The 8 best iPad apps -- so far

Apple's iPad has been available for a short time, and you can already find apps to watch streaming movies, manage your Web passwords, use Twitter, do word processing and more.

But it's still early days yet. Apple gave only a chosen few developers early access to the iPad -- everybody else had to make do with software simulators and homemade cardboard mockups. They rushed their apps to market, and it shows. Many of the early apps are buggy and missing features.

These are the best apps I've found so far. They are all iPad-optimized, not iPhone apps stretched to fit the iPad. They get the job done, they're fun to use, and several of them are free.

1Password for iPad

1Password encrypts, stores and organizes your passwords and other private information, and it automates log-ins for Web sites and other Internet services. You can also use it to store credit card numbers, bank account numbers, ATM PINs and more. 1Password is an extremely useful app for both the Mac and the iPhone, and now it's available for the iPad too.

The iPad version is more like a grownup application than its iPhone counterpart, although it's still missing some of the capabilities of the Mac product. In landscape mode, you get an easy-to-navigate three-pane view of your information and you can browse through entries alphabetically or using the search function.

You can store any information you want using 1Password's preconfigured templates and categories. For example, Logins is where (obviously) you store your Web usernames and passwords, Wallet is for credit card numbers, and Identities is where you can store separate e-mail addresses, phone numbers, street addresses, etc. for work, your personal life, your secret spy identity or whatever.

1Password for iPhone includes a very handy bookmarklet that installs in Mobile Safari. If you're browsing a site that requires a log-in, tapping the bookmarklet will automatically shut Safari, switch to 1Password and call up the correct username and password for the site you're browsing. Unfortunately, that bookmarklet doesn't work on the iPad version. Vendor Agile Web Solutions says it's working on adding it to a future version. Until then, 1Password has its own built-in minibrowser that you can use to automatically log in to password-protected sites.

The latest release of 1Password Pro contains both the iPad and iPhone versions. It's priced at $14.99 and is available as a free upgrade for existing users of 1Password Pro on the iPhone. For iPad owners who don't have an iPhone, 1Password is a $6.99 stand-alone program.

Instapaper Pro

Instapaper is simple and highly addictive. If you're browsing the Web and you find a long, meaty article that you don't have time to read right away, you simply click a bookmarklet in your browser, and that article is instantly saved to a queue of articles at Instapaper.com. Later, when you have time to read, you can call up your queue of articles and dig in.

While this is a great iPhone app, it's even better on the iPad with its bigger screen and better graphics resolution. The iPad and iPhone apps not only download articles for offline reading, but also format the articles for on-screen reading by removing clutter, changing the font and automatically scaling the graphics. You can move through articles by either tapping the screen to turn pages or tilting the device forward or backward to make the article scroll. (It's possible to accidentally tilt the iPad and start scrolling when you don't want to, so I prefer to tap the screen to turn pages.)

Instapaper Pro runs on the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch, and it's priced at $4.99. The latest version, written for the iPad, is a free upgrade for existing users of Instapaper Pro. There's also a free, ad-supported Lite version for the iPhone and iPod Touch, but it lacks several features, including support for tilt-scrolling, tapping the screen to turn pages and sorting articles in folders. In addition, Instapaper Pro can handle 250 articles but the Lite version only handles 10.

Kindle

Apple's iBooks app was one of the centerpieces of the iPad debut -- it's a gorgeous app that has its own online bookstore. However, I prefer Amazon's Kindle e-book app.

It lets you buy and download books from Amazon's Kindle store and read them on any device: a PC, a Mac, an iPad, an iPhone, a BlackBerry or a Kindle reader. As you read, the service saves your place, so if you read a few pages on a Kindle device but later switch to an iPad and then to an iPhone, you can instantly pick up where you left off each time.

Both the iBooks and the Kindle apps are free and have huge selections of free books, courtesy of Project Gutenberg and other Internet sources.

Which one should you use? Whichever one you need to read the book you want to read.

For example, while I think the Kindle app has a slight edge because of its multiplatform support, the iBooks app had the one book I've actually shopped for since I got the iPad, while the Kindle didn't. And they both use Digital Rights Management (DRM) for many titles, which means you don't really own the books -- you're just using them, and you lose access if the software vendor discontinues support.

Netflix

If you're a Netflix fan, this one is a must -- an app that lets you watch streaming movies and TV shows from your Netflix queues on your iPad.

