Just wanted to drop a quick note here and to thank all of you who keep coming to this blog. I have an unexpected family commitment that consumes more or less all of my time – I’ll be putting the blog on a hiatus for a couple of days/weeks – I’ll start posting as soon as we are over the hump.
Cheers!
IO
TNW Apple has a post on Ten (big and small) Things That Suck on the iPad.
Boris’ overall impression with the device is positive and the issues described are tagged as a ‘no deal breaker’
Note that #6 (No International Support) relates to the iTunes support, not international language support which was covered here.
Here is the conclusion:
The iPad still rocks. It is an amazing device and for $499 you would be crazy not to get one (if you can afford it).
The issues described here will undoubtedly get fixed over time and while annoying are no deal breaker.
The issue list
As many expected, Apple today announced a price drop for the complete line of iPad products. Based on the “% decrease” metrics, the low end 16GB Wi-Fi model looks the most attractive – with all basic features and 40% discount you can have this puppy for a symbolic $299. The folks who pre-ordered iPads or reserved them in the local Apple stores will be eligible for a corresponding refund (paid out via store credit or iTunes certificates).
Hit the link to see the PR release and official price drop announcement directly from the source.
Do you need to transfer photos from camera to the iPad? No worries then – Apple announced a Camera Connectivity Kit that should make it very easy to do so.
Here is the official Apple marketing pitch:
The Camera Connection Kit gives you two ways to import photos and videos from a digital camera. The Camera Connector lets you import your photos and videos to iPad using the camera’s USB cable. Or you can use the SD Card Reader to import photos and videos directly from the camera’s SD card.
iPad Camera Connectivity:
iSupply just posted a virtual teardown manufacturing cost numbers for all models – I’ve shuffled the numbers a bit bit it seems that Apple has a hefty margin on each model (50%+) and I would not be surprised if we were to see big price drops within first three months after the release. If I had to predict I’d probably say that we will be seeing a $100 to $150 price drop as sometimes in June. Needless to say – the most expensive element of the system is the screen, followed by memory and 3G components. Take a look at the table below and hit the comments sections…
| 16GB without 3G | 16GB with 3G | 32GB without 3G | 32GB with 3G | 64GB without 3G | 64GB with 3G | |
| Core Components | ||||||
| Display and Touchscreen | $80 | $80 | $80 | $80 | $80 | $80 |
| Electromechanical and Mechanical | $35 | $35 | $35 | $35 | $35 | $35 |
| Battery (1) | $18 | $18 | $18 | $18 | $18 | $18 |
| MPU and Memory | $29 | $29 | $29 | $29 | $29 | $29 |
| ——- A4 Processor (2) | $17 | $17 | $17 | $17 | $17 | $17 |
| ——- Supporting DRAM (3) | $12 | $12 | $12 | $12 | $12 | $12 |
| WLAN n+BT+FM (4) | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 |
| User Interface Components (5) | $10 | $10 | $10 | $10 | $10 | $10 |
| Other Power Management Components | $2 | $2 | $2 | $2 | $2 | $2 |
| Configuration-Dependent Components | ||||||
| NAND Flash | $30 | $30 | $59 | $59 | $118 | $118 |
| Wireless (6) | $25 | $25 | $25 | |||
| GPS | $3 | $3 | $3 | |||
| Other Costs | ||||||
| Box Contents | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 | $8 |
| Totals | ||||||
| Total materials Cost | $219 | $246 | $249 | $276 | $308 | $335 |
| Total manufacturing Costs | $10 | $11 | $10 | $11 | $10 | $11 |
| Grand Total (Cost to Apple) | $229 | $258 | $259 | $287 | $318 | $346 |
| Retail Price | $499 | $629 | $599 | $729 | $699 | $829 |
| Retail – Cost | $270 | $371 | $340 | $442 | $381 | $483 |
| Retail – Cost as a percentage of price | 54% | 59% | 57% | 61% | 55% | 58% |
When iPod was released almost 10 years ago the accessory market was slow to pick up. In the beggining a couple of vendors offered more or less good speaker options, one could buy a pair of headphones and a screen protector decals – and that was it. Ten years after, the iPod accessory market is a jungle – you can pretty much find anything you want (or need) and that uses or helps use the iPod (see image below – iLounge iPod Toilet Paper Roll Dispenser).
Enter the iPad! This time around the accessories market will not be dormant for years – there is a slew of new accessories being announced or already demoed (I am already getting spam posts with links to iPad cables, screen protectors, cases, etc.) To sum this up, here is what Belkin one of the largest iPod accessories manufacturers had to say on the subject:
“The iPad market has huge potential,” said Jamie Elgie, a product management director; at accessory company Belkin International. “We think it has the potential to be game-changing and we need to be on top of it.”
Mark Sigal at O’Reilly Radar published a long article mostly revolving around the possible uses of iPad, the Apple’s upcoming tablet. In short, he sees it as a mostly Interactive Learning Platform, Chem/Physics lab device, Narrative/Reading gizmo and Info/Reference guide. You can see the article here: Mark Sigal at O’Reilly Radar on iPod. To sum it up, Sigal feels that iPad is perfectly positioned to capture a piece of the Book/Magazine market as well as to penetrate into educational device market. Also, see more Sigal’s notes on iPad for additional elaboration.
Rob Enderle at TGdaily has a nice article on iPad and the future of Apple. In short, Enderle infers that both Apple and Intel are at the crossroads and that both see the tablet market as an area for revenue growth. Enderle also goes on and makes parallels between Apple and IBM/Microsoft as it relates to the recent antitrust calls against Apple.
A bit off topic but still relevant, GearLog claims the supremacy of MSFT’s The Courier over Apple’s iPad. The site has a nice picture (fake?) of the Courier (via Gizmodo). PC Magazine has a similar article here: MSFT Tablet – you’ll find ~40 comments on the same subject here: Microsoft Courier Tablet
Lauren Walter elaborates on recent iPad rumors and outlines what to expect from iPad once it’s released (date still unknown).
Crunchgear showcases the screen captures of the upcoming Apple’s tablet OS (many cry faul and scream ‘fake’ though) – all in all, there are eight photos displaying iPads touch-screen keyboard design and some media browsing capabilities. Anyhow, the readers are scrutinizing the shots for a variety of reasons, from being more relevant to Apple TV v3 all the way to use of Arial in menus (apparently Jobs is a Helvetica fan)… Read more at iPad OS Images@CrunchGear…
