Apple’s iPad – revolutionary or dud?

So the wait is over and apple has officially announced the new iPad, apples new “revolutionary” media device. Is it really a revolution in mobile media entertainment, or is it just a big ass glorified ipod touch or iphone?

The idea of this new device is great.. I think their idea was to create an afordable mobile media device to compete with the already saturated net book market for the home consumer. It can play movies, music, browse the web read books, play music and more. But there is one fundamental flaw in the concept for this new device. It’s not a real “computer”, from what I have seen and read, it is nothing more then a  glorified iphone in a larger formatted. Initial looks into this new device, it seems it’s simply a upgraded iphone os.

Granted there will be (im sure) a slew of apple store apps to become available for the iPad, but why didn’t they do it as a real “mac” with a customized version of osx on it so it is more like a real mobile computer? Personally I think this may be more a hardware limitation with the device. How much cooler would it be if this was a full fledged mobile touch screen Mac device. It would certainly appeal more to mainstream mac users, and not just the fanboys and gadget lovers (you know the ones who were the ones lining up over night to buy an iPhone when they were just released).

I myself being a PC user for most of my life recently jumped ship and bought my first Mac system a few months ago (a late 2009 21.5″ upgraded iMac) and i LOVE it.. The os is easy to use, the hardware is sexy, and it “just works” like the slogan goes. Im currently considering getting a netbook for myself as well, and when I Started hearing the rumomors about apple releasing a touch device aimed at the same market, I decided to hold off and see what it had to offer when it was announced. Granted it can play games from the apple store, you can browse the web, get email, will have wifi and 3G, can play music and movies and will retail starting at $499 , it’s just not quite enough compaired to getting a netbook (you can get a decent one for $300-350) which is a full featured pc compuer (or some run linux).

Unfortunately for the first time in a very long time, I think apple may have a dud on their hands, but time will tell. Maybe future models will go more the way of a full function device with OSX on them.