The user interface looks as though it's just a Web browser pointing at the Netflix Web site. If you stop watching a movie partway through, the app is designed to remember where you are and resume again after you close the app and return later, no matter which service you use to watch the movie. That's a nice feature, but I found that it worked irregularly -- sometimes the app remembered my place, sometimes it didn't.

Fortunately, you can go back or fast-forward by dragging your finger along a horizontal scrollbar at the top of the screen. You can also tap a button at the bottom of the screen to rewind 30 seconds.

In addition, while the video streamed smoothly, without any jerks or stops, I found that the site itself seemed slower than usual, both in the app and in the iPad's Safari browser.

The app itself is free but requires an unlimited rental membership from Netflix, which starts at $8.99 per month.

Pages

Apple's Pages is an impressive little app. It's a fully functional slimmed-down word processor that costs only $9.99. It has all the basic capabilities you expect from a word processor: You can write and edit, format text, embed images and charts, and more. For layout, you can move things around with your fingers or resize them by pinching with two fingers.

Pages can import documents in two formats: Pages '09 for Mac and Microsoft Word (Office 97 and later). It can export to Pages '09, Word 97 or later and PDF

As with many iPad apps, you turn the iPad to change modes. In landscape view, you get a full-screen view of your document; in portrait mode, you get a toolbar at the top. (You can make the toolbar disappear by tapping a button -- it took me a couple of minutes to figure out how to bring the toolbar back by tapping on the text.)

The biggest problem with Pages is that it doesn't really sync with the desktop -- it just imports and exports files. And worse, when you import Pages or Microsoft Word files from the desktop, the iPad app strips out important metadata, such as running headers and footers, section breaks, comments and bookmarks. That makes it hard to switch back and forth between your iPad and desktop while editing a document.

Pages is part of the iWork suite for the iPad, along with the Keynote presentation software and Numbers spreadsheet, each priced at $9.99.

TweetDeck for iPad

There are already several Twitter clients available for the iPad. I've tried a few, and TweetDeck is my favorite.

It's a version of the free desktop client that's popular among Twitter power users. It has the familiar multicolumn view, which you can customize to show messages from all your friends, @mentions, direct messages, saved searches and your Twitter lists. TweetDeck also shortens URLs.

There are some rough edges. In portrait view, the upper third of the screen is just wasted space, filled with the TweetDeck logo and nothing else. That's where you compose your tweets or view individual tweets. I wrote the developers to ask about this; they said they did this on purpose, to keep that upper third as a blank workspace. Hopefully, they'll come to their senses and let the composition and other windows appear as pop-overs, which is how most other apps do it.

Links are not clickable in the tweets column -- you have to open the tweet separately and tap the link. Judging from the comments on the App Store review and on Twitter, many users don't know that trick; they think links don't work at all.

Also, TweetDeck for the iPad is missing one of my favorite features of the desktop app: the word cloud of trending topics on Twitter. It's an at-a-glance way to tell whether anything important is happening in the world and get a general idea of what that news might be. The developers say they're working on a new way to display trending topics that will roll out on all platforms soon.

Things for iPad

Things is the control panel for my life. I depend on the Mac and iPhone versions, and I'm happy to see developer Cultured Code was quick out of the gate with a $19.99 iPad version. This version does all the basic tasks that the Mac and iPhone versions do: It keeps to-do lists with start and due dates, and organizes those lists into projects, areas of responsibility, next actions and more.

The iPad version has an attractive interface that looks like a ruled tablet of white paper. When you change projects or areas, the sheets of paper seem to curl upward, like a page that's turning.

You can sync your Things data among the iPad, iMac and iPhone versions as long as they're all on the same network. Simply open all three apps at the same time and stand back -- they'll take turns syncing to make sure all three apps are running copies of the same database, and will even prompt you on the Mac to re-open the iPad or iPhone version if you shut them down prematurely. The progress bar is kind of entertaining to watch, too.

Some features from the desktop are still missing in the iPad version -- most notably the ability to duplicate projects. And syncing among all three apps is somewhat slow. The iPad and iPhone apps tend to lose their connections and have to be restarted once or twice.

Things for the iPad, Mac and iPhone will cost you $80. Many of the reviewers in the App Store say that's too much. I think it's worth it -- I use it all day, every day. But you might feel differently.

