As someone who always felt life would be much better if one could carry around a few hundred books at the same time, I am quite enthusiastic about the new Apple iPad. While eBook readers have been around a while and do a decent job of letting readers lug around an excessive amount of books, I could never justify another electronic device just to have a bunch of books on myself at all times.
The iPad may change my view. If I didn’t own an iPhone already, this could be the Apple product that lures me into purchasing it at version 1.0. As I already have an iPhone, I think I’ll sit on my hands and refrain from purchasing this until 2.0 comes out and let the fanboys have a go at this first release.
Why the hesitation? While it’s quite cool you instantly have access to the entire App Store on iTunes, I already have that on my iPhone. There isn’t an application at this point in time that really requires the larger, more powerful iPad. And since using the device as an eBook reader is a big selling point for me, I want to see how iBookstore plays out. The iPad will support the ePub standard, but it is not known if Apple will allow you to important unprotected ePub documents into the iBooks application or if the FairPlay copy protection will apply to iBookstore purchases.
There is some complaining about how the iPad is tied to iTunes and it is not an open device. It doesn’t even have standard computer ports. But it is not really being pushed as a computer, not even a tablet PC. For me, it would be a portable media device to play music, read books, hopefully watch some streaming videos and movies, and do basic things like get the weather, read the news, check email and poke around online.
I don’t need a laptop with me at all times. And I really never loved using my mobile phone to read the web on, much less books. The screen is just so tiny for books and I’m constantly flipping through to the next page. The iPad, which has a 9.7 inch touch screen, fills a gap for someone like myself who wants a portable media device that does much more than plays a DVD or holds a bunch of books.
An undeniable swanky gadget, the iPad is something I can hold off on but ultimately want as it really seems like an exceptional portable media device. If iBookstore delivers on its promise to be the best mobile device for browsing, buying and reading books, then I’ll be right there for Version 2.0.