A statistical impossibility

Disclaimer: obsessed Apple fans should stop reading right now, unless you can take criticism.

The Mac, the Macbook, the iPod, the iPhone, and now the iPad – God save us; Apple is taking over the world!
First of all, Apple claims it’s intention is not to compete with the personal computer and Microsoft’s operating system Windows. But we all know this is bullshit. Apple is on a Quest for World Wide Dominance and you know it! Just like the New World Order conspiracy theories, Apple is silently building a strong user base by snooping off market shares from a lot of markets!

Take over the world, while you still can

It began with the computer; the Apple Mac. But that wasn’t enough. It wasn’t enough that software developers are practically forced to write software for both Windows and Mac, no sir. Everyone calls Microsoft restrictive in their policies regarding Windows, but that is nothing compared to Apple’s stance. You couldn’t even run Mac on an ordinary pc – apparently the standardized Von Neumann architecture as implemented since the advent of the microcomputer in 1981 from IBM isn’t good enough for them (why a PowerPC CPU instead of an Intel/AMD CPU that is compatible with the rest of the world?).

Since then, Apple has showed laptops (such as the Macbook Air, an ‘ultra-thin’ laptop without even a dvd drive), MP3 and Media players (the whole iPod range, from the original iPod to ther iPod video and what not), mobile phones (the iPhone, which is more restrictive than a 18th century corset), and now the iPad – a real Apple table computer!
First of all; who would ever want to have a tablet computer? Okay, web designers maybe. But Regular Rick isn’t interested in them – at least when they’re not working in Atlantis, the city of the Ancients (Stargate Atlantis reference, if you saw it, you know what I mean).
Second, it is the TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY for crying out loud! What in God’s name was Apple thinking when they DIDN’T IMPLEMENT MULTITASKING?! As with the iPhone, where multitasking is also noticeably absent, the iPad also does not have multitasking. I can not wrap my mind around this; in a world of two, four, six or even eight core processors, the Apple hardware doesn’t even support basic multitasking – something that was possible from very early in Windows. This, in my eyes, is an idiotic decision, both from a hardware and a marketing standpoint.

Marketing: follow the hype

The iPad has Apple’s own 1GHz CPU implemented. This ARM-based processor operates at 1 Gigahertz, which is ‘quite high’ (the only other 1GHz ARM-processor is implemented in Google’s Nexus One smart phone). This tells me the iPad is not meant as a full blown computer, because even simple laptops have dual core processors these days. I guess Apple wanted to keep the costs down on the hardware (so they could charge more for the design).

The iPad is in my opinion a ridiculous addition to the Apple fleet of hardware. Things that consumers take for granted these days are not implemented, there are extreme limitations to what you can run on it (as with the iPhone, you can only download and install apps from the Apple Store, meaning Apple decides what will and what will not run on somebody’s iPad. Although jail-breaking is probably in the iPad’s future.

Basic flaws of the iPad:

• No multitasking
• No camera
• No Flash
• Not even a single USB port, no HDMI or other display ports
• Once again Apple controls the customer by determining which apps the customer can or can not run, through their App Store

So…?

So the iPad will be the next big thing.

Addition
Don’t get me wrong; I think Apple is great. The only thing I really dislike is the amount of control Apple holds over its customers, with only allowing certified applications to run – and even then, only one at a time (this is true for the mobile platforms of the iPhone and iPad). Another big objection of mine is they charge ridiculous prices for what I consider to be sub standard hardware (in terms of speed etc), just because ‘it looks nice’. But i have to applaud Apple too; the customers buy it completely. Hail Apple’s marketing strategy – the design is a one-time expense, hardware costs need to be spent with every unit.