The Weather Channel Max for iPad

The iPhone comes with a weather widget among its pre-installed apps, but that app is missing from the iPad. That means you need to either check the weather on the Web or download an app. My favorite app so far: The Weather Channel's free offering.

The app is a candy store for weather geeks. You can use it not only to check your local forecast, but also to find out the day's sunrise and sunset times without having to dig too deeply.

And you're one tap away from a three-hour forecast, which is handy early in the morning or late in the afternoon when you can expect the weather to change rapidly.

You can also look at interactive weather maps and severe weather advisories and watch video forecasts from The Weather Channel.

The app was slow to start up, and it crashed once or twice the first few times I ran it, but since then it has run smoothly.

From: http://www.businessweek.com

Google, Apple play nice for Google Mobile on iPad

Yes, I'm vain. So what?

(Credit: Matt Hickey/CNET)

As of about noon Tuesday on the West Coast, Google's mobile app for the iPad is available as a free download in the App store. If you've used the iPhone version, be ready for more of the same. And that's too bad.

Google has basically just taken the iPad's Safari browser and used this app to make it very Google-centric, but that's about the only thing the app brings: no Chrome, no Android-ish interface, nothing. Sure, you get voice search and location-specified searches built in, but it comes across as a half-effort.

Google perhaps missed a chance to plant seeds for its own tablet that we know is on the way. It could have changed the interface of its app to match what it's planning, thereby setting the stage for its own device. It could have also attempted to outdo Apple at the browser game, but it didn't.

Of course, there's no way to know if Apple would have let those changes into the App store. Apple is maintaining its filter on what appears in the store and what doesn't, and given the climate between the two giants it's possible a more full-featured app would have been rejected handily.

And that's too bad for us, the end users.

The Answers to Your Questions About the iPad

Since my review of the new Apple iPad tablet last week, I have been bombarded with questions. This is natural. The iPad is a real computer that overlaps many functions of a laptop, but works very differently from one.
So here are answers to some of the most common questions I've received, in hopes they may help clear up any confusion. One caveat: Apple is offering a "sneak preview" on Thursday of a forthcoming revision to the iPhone operating system, which powers the iPad, so some changes might be revealed.
Since its release, WSJ's Personal Technology columnist Walt Mossberg says he's been bombarded with questions about Apple's new tablet computer, the iPad. He answers whether you can print from the device, how to transfer files onto it, whether there are alternatives to its virtual keyboard, and more.

Can you print from an iPad? Apple didn't build in a printing function, so you can't just tap a menu button to print an email, photo or Web page. But a few third-party apps allow printing of some items from an iPad to a networked printer. One is Print Online. It costs $5 and I tested it successfully. But these apps are complicated and limited workarounds—inadequate substitutes for built-in printing.

The iPad lacks a USB port, so how do you get files into it? Like the iPhone and iPod Touch, the iPad has the familiar Apple connector port and comes with a cable that links this port to a USB port on a PC or Mac. Then, using iTunes on the PC or Mac, you can sync over to the device your songs, photos, videos, contacts, apps and more.
New to the latest version of iTunes is a function that will also transfer to the iPad files like Microsoft Office documents. But this feature only works if you've installed on your iPad certain programs that can edit these documents, such as Apple's optional $10 word-processor, spreadsheet and presentation programs. Documents can be moved in the other direction, too.
You also can get some types of documents into the iPad wirelessly, if you receive them as email attachments or as downloads from the Web. For example, if you receive a Word-document attachment, and you have Apple's Pages word processor installed, you can send it to Pages, where it can be stored and edited. Pages can then send back the edited version.
Mossberg's Mailbox

Is there a way to type on the iPad without laying it flat and using the virtual keyboard? There are several. Apple sells a $39 case that bends to angle the device in a more convenient typing position (and allows for hands-free video watching). The company also sells a $69 accessory physical keyboard that features a dock at the rear to hold the iPad upright. In addition, you can type on the iPad using Apple's $69 wireless keyboard for the Mac, which can be held on your lap.

Can I run Windows or Mac programs on the iPad? Not unless their makers produce iPad versions of these programs. The iPad doesn't run the Macintosh or Windows operating systems, so it can't run programs designed for them. It runs the iPhone operating system, which is only compatible with iPhone and iPad apps, of which there are more than 150,000. There are some iPad and iPhone apps that let you remotely control Windows and Mac computers, so you could indirectly run Windows and Mac programs via the screen of an iPad, but that isn't like running the programs locally.

