Why I Will NOT Buy the new Apple iPad

After months, if not years, of rumors, speculations, and just plain waiting, Apple finally introduced their version of the tablet computer today at a press event in San Francisco.  Called the iPad, it's designed to fill the gap between the smartphone and the laptop.  It represents what Apple hopes will be a hot new revenue stream and a way to steal market share from devices like netbooks and e-readers. 

Steve Jobs with the new Apple iPad

But does it live up to the pomp and circumstance that Steve Jobs bestowed upon it?  It is now 2010, and I think by this time, we should have a pretty good idea of what should and should not be (or what we want and don't want) on a mobile device like this.  On the surface, the iPad is a very sweet machine:  thin and light, big, full color, high resolution, multi-touch, and even a great price.  But when you really look at the specs (or lack thereof), to me, it's just not worth it.  And here's why:

1. no multitasking.
This is huge.  HUGE!  Not being able to run more than one application at a time is a deal breaker from this point on.  How long is Apple going to wait until this feature gets put in their mobile devices?  Palm figured it out.  Google figured it out.  Microsoft figured it out.  RIM figured it out.  I mean, come on, my Droid has it, and it's 1/2 as slow as the iPad.

2. no camera.
This was one of the things that blew me away.  So you're telling me that you can put a camera on an iPhone, but you can't put one on the iPad?  Why, because there's no room?  Yeah...right.  A high-resolution screen and no camera to take advantage of it.  If they put both a front- and rear-facing camera on this thing, and then added full support for Skype, that would be one seriously killer app.  This thing works at wireless N and 3G speeds, and if you've got a good signal, should quite easily handle it.  Imagine how much fun video conferencing on this would be.

3. storage size.
One of the biggest things I hate being limited on with any device is storage, especially if you can't expand that storage.  Now, granted, most people don't generate the crazy amounts of data that I do at the blink of an eye.  But there are plenty of people who, like me, have large music and photo collections that could easily reach that minimum 16 GB limit.  Steve Jobs always touts music, photos, and apps as the big features of his mobile devices.  And you can bet that the folks who buy the iPhone, iPod Touch, and now the iPad use all three of these in spades.  I think, at the very least, the iPad should have included a memory card slot of some kind.

4. no Flash support.
If you watched yesterday's Apple event when Jobs was browsing the web, you would have noticed  multiple instances where something designed with Flash was supposed to be on the page he was looking at.  But instead, the blue "missing  plugin" icon showed up.  I thought that was a bad thing to show at a press event.  And yes, Apple isn't the only company with Flash support issues, but when something is as globally ubiquitous as Flash, like it or not, you support it.

5. the name.
I think when it comes right down to it, Apple has totally burned up all variations of iThis and iThat.  A lot of names were thrown around the press during the rumor phase leading up to the event.  Some were good; some were not.  My favorite was "the Slate".  It's got a great ring to it.  The Apple Slate.  But no, now we have to put up with feminine hygiene product jokes for the next decade.

6.  no GPS.
The Maps application on the iPad is absolutely gorgeous.  It takes full advantage of Google's map infrastructure, including satellite photos and Street View.  However, if you want to locate your position on the iPad, you'll have to rely on either Wifi or 3G, depending on your model.  And in many places, those signals could be weak or nonexistent.

7. still no Verizon
For those people who make the monetary leap to the 3G-enabled version of the iPad, you'll still need to rely on AT&T's 3G service.  And as many iPhone owners can probably attest to, this just sucks.  Plus, adding a new device to AT&T's data pipe can only create even more bottlenecks than there are now.  Spread the love to other carriers, Apple.

I will say that I think Apple is now in a good position as far as e-books go.  And that mainly is because the iPad has a full-color screen.  And from the looks of it, reading a book on this thing is a very pleasurable experience.  But the real question is whether or not it will kill all other e-book readers.  I personally think it won't.  Devices like Amazon's hot-selling Kindle prove that if you simply enjoy the aspect of reading, you don't need bells and whistles.  Clean, easily-readable text and a nice way to turn the page sounds pretty good to me.  However, if I were an avid comic book reader, I'd be salivating over the full-color screen.

The iPad begins selling in March, and when it finally does, I will be making the trip to the Apple Store to get my first hands-on look at it.  Will that personal experience change my opinions here?  Honestly, I doubt it.  In all accounts, I can totally envision me holding the iPad and thinking "this is simply a 10-inch iPod Touch."  Apple changed the world when it released the iPod, and then completely altered the landscape when it released the iPhone, but since then, I think Apple has sort of lost its way in what today's mobile device consumers are wanting.  It just feels like Apple is giving you what they think you want, and I'm not really a fan of that.  If future versions of the iPad include the features I think it lacks, then yeah, I would really consider getting one.  Maybe I have a better chance of waiting for, perhaps, the Google Slate?