iPad or iPhad?

One advertisement, aired during the 1984 Superbowl, effectively changed the course of consumer electronics technology. That ad was Apple's launch of the Mac. Building on the imagery associated with Orwell's novel 1984, it implied that users could break free from products of another, much larger, company. The ad – only aired once, incidentally – positioned Apple as a mould breaker and, since then, Apple has cleverly – and carefully – managed its image. Now, every January, the world waits with eager anticipation for Steve Jobs' to unveil the company's latest consumer 'toy'. Some of these announcements have had immense significance – the iPod and the iPhone are two examples. Some have not had the success which afficionados and Apple itself expected – Apple TV and the Newton, for instance. The burning question at the moment is whether the iPad will establish a new category in the consumer electronics world and become something which we can't do without, or will it be the rare example of an Apple product that didn't fly? Certainly, the iPad is too big to be a smartphone, maybe too constrained to be a laptop. Is it an e-reader? If so, why doesn't it have an e-paper screen? While it boasts the iPhone's ease of use, questions are being asked about how you use it: do you hold it in front of you or is it a laptop, or even tabletop, device? Either way, it doesn't appear to lend itself readily to how we use technology today. Apple enthusiasts have, almost unanimously, hailed the iPad as a triumph, but those not fully signed up to the Apple agenda aren't so sure. While the iPad is probably assured modest short term success, simply because it's a new Apple device, its long term success remains open to debate.