5 Reasons Why I Won’t Buy an iPad

The ridiculous hype is finally over and Steve Jobs has given birth to yet another neat consumer device. The iPad isn’t even shipping yet, and it’s already made a huge splash in the press. Coverage of the iPad has been everywhere and Apple fans are swooning and waiting to whip out their credit cards to buy one.

Frankly, I don’t give a damn.

Yes, I was curious just like everybody else. But I have to admit that I’m deeply disappointed by what I’ve seen of it so far, and I don’t plan on buying one for a long time—if ever. So much hype and such a disappointing final product—I think the iPad is going to go down in tech history as one of the biggest eggs ever laid.

And before anybody starts screaming at me because they think I’m an “Apple hater,” let me remind you that I own an iPhone, an Apple TV, a MacBook Pro, and two iMacs. I love a lot of Apple’s products—but the iPad isn’t one of them.

Here are the five reasons why I won’t buy an iPad.

5. A Stupid Name
Who the heck at Apple decided “iPad” would be a good name for anything? Don’t any women work in Apple’s marketing department? A CNBC anchor even said it reminded her of feminine hygiene products, and she wasn’t the only one conflating the iPad with such things.

Yup, the jokes are already flying. You just have to wonder what Apple was thinking. What about the iSlate? Or the iTablet? Or even the iBook? Any of them would have been less suggestive than iPad.

I suppose it could have been worse. Apple might have gone for the “Maxi iPad” or something like that.

4. Not Enough Storage Space
The iPad will come with 16, 32, or 64GB of storage. That’s it? Wow. A lot of people have 64GB worth of music alone, to say nothing of movies, photos, and applications. These storage options are anemic for something like a tablet.

More realistic storage options would have provided real value and enough room for today’s storage-hungry users. I cannot imagine getting by with only 16GB. Apple really cheaped out here. And to make matters worse, you can’t use an SD card, either—there’s no slot for one on the iPad.

There should be some way to easily add additional storage to the iPad. I suppose you could buy a very small external drive and carry it around with you, but that sort of defeats the purpose of having a tablet in the first place.

3. No Camera
Video chat would seem a logical application for the iPad, but Apple has decided not to include a built-in camera, whether on the front or the back. Duh. Hello, Steve Jobs! What were you thinking?

Being able to take photos and shoot video would have added a lot of extra value to the iPad, but now that won’t be possible unless Apple upgrades the hardware at some point.

2. Price
I give Apple credit for rolling out the iPad at a starting price of $499 (for 16GB), which is lower than the $1,000 many were predicting. But it’s still too high, especially since you don’t get 3G (that costs $130 more). A better initial price point would have been $399—including 3G.

Unfortunately, Apple has made the iPad far too expensive for what it offers. Whether $499, $599 (for 32GB, or $729 with 3G), or $699 (for 64GB, or $829 with 3G), you’re paying a lot without getting some basic features in return. Apple either needs to get the pricing down, or provide more bang for those bucks.

1. No E-ink Screen
A great deal is being made of Apple’s iBook reader application and store. Many are predicting that Amazon’s Kindle is doomed.

Ugh, no way.

The Kindle is alive and will thrive despite the iPad. Why? Because they aren’t the same product at all. People don’t buy the Kindle as a multipurpose device—they buy it mainly to read e-books. So what if it doesn’t do everything the iPad does? Does anyone who already owns a Kindle really care? I sure don’t.

But I do care about the iPad’s lack of an e-ink screen. E-ink makes it much more comfortable to read e-books. With the iPad, you’ll be stuck reading text on a backlit screen—hello eye irritation.

Apple is trying to cover up this glaring omission by making the iPad’s e-reader app glitzy, with cool animations and neat stuff like color and store integration. Big deal. None of that is necessary to read an e-book and none of it compensates for the lack of an easy-to-read e-ink screen.

Thanks for trying, Apple, but you can keep your iPad. I’ll check it out again when you are in version 2.0—or perhaps even 3.0.

Maybe then you’ll get it right.

Did you enjoy this post? If so, you are welcome to buy me a coffee. I thank you in advance for your kindness and support.