Posted on January 28, 2010

5 (Bad) Reasons to Think the iPad Sucks

Yesterday Apple debuted its long awaited, much anticipated iPad. And the reaction around the web hasn’t been what Apple probably hoped. On the one hand, it’s easy to be disappointed when the reality of this astronomically hyped device doesn’t live up the second coming expectations, but it’s also worth nothing that many of the most common complaints are both trite and silly. I’ve rounded up five probably not great reasons to think the iPad sucks.

1) No multi-tasking. The trouble with this frequent gripe is that it’s unclear exactly what people are asking for. One way to read it is, “I want to be able to run two apps at the same time on the same screen.” With a UI designed around full screen apps, however, this makes little sense. So instead, the complaint could be that, without multi-tasking, you’ll have to quit the current app in order to quickly switch to another (a forced exit of iWork Pages, for instance, just to take a quick peak at Twitter). While this appears to be technically true, it likely isn’t from the perspective of user experience. If the apps are written to maintain their state when shut down, then switching from one to another, given how fast the iPad appears to be, will be indistinguishable from true multitasking. And, given that the iPad will support the same push notifications as the iPhone, you’ll still be notified of new email or tweets even when those apps aren’t running. About the only situation “no multi-tasking” precludes is listening to Pandora while surfing the web.

2) No USB. There is USB. You just need an adapter. While plugging an extra accessory into the iPad may be cumbersome, the trade off is that, when not using USB, the device is thinner and lighter. Given that most of us will use the iPad far more frequently by itself than we with with a digital camera tethered to it, thinner and lighter is probably a good thing.

3) No Flash. First, no Flash doesn’t mean no YouTube. Second, it doesn’t mean no casual games, as the App Store is full of those, many of them free. Third, no Flash has its benefits. No Flash was supposed to be the death of the iPhone too and, well, that didn’t happen.

4) No physical keyboard. There is a physical keyboard, you just have to plug it in. This strikes me as a fair trade off, as having a physical keyboard on the device would mean making it heavier and bulkier–and we know from using our iPhones that typing on a virtual keyboard is fast enough for most uses.

5) No Camera. Okay, this one actually seems legitimate. While the lack of a back facing camera is fine on a device that clearly isn’t meant for picture taking, no front facing camera is truly a bummer. Skyping from the couch would be cool and it’s too bad that won’t be possible with the iPad–at least until Apple comes out with the second generation in the next sixth months or a year.