS in like 1985.) However, I was hoping that Apple would make a big splash today with their new gadget. Like a lot of people though, our tents quickly deflated as the 2-hour press conference went on.

I believe Apple really missed the boat big time on this one. At least with the initial offering. Who knows what they may devise for future OS upgrades but here is what I would have expected to see today... seeing as how they said this has been in development for 9 years:

(1) Phone Call functionality - It seems they are trying to eliminate devices with this product. It makes sense to have it with phone capability, especailly if you plan to use it at home. Simply have a way to pair it up with your current phone number or something like that.

(2) Multi Tasking Ability - I am a firm Palm WebOS supporter. I use mine a lot. Being able to have IM (all in one place: Yahoo, Gmail, and AIM), Listen to talk radio, Check my email, have the weather up, and play a game of word ace, ALL AT THE SAME TIME WITHOUT HAVING TO CLOSE ANYTHING is truly amazing. That is one major flaw with the iPhone is the lack of this ability.

(3) Camera - I would have expected some sort of video conferencing capability. Live web streaming is really taking off and it can be done over 3G networks. Having this would make sense.

(4) Wi-Fi Hot Spot - The new Palm Pre Plus has built in Wi-Fi sharing ability for multiple devices. This would have really been a major feature had it been included. Numerous phones are now coming out as hot-spots.

Only time will tell if the new device will be a success. I don't really see it taking off though since there really is nothing outstanding about it. If any of the four features above had been included, all the buzz surrounding it would have been more worthwhile.

This gives Hewlett Packard a chance to really gin up something cool for their tablet release. Can't wait to see if they take advantage of this amazing opportunity.