I hear the iPad lacks multitasking. What are the downsides of this? First, let me clarify that the iPad (and iPhone) can technically perform multitasking, or running more than one program at once. But Apple has chosen to limit this ability to some of its own built-in apps, and deny it to third-party apps. For instance, the built-in email program will continue to receive messages while you are watching a movie on the built-in video player.
The downsides of denying multitasking to all apps are considerable. For example, you can't listen to streaming music from the Pandora music app while checking email. And you can't view fresh Twitter posts while on other apps. You have to close the app you're in, then re-launch a Twitter app and wait for it to fetch the new posts. And, you can't, say, check email or surf the Web while waiting for a complex game to load in the background, because the game stops once you change to another app.

Since the iPad's battery is sealed in, how do I replace it? The battery isn't designed to be replaceable by the user. Apple will replace your iPad with one containing a fresh battery for $107, including shipping. The process takes up to a week. Most important, you will lose all your personal data unless you back it up regularly to your computer and restore it on the replacement iPad. Details are at: apple.com/support/ipad/service/battery/.

From: http://online.wsj.com/

Apple iPad surprises, disappoints

So you've probably heard about the iPad. Apple is once again making headlines with the release of a consumer-focused computing device, and the level of hysteria surrounding the iPad is fascinating from an anthropological point of view. But is the iPad really worthy of this craziness? Yes and no.
There are two ways to view the iPad: as a raw piece of technology, and as a media consumption device. It's certainly not a traditional form of either. With the plethora of content options now available to iPad owners, I wouldn't be surprised to see a shift in content digestion habits for those who plunk down their money for an iPad.
[ Now that the iPad is here, what can developers create with the iPhone OS 3.2 SDK? Find out in InfoWorld's analysis "Inside the iPad SDK: Bigger screens, continued frustrations." Take InfoWorld's tour of alternative iPhone app SDKs.]
Even if most of those buyers are seeking a next-gen media player, they will be surprised at just how usable, and useful, this single-tasking touchscreen tablet computer can be. There are certainly things to dislike about the iPad, but there are far more things to like about it -- and with the number of iPad apps growing every day, there's sure to be more to like around the corner.
Touchy-feely: The iPad's aesthetics
The first impression of the iPad is that it's smaller than you'd think. With a 9.7-inch touchscreen display surrounded by a one-inch bezel, it really does resemble an overgrown iPod touch. The second impression is that it's amazingly glossy -- so glossy it might as well be a mirror. In fact, this glossiness causes significant viewing problems in sunlight and even in some artificial lighting conditions.
The third impression is that the iPad really is an amazing example of modern computing. Regardless of whether the iPad is a commercial success or not, the concepts and form factor of the device are going to change the way we interact with computers, much like the iPhone revolutionized the smartphone industry. From that point of view, it has already made an impact.
Like all things Apple, the aesthetics of the device are impressive. The only physical controls are the home button, a volume rocker switch, a small lock button on top, and an orientation lock switch. Everything else is handled by the multi-touch screen, which is one area where the iPad excels. The multi-touch interface is so well implemented as to be seamless, and that includes the keyboard. I wrote this entire review on the iPad using the Pages word processor, and the on-screen keyboard kept up with me no matter how fast I typed -- and with virtually no adjustment necessary. The lack of tactile feedback is somewhat odd, and the keyboard is slightly more difficult to use in Portrait mode, but touch typists should feel quite at home.
As befits a minimalist device, there's not much more to say about the hardware itself. The homegrown Apple A4 processor can handle anything I've tried so far without any significant delays or hiccups, and the graphics capabilities are substantial -- graphics-intensive games like Real Racing HD are rendered exceptionally well and quite smoothly. The headphone jack is at the top of the device, which seems a little odd at first, but when you realize that there really isn't a "top" per se, it doesn't really matter. The built-in speakers adorn the bottom and are surprisingly loud and responsive given their tiny size.
