For months, the blogosphere had been full of talks and predictions about the tablet computer from Apple and finally Apple has unveiled the iPad, giving the world more to talk about. Apple announced the much awaited iPad, the “magical and revolutionary” tablet computing device. Apple has a track record of creating revolutionary devices such as the iPod and the iPhone, and people have come to expect the world from the iPad, which it might actually deliver, albeit at a price that will make people want to beg, borrow, steal or kill just so they can then get their hands on it.

First made popular by Microsoft in 2001, tablet PCs were defined to be “pen-enabled computers.” They ran the Windows XP Tablet PC Edition, which had support for tablet PC-specific hardware. Some later editions of Windows had support for tablet PCs built-in with improvements in handwriting recognition, etc. However, even with advanced software support for touch, tablet PCs did not capture the market. Now, with improvements in hardware such as processors, these devices have become faster and more efficient. Also, touch as the primary and sometimes only input has become an accepted design after the iPhone was released.

The iPad weighs about 700 grams and is only half an inch thick. Ten inches by 7.5 inches wide, it has a display that is 9.7 inches diagonally and has a resolution of 1024x768 pixels. The wide Multi-Touch display is coated with a fingerprint resistant material. The iPad runs on a 1GHz Apple A4 custom designed processor which boasts high performance and low power consumption – Apple claims that the iPad has a battery life of up to 10 hours. As far as storage is concerned, the tablet PC has an internal storage capacity of up to 64GB. The basic model comes with Wi-Fi for connectivity and the advanced model supports 3G as well.

One thing discouraging people from buying tablet computers is the cost of these devices. Also, with only a few uses known, most could not justify buying one. However, the iPad comes loaded with software for email, a Safari browser and applications for photos, videos, music and iTunes. Also, it comes with applications for reading eBooks, making notes, viewing maps and lots more. In addition to the pre-loaded applications, there are almost 140,000 applications available from the Apple App Store – which includes games, entertainment, productivity and social networking applications. These can be downloaded wirelessly right from the iPad. The iWork suite of productivity applications – Keynote, Pages and Numbers has been redesigned for iPad. This lets you create presentations and work with documents and spreadsheets.  The only problem with the software on the iPad is the inability of the device to run more than one application simultaneously. It means you may not be able to listen to music in the background while working on the browser – a deal breaker for some.

The iPad price starts at just $499. There are two variants – a Wi-Fi one and another with 3G. The iPad with only Wi-Fi costs $499, $599 and $699 for 16GB, 32GB and 64GB drives respectively whereas the iPad with Wi-Fi and 3G comes for $629, $729 and $829 again, depending on the storage capacity.

The iPad is a beautiful device that is leaving people speechless. Even though it costs more than what a lot of people can afford, it is expected to do well. When the iPhone was released, it was thought to be overpriced and received criticism for lacking features considered basic. However, because of its ease of use, high quality and an active developer community, it soon took over the smartphone market.

Apple has a great ecosystem in place to ensure its success. Consumers can buy what they like from the iTunes store, the App Store and now the iBookstore. Apple is releasing an SDK for the iPad and with developers writing applications especially for the iPad, there will surely be tons of innovative ways in which it can be used. 

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