Apple's much-anticipated iPad on sale today
Some of these initial iPad buyers were drawn by the ability to read electronic books, watch video and run a myriad of useful or fun applications, including Scrabble.
Ray Majewski came to an Apple Store in Freehold with his 10-year-old daughter, Julia, partly as a reward for getting straight A's in school. He decided on an iPad over Amazon.com Inc.'s Kindle electronic-book reader.
"I like the electronic books, and my daughter is really getting into them as well," Majewski said. "I was thinking of getting a Kindle but then said to myself, 'Why not get an iPad because I can get so much more from that than just reading books.'"
The iPad is essentially a much larger version of Apple's popular iPhone, without the calling capabilities. The new device is a half-inch thick, weighs 1.5 pounds and has a touch screen that measures 9.7 inches on the diagonal — nearly three times the iPhone's. Also like the iPhone, it has no physical keyboard, but sports an accelerometer, which lets gamers tilt the device to control what's happening on the screen.
For now, Apple is selling versions of the iPad that can only connect to the Internet using Wi-Fi. Those models start at $499. Versions that also have a cellular data connection will be available by the end of the month. They will cost $130 more, with the most expensive at $829.
Scores of people lined up outside many Apple Stores and Best Buy outlets well before the iPads went on sale. Apple's store on New York's Fifth Avenue had a party-like atmosphere, with employees cheering and clapping as customers entered and left.
Although Apple is adept at generating frenetic buzz for not-yet-released products, it may have to work extra hard once the initial iPad excitement settles. Many companies have tried to sell tablet computers before, but none have caught on with mainstream consumers.
Apple will need to persuade people who may already have smart phones, laptops, set-top boxes and home broadband connections to buy yet another Internet-capable device with many of the same functions.
And while early adopters who pre-ordered an iPad in recent weeks gush about all the ways they hope to use the iPad — casual Web searches on the couch, sharing photo albums with friends, reading books — skeptics point to all the ways the iPad comes up short.
They argue the on-screen keyboard is hard to use and complain that it lacks a camera and ports for media storage cards and USB devices such as printers. They also bemoan the fact that the iPad can't play Flash video, which means many Web sites with embedded video clips will look broken to Web surfers using Apple's Safari browser. And the iPad can't run more than one program at a time, which even fans hope will change one day soon.
College student Brett Meulmefter stood in line at an Apple Store in Arlington, Va., to try one out without buying one yet.
"The cost is kind of prohibitive at this point," he said.
But others flew in to New York from Europe because the iPad won't go on sale there for a few more weeks.
Carlos Herrera, a school teacher from Barcelona, Spain, said he wants to show his colleagues how the device can be used in classrooms. He has turned his iPad trip into a weeklong vacation.
Siggi Manz, a software developer who lives near Frankfurt, Germany, was spending just 20 hours in New York to snag one so he could start writing iPad applications for his fitness center clients. Manz, who already carries Apple's MacBook Pro and iPhone, said the iPad would be ideal for note-taking.
"Opening a laptop is sometimes impersonal because the monitor is between us, and the iPhone is too little to really honestly type," Manz said.
In San Francisco, tattoo artist Max Ackermann is convinced the iPad will "define a giant change in how we perceive computers in general and how we deal with them on a daily basis. It's really cool to be a part of that beginning. The iPhone feels just like a trial right now compared with the iPad."
Yet Ackermann admits he has no clue exactly how the iPad will be transformative: "It's definitely in its baby years."
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• Internet & Cloud • AppleUsing iPad, iPhone apps
As with the iPhone, the iPad’s usefulness will grow with the thousands of applications that will be available for it.
Users can get apps for such tasks as reading the news, checking weather and playing games — either for free or for a fee, usually no more than a few bucks. A handful will come built-in, while others can be downloaded wirelessly or by synching the device with Windows or Mac computers.
The iPad comes with an iPhone emulator, so people who already own an iPhone app can copy it to their iPads by syncing the new device with their computers. They won’t have to pay a second time. However, those apps might look a bit blurry on the iPad’s larger screen. They’ll work better in a smaller window about the size of an iPhone.
Applications made specifically for the iPad are also available, with many more in production. Already in the Apps Store are Electronic’s Arts’s Scrabble and one from ESPN that shows game scores, video highlights and other sports updates.
Apple is also selling iPad versions of its word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software for $10.
One of the iPad’s major selling points is its e-book reader software, which puts the new device in competition with Amazon.com Inc.’s Kindle reader. The free iBooks program, which has to be downloaded separately, is also the entryway to Apple’s e-book store.
Apple didn’t let most software developers test their programs on actual devices, so many are waiting for their own iPads to arrive before submitting their apps for sale.
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