But it's certainly not all wine and roses. There are some significant downsides to the iPad. First off, the device attracts fingerprints like mad. After only a few minutes of use, the screen is completely covered in them. If you're at all obsessive over fingerprints on your touchscreen devices, this will drive you nuts. Hopefully, the use of a screen protector can minimize this -- and given the glare problems in some lighting conditions, an anti-glare screen protector might as well be considered a mandatory accessory.
[ Stay up on tech news and reviews from your smartphone at infoworldmobile.com. Get the best iPhone apps for pros with InfoWorld's business iPhone apps finder. See which smartphone is right for you in our mobile "deathmatch" calculator. ]
Also, it's somehow awkward to carry the device. Without a cover over the screen, the iPad is just about impossible to carry in one hand without either touching the screen or looking like a waiter. I normally don't like cases that add a cover to portable electronics like cell phones (including the iPhone), but I might make an exception for the iPad. The thought of carrying it like a book in one hand and inadvertently scratching it on a rivet of my jeans or a belt buckle is worrisome.
The iPad's smooth and easy setup
Setting up an iPad is very simple: Plug it into a Mac or PC running iTunes. Once it's detected, a registration function runs and sets it up. From there, it's just a matter of syncing whatever media you like to the device. If you own an iPhone or iPad touch, their applications will be automatically transferred to the iPad. The rest of the sync process is identical to other Apple mobile devices, with the addition of the Books section for e-books. iTunes also handles syncing of email accounts, so within minutes everything I needed was on the iPad and I was ready to go.
I did some testing with Microsoft Exchange email accounts, and like the iPhone, the iPad had no trouble connecting to an Exchange Server 2003 instance. It's not clear yet whether Apple's enterprise deployment facilities for the iPad match those for the iPhone, but since the devices run essentially the same core OS, I would be surprised if they don't. My preliminary testing shows that a configuration profile generated by the latest version (2.2) of Apple's iPhone Configuration Utility will import into an iPad, but the scope of this support has yet to be fully determined. Supporting items such as remote wipe and corporate policies is fairly mandatory for a device like this, so I would hope it's all there.
Also like the iPhone, VPN connections are supported using the same basic connection profiles. If you have successfully connected an iPhone to your corporate VPN, you shouldn't have any problems connecting with an iPad.
iPad apps, apps, and more apps
The big apps available for the iPad are Apple's Pages word processor, Numbers spreadsheet, and Keynote presentation app. These are not analogs of their Mac OS X counterparts; they've been completely re-engineered for the iPad. It takes some time to figure out their minimalist interfaces, but once you grok their layouts, they are quite usable. Pages, Numbers, and Keynote can import Word, Excel, and PowerPoint formats, respectively, but only Pages can save Microsoft-formatted documents. In addition to their native formats, each can also export PDF versions. At $9.99 per app, the suite costs less than $30.
There are a boatload of other iPad-specific apps in the App Store. I purchased a few, including the aforementioned Real Racing HD, and downloaded several freebies including the USA Today app, the Marvel comics app, iBooks, The Weather Channel MAX, MLB At Bat 2010 for iPad, and several others. Pricing for these apps is generally higher than iPhone apps, presumably due to the enhanced capabilities offered by the iPad and the newness of the platform. It wouldn't surprise me to see price reductions on some of the higher-priced apps relatively soon.
Generally speaking, you're better off running iPad-specific apps on the iPad versus their iPhone counterparts. Though it's possible to run iPhone apps on an iPad, they look tiny when run at their natural resolution, and tend to look poor when run full-screen due to the nature of the pixel-doubling scheme used to increase their size.
iPad omissions: Multitasking, camera, and USB ports
