Apple iPad must iStun or end up an iDud

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Wednesday, 20 January 2010 05:35

Opinion and Analysis

Yep, it’s that time of the year again, when Apple iMania rocks a world rapt with anticipation that Steve Jobs will, yet again, blow our minds with a brand new iDevice that, just like James Dyson, re-invents the everyday and transforms it into something truly amazing.

Apple’s upcoming iDevice has many rumoured names, such as the iSlate, iTablet, MacBook Touch, TouchBook, iThingie, iSteve and more… but these names have never rung true with me.

iSlate was the previous most recent rumour, but unlike iPod or iPhone, you can’t exactly say that iSlate rolls off the tongue anywhere near as nicely.

The latest rumour is that the iDevice will really be called the iPad, given the obvious connection with the iPod, and the fact that iPads, iPods and iPhones all start with the letters ‘iP’.

iPad has always seemed most logical to me, and after having checked iPad.com months ago to see what was there, all you see is a site with an admin login and nothing else. You’d imagine that someone with pockets as deep as Apple’s could easily afford to buy up this domain name, and it’d be surprising if they don’t already own it.

There’s also the ultra obvious connection to Apple’s previous Newton MessagePad, the ancestral hardware relative of today’s iPhone, upon which to further ruminate.

But whatever the iPad is ultimately called, with my vote firmly in the iPad camp, the iPad must be the most amazing, most surprising, most inspiring, most intuitive and most everything device that Apple has ever created.

Although Apple has strong sales across its entire line of computers, media players, smartphones, software and more, Steve Jobs is clearly betting the company on the iDevice.

After all, if it’s an iFlop, it would be a great blow to Apple’s prestige and reputation. Apple would be known as the company that iHyped the promise of a tablet computing nirvana to the heavens but delivered a dud.

Given reports of Steve Jobs rebooting the tablet project several times in his quest for creative, design and usability perfection, an iDud seems as likely as the Sun spontaneously sprouting feathers and flying away.

SciFi, Apple disappointments of the past and the need for an Apple home run of “Universal Series” proportions… continued on page 2.