Despite the Criticism, the iPad is Revolutionary

For the last two days, I've ready countless reviews about the iPad. They are all extremely critical of the device for not multitasking, lacking Adobe Flash and not having a camera. The problem with all of these reviews is that they focus purely on the technical merits. The criticism comes from a bunch of techy bloggers and journalist who get totally lost in the technical specifications and forget the devices merit on function. While I agree that Flash and multitasking would be ideal they in no way detract from the value of the iPad. There are multiple millions of iPhone and iPod Touch users today who love their devices without Flash and multitasking. Reviewers seem overly harsh and almost angry at Apple for not bringing a “revolutionary” device. The rhetoric has reached the point of advocacy against purchasing the device. A comment from Nucleus Research Tech Watch declared “Just say noPad”. The overly critical reaction is an overreaction to a device that does transform mobile technology. No other device today provides the same experience the iPad does. The iPad is the one device where you can sit on your couch or in your bed and experience the Internet and media without the bulkiness of a keyboard or the limited screen space of a mobile device. The iPad is revolutionary in a way that every publisher in the world was spending their Thursday morning thinking about how they transform their product to the iPad format. The iPad will eliminate stacks of magazines next to people’s bed. It will reinvent the newspaper. The iPad is just as much or more about the form factor than the features. Time will tell how the device is received by the public, but I wouldn’t look to the pundits for purchasing advice on this one. Even technical people sometimes don’t understand the next “big thing”.