Normally I’m a big fan of all things Apple, but this time I’m not so sure. Yes, I can see immediate uses from the standpoint of academic medicine. The device looks like a nice ebook reader and might be a very nice compliment to Epocrates, which just about every med student in the US uses at some time or another. As well, there are some electronic health records that now have iPhone applications that would probably work well on the iPad. The biggest problem though is that like an iPod, the iPad is a passive device. Steve Jobs says you can’t do anything on a netbook. I don’t think that’s true, give me the choice of writing this blog post on an iPad or a netbook and I’ll take the netbook every time. It’s just easier.
Even as an eBook reader there are problems, particularly for students. How do you take notes on section? How do you mark a section so you know to come back to it from your laptop? Can you use these books on your Mac? Your PC? How is this device better than the recently announced HP slate? How is it better than my old HP TC1100? Yes, I would rather read a book on an iPad as opposed to my Palm Pre, but I can’t fathom how the minimum $500 cost can be justified for something that is a little bit of everything that I already have. The befuddling lack of Flash support reduces the value proposition even further. The iPad doesn’t seem like a good deal, financially or otherwise. Maybe version two will have more to offer, but I’m not holding my breath for version two to ever arrive.
What I think is happening is that Apple is looking to create a tool that operates as another point of consumption for their various stores, particularly this new iBookstore that I’m very curious to read more about. Looking at the ecosystem of Apple products, Mac Pro exists only to foster the creation of content that can then be packaged and sold owners of the rest of the product lines. I can’t fathom how the iPad can be successful when all it can really do is buy other apple products. It’s a glorified iPod Touch that can’t fit in your pocket.
