Reading this article today prompted me to ask the question, Do the iPad shortcomings actually matter?
Let’s face it, the iPhone came out 3 years ago with no 3G, no MMS, no multi-tasking or flash support and yet it’s been revolutionary in the mobile market and has forced other manufacturers to re-evaluate and rework their phones and user interfaces. All the companies that scoffed at the time about it’s capabilities are now catching up with its stranglehold on the mobile market.
Looking at the netbook market, it’s been more of the same for years. Tablets have come and gone, Netbooks are popping up all the time but what’s innovative or different about them? They all run Windows or Linux and are all far too complicated for *most* people and battery life sucks despite them being solid state disk (SSD) based.
Does it matter that the iPad doesn’t have Flash as HTML5 takes hold? Will it force developers to support non-flash devices or question if they
need flash at all for particular web site features? Does multi-tasking really matter if you have a device that launches apps instantly and apps remember where they were when you left them? Is it a bad thing that you have 100,000+ apps at your disposal that are safe, trusted and won’t break your device?
I had a great conversation with someone the other day that nailed the case for the iPad. He was talking about buying his parents a notebook/netbook so they didn’t have to go upstairs to the office/den all the time to be able to emails/surf the web etc.
The problem is a netbook would be over the top for what they need. They just need to be able to email, surf, see photos etc so they don’t need anything over complicated.
The iPad is an ideal solution for them. They can sit on the sofa, email / surf using an interface that isn’t complicated and a device that’s easy to manage/backup etc.
This is where the iPad may well succeed - making netbooks/sub-notebook type devices easier to use for *most* people and maybe, just maybe we might start seeing some innovation and revolutionary products from competitors as a result.

