The iPad Of Tomorrow

In my last article I talked about the most important technology of 2010. One of these, obviously, was the iPad, which I dismissed as something that is "currently" too heavy and very incapable. I wish to stress the word "currently". With ever evolving micro-technologies and possibilities, there is more than a million ways that Apple's tablet, namely the iPad, can be improved and developed further.

But this is a first generation try for Apple in this area. They built and released the iPad upon the success that was the iPhone. Although many people have forgotten this already, the iPhone took until it's 3rd edition (the iPhone 3GS) until people actually rated it. The two devices that preceded the 3GS were slow, and a whole lot less capable. It took a long time for them to get it right. And even now, a whole stack of problems remain unattended to with the iPhone 4.

What I mean to say is, it's going to be a while (years, in fact) until they get it right. It's not a case of trial and error, it's just that Apple's vision is years ahead of today's technology. They literally have to under develop their products and wait for the time when their vision of the product becomes a possibility.

So what exactly can Apple, at this point in time, put into the next iPad?

Camera
In line with a new product that Apple has integrated in the iPhone 4, iPod Touch 4th Generation and the Mac, we could see FaceTime come to the iPad. Apple is very keen on the idea of streamlining their products, so it's likely we will be seeing this somewhere on the next iPad

The iPad was highly criticised for it's lack of camera on the back, used to take photos. Although I never understood why this would be necessary - it's not like you're going to take a 9 inch device with you on a trip out. I can still see Apple adding this as it still makes sense, even if its not necessary. Lets not forget - it would just be more for them to boast about in forthcoming keynotes!!

USB Port
As the iPad is often used as a family device and often as a laptop replacement, it's quite obvious that it needs a USB port. People want to be able to share information and data between different devices at different locations. And if you're not keen on sharing information in the cloud (see my second article Google Chrome OS - A year on for more information on the cloud), then the only other simple sharing method is a USB stick or device.

Lightness
Using an iPad when sitting down on a chair is very uncomfortable due to it's weight. It begins to hurt your hands and arms and proves pretty unpleasant. In essence, it's not very nice to sit with. The only way this can improve is introducing even more micro-technologies and reducing the weight of the device.

Capability
This is less related to the actual device, more to do with it's Operating System, iOS (for iPad). iOS was initially designed for iPhone and iPod Touch and upon the creation of the iPad, Apple literally blew it up to fill the 9x7 inch screen (I said this in my first article, "Back to the Mac?"). The iPad actually does less than the iPhone (it can't make phone calls or exchange text messages) and does nothing more than the iPod Touch does, except for access to 3G networks. And considering it costs about £300 more than the iPod, something is clearly wrong.

The advantage of the iPad is it's huge screen. That means there is a lot more room to lay out information and to show off the incredible GUI design that Apple is capable of. There are so many possibilities when you're working with a big screen - I think with that on their side, Apple can improve capability and functionality of the iPad.

Conclusion
As I stated before, it's going to take time. Apple knows exactly what they need to do with the iPad and all of their products. But they are taking it slow, either because the technology simply isn't there yet, or they just want to boast about their amazing inventions/improvements one by one. Quite right too!

Raffi