iPad - First impressions

So another product launch from Apple..again imperssive presentation... wowing a lot of people, and sweeping some off the feet...

Here are my thoughts (primarily from a usability perspective) after watching the video and going through the product specs

• The virtual keypad

The keypad looks painful from a human factors perspective, keeping in mind this is not just a tool for browsing- but something between a smart phone and a computer, I think the keyboard provides the biggest of the human factors issues. It is a flat capacitive touch screen, and you'll need to hover both your hands above the surface and peck the screens. Resting them on the screen while typing means, typos and spending more time correcting errors than typing. If this doesn't give you carpal tunnel, nothing will.

Ofcourse there is all the inherrent problems of a virtual keyboard like the lack of proper feedback

• The size of the device, and Holdability

The size of the device (10 in screen) makes it painful to carry around, coupled with the fact that there is nothing to grip on, and a fragile body makes it uncomfortable to carry around

• The form factor

The form factor makes two handed typing quite a laborious task.

There is nothing that holds the screen at a comfortable visual angle - giving an incorrect posture --> bad back

Also it makes it hard to hold the device on the users' lap because of the glass like smooth surface, the rectangular body, and light weight -- making this device a slippery customer

• Protection

Not sure if the box comes with a sleeve, because it sure does look very easy to get all scratched up

soon enough

• Fixed hard disk space

This product takes after the ipod in this regard and only provides fixed 8-64 gb hard disk space. Now for a smartphone sized device 64 gb is good enough, but definitely too less for a computer.. and with a 1 tb external memory available today for about $100 (less than half the price difference between an 8 and 64 gb iPads), its hard to swallow that for a thinking customer, but I think its a very smart marketing move

I would have liked to see flash support

Smart product launch

Having said all that, it is a great launch, an incredibly light device that in a space with a product void which is going to attract a lot of iphone like customers (many of them have been anticipating this for years), an attractive price point, and a goldmine to sell more products through apple stores --looks like a home run. I would be surprised if Apple does not get a sizeable market share in a years time. Amazon Kindle might feel the most threatened by this product.