What’s to come in Apple iPad : A prediction

After almost a decade of speculation, Apple has finally unveiled the iPad. Apple CEO Steve Jobs announced the much-awaited gadget on January 27, 2010, at an Apple press conference at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco. The device’s imminent release had been rumored for several months with iSlate and iTablet among speculated names. The iPad is a tablet computer developed by Apple Inc. It will feature multi-touch interaction with print, video, photo, and audio multimedia, internet browsing, and will run most iPhone OS apps. The device will have an LED-backlit 9.7-inch (25 cm) color IPS LCD display and use a virtual keyboard for text input.

It is scheduled to be released in March 2010 (for WiFi only models) and April 2010 (for WiFi + 3G enabled models in the United States and some other countries) with a starting price tag of $499 for the Wi-Fi only model.

Before we reveal the future possibilities of the iPad, let us have a look at its current features.

Software/Apps: The iPad will include Safari, Mail, Photos, Video, YouTube, iPod, iTunes, App Store, Maps, Notes, Calendar, Contacts, and Spotlight. It also includes the iBooks application, which displays books and other ePub-format content downloaded from the iBookstore.

The Apple iPad ,powered by the iPhone OS 3.2 software is hiding several software features, as is reported by Engadget. It is still not known whether all of these features will be offered to end-users. You can run both Apple and third-party software purchased through Apple’s App Store in the iPad. The iPhone and iPad share the same development environment third-party developers can create apps specifically for the iPad, which take advantage of its features. Most existing iPhone and iPod Touch apps will run on the iPad, and the screen image can even be enlarged to fill up more of the device’s 9.7-inch display. This also opens up new possibilities to take advantage of the mobile experience of the mobile web. This is said to be the future of mobile computing.

Some apps that are worth mentioning are that of the Facebook and LinkedIn apps. These two are key examples of popular services whose iPhone apps almost outdid the websites. Now that we can have experiences like these on a bigger touchscreen, with the Apple iPad, computing is expected to become to become much easier than what we’re accustomed to now. The iPad opens a path for an improved web experience for everyone. A host of websites will be altering their content for more pleasant, touchscreen tablet browsing as soon as the iPad and its competing slates are available in the market.

So now in the near future, monotonous browser tabs and boring boxes all over the place may gradually give way to friendlier, simpler , functional and to-the-point mobile website. To get a hint of the developments, you can have a look at YouTube or Flickr’s mobile website.

Productivity features: The Apple iPad offers a multi-touch enabled iWork productivity suite with Microsoft Office support. Its usability may be enhanced by the ability to connect to a central server to get files. The iPad is said to be able to connect to file servers as well as be able to download and store files locally from within the Safari browser. It’s also assumed to be easy to print documents. All these features, supposed to be present in the iPad, are critical to make good use of iWork.

Possibilities for the not so computer-savvy: The iPad , being touchscreen, is going to be the first computer to eliminate the social divide, as it will encourage computing by the elderly as well as children. Because touching with your fingers on the appropriate place of a friendly, touch-based UI will always be easier than typing commands or clicking mouse. Many technologists across the globe are of the opinion that it’s going to be the computer for everyone: an idea Apple has been working toward for years.

Native handwriting recognition: A key feature in the field of Tablet PCs has always been handwriting recognition. Accessory makers have already announced the upcoming availability of a selection of stylii for the Apple iPad. The iPhone OS 3.2 is possibly hiding a handwriting keyboard prototype. This could mean that we’ll see native handwriting recognition in iPhone OS 4.0 .

Multitasking: Absence of multi-tasking is a major disappointment for many. The iPad won’t be able to run more than one application at a time, a limitation it shares with the iPhone and iPod Touch. This implies that the iPad won’t be a great replacement for a laptop or netbook. This could ultimately change with a software update, but till then lets keep our fingers crossed.

Conclusion: The absence of a camera, HDMI, multitasking, etc. in the Apple iPad may also be mitigated in its future editions which will make it more lovable and appreciable by gadget lovers around the world. Thus the Apple iPad has the potential to be the ‘most-wanted’ device and it will introduce a significant new category besides the current PC, Laptop market.