It had to happen, apple release something, well, a bit crap. ok it’s anything but crap, but its just not the unicorn encrusted rainbow project running on fairy tears we were all hyped up to expect. It’s. well. A big iPod touch. Thats it. It’s a niche product, apple do them well, but this is filling a small niche. I’m sure I will buy one, as a second screen for use while watching telly for web (as long as it doesn’t need flash - forget lots of e-commerse and entertainment sites) mail and twitter. But I’m not a typical mass market consumer, I’m an idiot.
It’s too big to carry around all the time, and not able enough to replace a laptop. It’s between a rock and a magic place.
Yes it is magical, but so is the iPhone/iPod and we’ve all had them for 2/3 years.
However, it may be saved by iPhone OS4.0 which hopefully adds some active home page widgets, flash and backgrounding apps. Otherwise that chrome os may not look so silly now.
I can’t help feeling its missing a few tricks, how about a front facing camera / iChat? I would buy one in an instant for my mum, so she can iChat to the grandkids, play scrabble/words with friends, surf a bit, read ebooks. then leave it as a eFrame linked to a family friendly flickr account. Makes perfect sence. There is a potential market for ‘toaster’ devices, Windows tablets and linux netbooks haven’t quite made it yet. And why is anyone releasing a 4:3 screen in 2010, madness.
It feels like apple’s ‘virtual boy’ remember that? no nintendo would rather you didn’t either. Though i suspect it will sell well among the faithful (myself included) it’s probably going to be an apple TV in terms of reach for the meantime.