Just about every iPad reviewer has decried the lack of camera and USB ports, and I'm no different. Apple has released USB and SD adapters for the iPad, but it's unclear if these are usable just for importing pictures from a camera, or if they will enable external storage devices to be used. Given the nature of the device and the reliance on iTunes for media delivery, it's unlikely that external storage will be supported. That's unfortunate. It would be a natural to plug a 16GB flash drive into an iPad and play back movies and other content, instead of having to dock and resync. The lack of a camera is also disappointing. It would be great to use the iPad for videoconferencing, or even to take photos. The buzz is that cutouts behind the bezel seem designed to support a camera like the built-in iSight camera in MacBooks. Presumably, the next iteration of the iPad will include a camera.
[ Also from InfoWorld: Read Peter Wayner's "iPhone App Store roulette: A tale of rejection." ]
And then there's the multitasking issue. The iPad doesn't support multitasking in any real way. You can play music while using other apps, but that's about it. You must quit an app to use another. This limitation is somewhat annoying on the iPhone, but it's downright irritating on the bigger and beefier iPad. Rumor has it that multitasking support may be part of an upcoming version of the OS. If this does come to pass, it'll no doubt be hailed as miraculous, but multitasking should really be there now.
There are a few other oddities as well. For instance, YouTube search results appear to be different using the iPad and a laptop. Certain videos are present in a search from a MacBook, but fail to appear in the same search on an iPad. They're not random omissions; they're the same missing videos every time -- and they're the top viewed videos for those searches. For instance, the search results for "OK GO this too shall pass" omit the official videos that have millions of views. This same phenomenon occurs on the iPhone as well, so it's not iPad-specific, but it is troubling. It may be that YouTube will not show some content if they can't overlay the video with ads, which isn't possible with the iPad due to the lack of Flash support. Whatever the reason, it's a problem.
The iPad on the go
Apple claims that the iPad has a 10-hour battery life, and this appears to be mostly accurate. With normal use the iPad ran for well over 24 hours (left unplugged overnight) and still retained 50 percent battery life. It certainly doesn't appear that it will require daily charging like an iPhone, which is a good thing. Note that only high-power USB ports can produce enough juice to charge the iPad. My MacBook Air will charge it, but my workstation won't. It will also be interesting to see how battery life changes on the upcoming 3G version, which will add a power-draining wireless radio.
Speaking of radios, the iPad lacks a fairly fundamental feature: the iPhone's airplane mode. Even the non-3G iPad has wireless and Bluetooth radios that need to be turned off during flight, but the only way to do this is by disabling each of them. Considering how much iPhone users like airplane mode, the lack of this feature is puzzling.
One of the big draws of the iPad is as a book reader. Unlike other e-book readers, the iPad has a real display rather than a power-saving e-ink display. Some have worried that the standard back-lit display would be difficult to use for long periods of time or in low-light conditions. Both of these fears are baseless, as I found it extremely comfortable to read for long periods of time, and the easily accessible brightness controls can make any reading situation tolerable. I was very happy that the iBooks reader app uses the ePub ebook standard. If you have books in this format, it's very simple to get them synced to the iPad by importing them into iTunes. I added half a dozen books this way without a problem. It is rather surreal to read something like Neal Stephenson's futuristic tech novel Snow Crash on a device like this.
Much ado has been made of the newspaper applications on the iPad. I don't know if the iPad will save the newspaper business, as some have hoped, but it's definitely a compelling way to read the "paper." USA Today's app is nicely laid out and customizable, offering a great way to easily find and digest news. The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal have similar applications, and will be charging monthly subscription fees for unfettered access to their content.
There's no doubt that the iPad truly is a wonderfully engineered piece of technology, and the features it provides are going to be game-changing. That said, it's a little underwhelming. If any other company had released this device, I would be blown away, but somehow I expected more out of the iPad. It seems that Apple might be a victim of their own success to some degree.
For a freshman entry into the tablet market, the iPad is phenomenal, but it certainly isn't what it could be. Rome wasn't built in a day, though even that might be possible for Steve Jobs. I know that I like the iPad enough to keep it, but I'll also be looking forward to Apple's sophomore effort.

