The first generation Apple iPad has finally gone on sale in the US and as you would expect, particularly as it’s the home country of the Cupertino based company, the crowds were waiting.
Eager consumers gathered outside Apple stores across the country in order to be one of the first to get their hands on one of the new tablet computers and as customers took possession of their devices, there were claps and cheers from staff and onlookers all around.
Those who had pre-ordered their iPad online could pick it up from an Apple store on the day and many did.
Now we say crowds, but there wasn’t the same kind of interest that was shown when the iPhone first hit the streets.
If we go by that alone, there’s no way the iPad is going to inspire the public in the way that the iPhone did, nor will it shake up the computer market in the way that Netbooks have done.
At the moment the iPad is only available in the US so amongst the eager Apple fans queuing for the device were some who had travelled from other parts of the globe in order to make sure they got theirs.
The iPad has been described as an oversized iPhone but without the ability to make a call or take photos, it’s an eBook reader, you can surf the web and so on, but you can’t play Flash.
“It’s going to be a huge hit among a very small section of the public – Mac lovers and early adopters” said the BBC’s technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones.
“The bigger question is whether there is that big a market between the SmartPhone and the laptop for it to fill” he added.
Ok but what many of the critics might be forgetting here is that if anything, it will be the iPad applications that will save the day and we’ll just have to wait and see how that pans out.
The iPad is currently selling in the US at a starting price of $499, that’s for the Wi-Fi version, other versions with more sophisticated connectivity options are coming later.
It will be available in Europe and other parts of the world in a few weeks time but we don’t know yet the exact date or what it will cost.
I’ll be interested to know how the launch goes in other countries bearing in mind that in the US it really was really a bit of an anti-climax.
