Believe it or not, but our favourite company named after our favourite fruit has launched its latest product the “iPad”. It is a revolutionary product with a 9.7 inch LED backlit IPS (in plane switching) display and a large multi-touch screen apparently perfect for browsing the web, email, photos, and approximately 140,000 applications which can be obtained from the application store on the device itself. You can hold the iPad at any angle as it has the ability like some of the touch screen phones to show its content in a portrait or landscape orientation. So far it probably seems like I’m getting paid to endorse the product, but actually I myself had very little idea about what the iPad really does, in simple terms it is a notepad that has the ability to go online and thus do whatever one does online. I actually had to go to the Apple website to acquire this exclusive information. The amazing thing about this “iPad” is that it only weighs 1.5 pounds and is a mere 0.5 inches thick. Which is great for all of us who get the courage, every morning to pick up three pound MacBook Airs. I mean seriously the iPad weighs even less than the last lightest notebook, I’m sure by the end of next year there will be another genius invention out called the “I can’t see you”. It will most likely be so light, that we won’t be able to see it through our naked eye, hence as the name suggests, the “I can’t see you”.
The biggest difference however is that, its storage capacity is like that of the iPod Touch starting from 16 GB and going up to 64 GB, whereas our Mac Airs have a decent storage capacity of at least a 128 GB hard drive. Actually the real deal is that the MacBook Air is a proper laptop and the iPad is not, in terms of memory, battery life and connectivity. But when promoting the iPad, its lightness in comparison to the Macs or any other light laptop, is made its USP-unique selling point. In spite of all of this the main point of discussion is not the product or its features but its rather controversial name the, I “pad”. The gadget has already become a huge success as a great joke for all those “funny people” out there. Within 24 hours of its launch the internet has already made comm
ents on Twitter, videos on YouTube stating “Hitler’s” response to the iPad and how he has been dreaming of the day Apple’s tablet will be announced, taken from the film Downfall. Of course there were many other not so pleasant videos related to the iPad which I have no intention of mentioning to you, they’re all on YouTube if you’re really that curious or bothered.
On a more mature note, Apple has recently become more and more innovative and sharp about its products, their designs, marketing strategies and the markets in which they sells these products. Aiming to compete with computer giant Sony is not something that companies like Apple do, on the other hand they really have no other option, as they continue to sweep up markets like those in China where the Apple iPod has managed to create a solid position as a brand in the country. This has mainly happened because Sony regarded the country as only a manufacturing base whereas China has become the biggest and most lucrative electronic and information product market around the world. Hence over the last few years the company has been losing ground in China while its rivals like Apple have been playing catch up by showing more interest in the IT industry of China. Then again Sony was quick to realise its current position was decreasing in the biggest markets so it now has started to develop digital music players under its own label and has priced them far lower than the iPods. To be more precise, Sony launched their six newest MP3 players just a few hours after Apple unveiled their iPod Nano. Therefore it is still quite difficult to say whether which company is better at playing the market game but it is obvious that, the minute Apple launches any new product Sony also has one ready to unveil right after them, the MP3 players and the new Vaio X series notebooks which are impossibly thin, are just a few examples of Sony being clearly ready to compete head on with Apple.
In my very honest opinion, the iPad will be a great sensation for all Apple loving people in this world but for me right now, I’m OK with my iPod Touch and Vaio laptop, I can’t help but be diplomatic. It still isn’t available yet for sale but there is a “notify me” section on their site that will let you know when and where it will be made obtainable. My task currently is to find out what Sony comes up with next to get Apple back to their drawing boards.