From：http://www.businessweek.com By Paul Venezia

Who Wants to Buy Apple's iPad?

If there ever were a divisive computer, Apple's iPad is it.
The iPad, as anyone who follows tech news knows, has riled up the masses in a way few devices can. Some swear it'll revolutionize computing; others see it as an overhyped and oversized iPod Touch. One way or another, nearly everyone seems to have a firm opinion.
The real question, though, is who's going to actually buy the thing. Preordered iPads reportedly started shipping today, but the true test will come when the product hits store shelves this Saturday. And, if some new research is to be believed, a very specific subset of people will be lining up to check it out.
Apple iPad Appeal
Screw the euphemisms: The iPad-wanting crowd, according to market research firm NPD, consists mainly of rich Apple fanboys.
A report published by the firm finds current Apple product owners are 40 percent more interested in the iPad than their non-Apple-toting counterparts. The other strongest predictors of iPad interest were income -- those who make $100,000 or more are most likely to eye the iPad, NPD says -- and age, with consumers between 18 and 34 expressing the most powerful iPad desires.
But could the Apple brand alone really be enough to win people over? According to NPD, maybe. The firm finds the most common reason for Apple owners' interest in the iPad is simply "liking the Apple brand."
iPad Purchases
Despite their high levels of interest, many Apple users may be hesitant to actually shell out their cash for an iPad. Only 9 percent of current Apple owners told NPD they were likely to buy an iPad in the next six months. Sixty percent, in contrast, said they don't anticipate snagging one anytime soon.
The most commonly cited reasons among Apple owners: The iPad's too expensive, and a notebook or netbook could accomplish the same types of tasks.
iPad Perspective
Of course, you have to put this research into perspective. Other analyses say iPad demand is sky-high, with sales expected to reach 10 million in 2010 alone. Some recent reports even suggest Apple's preorder stock of iPads is completely sold out.
So will the iPad alter the world as we know it? Or will it just become a limited-scope toy for diehard Apple fans?
There may be no firm answer yet, but I have a sneaking suspicion we'll hear plenty more theories between now and Saturday.
From: http://www.pcworld.com

Analysts Ask if the iPad Can Live Up to Its Hype

SAN FRANCISCO — When the Apple iPad goes on sale on Saturday, most of the major questions surrounding the device will have been answered, save for one: can it live up to the hype?

Apple fans have breathlessly awaited Apple’s entry into the tablet computer market. Since the company unveiled the iPad in late January, investors have jumped on the bandwagon, too, running up Apple’s stock more than 10 percent.
Part of that rise can be attributed to the steady rise in sales of the iPhone and the company’s Mac computers. But much of it clearly has to do with tablet fever. On the day this month when Apple made the completely unsurprising announcement that the iPad would go on sale on April 3, the stock jumped nearly 4 percent.
Expectations are clearly high. Now the iPad has to meet them.
Apple has given no public indication of what kinds of sales it expects, or what may constitute success. But at the iPad introduction in January, Steven P. Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, implicitly set a lofty standard. He said the iPad would offer an experience that was superior to that of netbooks, a rapidly growing category of inexpensive and lightweight laptops that accounted for $11 billion in global sales last year.
He also said that the 75 million people who own iPhones and iPod Touches already knew how to use the iPad, which uses the same operating system and touch-screen interface.
But analysts and investors are searching for their own ways to judge the iPad over the short and long term. Their projections vary, but many Apple analysts seem to think the company will sell around a million iPads by the end of its quarter in June, and around 5 million by the end of 2010.
Analysts acknowledge that a certain amount of guesswork goes into those projections, in part because it is not yet clear what kinds of applications and content will be available for the iPad from media companies and outside developers.
“The reality for the iPad is going to be determined by what apps are made for it,” said Gene Munster, an analyst at Piper Jaffray. “People are debating the use case for it, and the use case will be largely determined by the apps. A lot of people are still on the fence whether this is a legitimate market or not.”
There are other variables at work. For example, it appears the iPad will initially be available only in Apple’s stores and at Best Buy. How quickly will Apple begin selling it through other retailers, and in countries other than the 10 it named this year?
Will Apple allow American wireless carriers other than AT&T, like Verizon, to offer data plans for the 3G version of the device? And how quickly might Apple lower the iPad’s price, or introduce models with new features like a built-in camera?
In considering how the iPad may affect Apple, analysts must also navigate the fuzzy topic known as cannibalization. Consumers who spend $499 for the cheapest iPad model might be buying it in lieu of a $999 MacBook laptop or, more likely, a $199 iPod Touch.
Many analysts are looking to historical precedent to gauge the iPad’s prospects in the market. Back in 2001, iPod sales started out slowly; Apple sold only 372,000 of them in its first year, then around a million in the second, after the opening of the iTunes Store.
After the iPhone’s introduction in 2007, which inspired a similar media frenzy, Apple sold 1.4 million handsets in its first two quarters, and then 6.1 million during its entire first year.
But the iPhone may be a poor example: people were already comfortable buying cellphones. Few people have ever owned a tablet computer. The iPad is something almost entirely new to most consumers, more akin to, say, the Kindle from Amazon.com or the Apple TV set-top box. Those devices each sold less than a million units in their first year.
Achieving the mass-market penetration — and cultural impact — of the iPod and iPhone is ultimately Apple’s biggest challenge with the iPad. “They are going to need to target mainstream users who might otherwise decide to purchase an e-book reader or a netbook,” said Michael Abramsky, an analyst at RBC Capital Markets. “If they are successful in starting to convince those kinds of folks, and getting beyond the early adopters who will line up for anything, then it has the potential to blossom.”
But even in those best-case situations, the iPad most likely will not change Apple’s overall financial picture anytime soon. A. M. Sacconaghi Jr., an analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein & Company, predicts that the iPad could contribute about 28 cents a share to Apple’s bottom line in its first full year of sales. The iPhone, by contrast, is responsible for about $8 of earnings a share.
“It’s going to be pretty small from a financial impact initially, but the range of ultimate outcomes for the iPad is pretty big,” Mr. Sacconaghi said.
Investors are also trying to keep their expectations grounded. Erick Maronak, chief investment officer for the $1.2 billion Victory Large Cap Growth Fund, which counts Apple as its biggest holding, said he was looking forward to the iPad — but still banking on the iPhone.
The iPad “is yet another example of how the innovation with Apple continues, and that they have not grown complacent,” Mr. Maronak said. “But the much bigger driver is that this is going to be a pretty big year for the iPhone.”
All the iPad and iPhone optimism leaves many analysts and investors wondering what, exactly, disappointment might look like for Apple. If Apple sells only half a million iPads during the next two months, or less than 2 million by the end of September, it could conceivably damage the company’s stellar reputation with Wall Street — and Mr. Jobs’s air of infallibility in selecting and entering new markets.
“There’s always a risk,” said Charles Wolf, an analyst at Needham & Company, who points to past Apple failures like the Mac Cube and Apple TV, but nonetheless believes that the iPad will sell briskly.
If the iPad does fail to sell, “it could impact the stock,” Mr. Wolf said. “But I doubt it would be the end of the world.”
From: http://www.nytimes.com/

