Apple iPad
Few devices have been created that are as iconic as the iPhone, but it looks like Apple has done it again with the Apple iPad. Expectations were high leading up to the product announcement on January 27, 2010. Most pundits knew the device was coming, and few of the features weren't predicted in advance, but the PRICE is what caught most people by surprise.
At an entry price of $499 (about half what almost everyone thought it would cost), the future of the Apple iPad is indeed bright.
After a virtual tear-down of assembly parts and labor costs by iSuppli showing the base model costing only $229.35 (and up to $346.15 for the top-end model that sells for $829 which includes 3G and 64 GB of flash memory), that means Apple will make a tidy margin on the entire matrix of iPad configurations.
So what does the cost and selling price of an Apple iPad have to do with the success of the iPad?
For starters, it leaves plenty of breathing room for future price slashing. The most expensive components in the iPad are the multi-touch display and the flash memory, which combined account for about 50% of the component costs. As flash memory prices drop, and the display cost drops, Apple can offer the iPad at a price few can resist, or add new features while keeping the prices steady.
Why would someone need an iPad? Here are some ideas:
http://ipaduniverse.wordpress.com
The iPad is a new class of device that bridges the gap between smart phones and laptops. But the major market segment for the iPad isn't current owners of smart phones and laptops but rather EVERYONE ELSE.
Any human being left on the planet that doesn't own a laptop computer OR a smart phone is a candidate for the iPad, a device that is much easier to use than a computer yet has the computational power and software right out of the box to do very sophisticated and practical tasks.
From doctors, to teachers and students, to artists and sports coaches, the iPad is the perfect device to carry around like a clipboard and use for creating presentations, accessing the web, communicating via email, and a myriad of other uses that the 3rd party application makers have already created for the iPhone (140,000 of them so far), all of which will run without modification on the iPad.
But perhaps the most intriguing thing about the iPad other than a cost that puts it in reach of almost anyone, and ease-of-use that makes it useable by even the most computer-illiterate amongst us, is the features that Apple has left out of the first-generation iPad.
Conspicuously absent is a camera, which is strange considering the iPad is the perfect 'video conferencing' device. One can only speculate why this most useful of features was omitted. Perhaps it would have raised the selling price above Apple's magic $499 price threshold. Or maybe they didn't figure out which side of the iPad makes the most sense for the camera to be mounted on. Who knows?
One thing is for sure: The addition of a camera to allow video-conferencing and the taking of snapshots to use in media created with the iPad would be huge (and is already a necessity).
Even more exciting than the prospect of a future iPad with a camera is an iPad with a laser projector. Microvision has perfected the Laser Pico Projector and is in talks with phone, camera and other device manufacturers to embed the low-power, high-definition projector in all manner of consumer electronics.
Imagine an iPad that can project a movie, keynote presentation, slide-show, or other video onto any surface, without the need to focus, and in rich color up to 60 inches across.
The possibilities for the iPad are as endless as the imagination, and only when it is finally released and future generations of iPads are designed, will the potential for this 'magical and revolutionary device' be fully realized.
Photo:
http://www.prlog.org/
