Oh dear indeed
I'm afraid you, BinaryDad, are the tool.
The drawbacks if the previous iShit offerings don't matter because they relate to things that are not primary functions. The phone can't play flash but that's OK because you're going to carry a phone anyway and net browsing is a second function. Can't multitask and the procesor is slow on the pod but that's ok because its a music player, all the stuff like games are secondary functions.
This is being touted as a do-all for everyone, a 'mobile video-watching, book-reading, game-playing, photo-perusing, music-listening, web-surfing, and email-emailing device.'
- It's a movie watcher except that the 4:3 screen format is dinosaur tech.
- It's an ebook reader but the screen is the wrong technology. ebooks as an idea went nowhere until an alternative for back-lit came along.
- It's a game player except that it has a netbook processor.
- It's a photo viewer except that the screen resolution is rather low.
- It's a music player and an emailer but not at the same time.
- It's a web surfer but not for a vast swathe of the internet and I need yet another monthly drain on my pocket because I can't make calls with it.
- It's not even got the legendary apple design chic. The phone had the screen to 2 edges from the start, something other manufacturers have only recently matched. If the Pad were the size of its screen you might have a chance of getting it in a pocket
It's not a device genre people are already commonly carrying, it's an extra device apple want us to choose to carry. Thus it needs to be more perfect than the iPhone or iPod, we're going to carry a phone and/or music player anyway, apple just need us to choose theirs. The iPad truly is a jack of all trades and master of none and deserves to burst the iEverything bubble.
IMO it needed to be 16:9 format, a little smaller than an Ordnance Survey map so it fits in an outdoor jacket map pocket or suit jacket inside pocket, have the screen to the edge on 3 sides, able to use text apps such as email or doc processing at the same time as playing music and forget the ebook eye strain maker. Then the slow processor so limited gaming wouldn't matter and better that than a whizzy game chip but even poorer battery life