Why I Won’t Be Getting an iPad…Yet

So Apple announced the iPad today. No great surprises — it’s been talked about relentlessly these past few weeks. And no great surprises with what it is or what it does. But, to me, it still doesn’t answer the question, posed by Steve himself:

“What are they good for besides surfing the web in the bathroom?”

I’m paraphrasing here, but you get the point. What is the point of the iPad? Is it the App Store? iBooks? iWork? Nothing I saw in today’s keynote made me think “ah, so that’s what a tablet should do”. I got that with the iPhone. Not so with iPad. Maybe I’m missing the bigger picture.

Here are some reasons I won’t be rushing out to get one:

• It’s pricey — $800+ is almost MacBook territory
• It doesn’t do much more than my iPhone does now — iWork and iBooks aside (but seriously, who wants to make spreadsheets on a tablet?)
• ‘Blown up’ iPhone apps just look weird — and regular size apps look lonely
• Scott Forstall had way too much Kool Aid before filming his bit in the promo video

I do get the impression, however, that this is just the beginning. Looking at the home screen, it struck me that it looks rather sparse — like an iPhone home screen with a lot more space. Plus the four icons in the ‘dock’ at the bottom looked strange. Maybe this is something you can tweak in the settings — much as you can tweak icon size & spacing on the Mac’s desktop — but maybe it’s an indication that Apple think this thing will just grow & grow.

How? More apps on the App Store specifically for iPad. More books in iBooks specifically for iPad. Magazines and other material coming through, specifically for the iPad.