MacBook feedback on iPad's shadow, PC rivalry

As the world waits for new MacBooks, readers have chimed in with comments ranging from Apple losing its technological edge to the iPad overshadowing the venerable laptop line.

Last week, I offered a combination of both realistic--albeit tame--predictions (e.g., new Intel processors) and more fanciful hopes (built-in 3G) about upcoming MacBooks. In response, readers offered some thoughtful insights and suggestions.

PC rivalry: One reader suggested that Apple is falling too far behind its PC rivals. "While the PC world is already enjoying the fruits of (new Intel) processors (and) Blu-ray...we are still living in the dark ages in the world of computing according to Apple."

Along these lines, another reader asserted that selling aging hardware at relatively high prices amounts to "just calling your customers stupid."

Not surprisingly, some readers disagreed. One person said that because Apple is more prudent about upgrades, there is more stability on the Mac platform. "(Apple) is simply not going to put anything out there unless they can feel confident the consumer will have minimal issues. So far, for me at least, it has been nice not having any of the old PC issues of the past."

iPad overshadowing MacBooks: Some possibly prescient comments were made about the iPad ultimately overshadowing the MacBook. "For some people, the iPad with the basic productivity suites will be all the computing they will ever need, and therefore the low end MacBooks may be affected," said one reader.

Another chimed in: "I can see the iPad and future versions of the concept taking over home computing. Yes, there probably will still be professionals that will continue to need a 'full' laptop but for everyone else I am convinced that the simplicity of the iPad will see it replace the normal MacBook."

Not so fast, according to this reader. "The iPad is not designed to usurp notebooks. (Steve Jobs') iPad announcement speech clearly indicated that he sees the iPad as a product positioned between an iPhone and a Macbook. And, as the other poster says, unless iPad 2.0 runs full-blown OSX, it can't compete with an actual Macbook."

Lack of 3G: Finally, addressing one my pet MacBook peeves--no option for built-in 3G--the pros and cons seemed fairly evenly divided. This reader suggested adding 4G now, since it's available in the form of WiMax. "Sprint, Verizon and AT&T all offer pay as you go data packages with no contract. It would be nice to know that in a pinch I could pay $10 and get 24 hours of 4G."

But others would rather that Apple stay away from these connection technologies. "I don't agree with the 3G/4G connections. WAN (wide area network) connections should be really be centralized through tethered (mobile devices) or mobile Wi-Fi hot spot, otherwise it's just yet another mobile data contract you have to pay for."