The iPad – The Future of web browsing?

So it is called the iPad, thats the name that Apple have called their new “Revolutionary” product. It is as was expected a Tablet PC which Steve Jobs aims to bridge the gap between the iPhone and a Laptop. It has so far been recieved with mix reviews, some people singing its praises and others claiming that it does not live up to the hype it has been recieving. So what is it all about? What can it do?

The iPad has been described by a number of people as just an oversize iPhone, and it does look just like one. It is also based upon the same OS as the iPhone. (Currently version 3.2) The iPad features a 1ghz Apple A4 proccesor which is quite a jump from the 600mhz ARM processor in the iPhone. Not as many were expecting given Apple’s transition from PPC to Intel based processors back in 2005 that it would be powered by an Intel Atom processor.We also know that the iPad will be available as either a WiFi version available in 16, 32 or 64gb or with a slightly later release date a 3G model. The screen will be a 10″ multitouch touch screen interface  with a resolution of 1024 X 768, and the iPad will have the s iPod connector to allow for the iPad to be synced with a PC or Mac.

It was widely expected that the price of the iPad was going to be around $1000 (£610) in actual fact apple will be releasing the iPad from just $499 (£308) suggesting a possible £349 UK price point? At that price it clearly puts the iPad in competition against the netbooks, which supports the level of specifcation and features the iPad has. This price also poises the iPad perfectly within the iPhone (which is free on most UK contracts) and a Macbook which start at £699.

At this price point it is also going to provide direct competition  not only against netbooks but also against the ebook readers market from people such a Amazon and their kindle. Users will have the opportunity of buying a device designed almost purely for reading ebooks or a device from Apple which has the capacity to do so much more.

Whether or not this is going to be a success for Apple in my view is going to come down to the developers, we already know that the iPad is capable of running nearly all of the 140,000 applications now available on the iPhone and that the updated iPhone SDK is now available to allow developers to begin updating, or writing applications to take advantage of the iPad.  (One feature to note is that the new SDK has removed the limitation of using the cellular networks for VOIP). It is the applications afterall that have made the iPhone an enourmous success.

What does this mean for the web?  and for website design? 1024 X 768 is the minimum resolution that we ensure all of our designs function on. Netbooks at the moment have quite often a much smaller resolution which limit their ability to browse the web in a similar way to which the iPhone has, often meaning a mobile version of the website is needed.
Still no flash player on the iPhone or the iPad yet which many were hoping for so websites heavily based around flash will still be unavailable to users, or a separate application like how YouTube have handled the problem will be needed. However at 1024 resolution you can browse the internet just like you can on your desktop machines with no need for a mobile version, so from an end users prospective should be easy to navigate and use. The future of computing? We will have to wait and see.

If you want to view the whole keynote of the event follow this link.