iPad: The next fad gadget

You have to hand it to Steve Jobs and Apple. For the past few years, they’ve consistently made products that people want. Not because they’re the most brilliant pieces of technologies, but because people want them.

You want an MP3 player, get the iPod. It doesn’t matter if the Zen and the Zune had much better tech per buck ratios (well, maybe not the Zune). PCs and Windows notebooks offered much more flexible computing capabilities but everyone wanted the sleeker MacBook. All because it’s got the Apple styling and Apple logo on it.

Now, just last week, Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad (sanitary napkin jokes are in order. It’s dubbed to be the netbook killer with its sleek and small form. The multi-touch screen that everyone loves and wants. But besides those, it won’t feature netbook comforts such as USB connectivity, upgrades, a keyboard, etc…

The “fully-featured” one costs $829 with 3G connectivity and 64 GB of storage. A keyboard dock comes as an accessory but that would make the iPad’s form quite pointless. And at that price, it’s almost already a Kindle (if I want a portable reader) and a decent-powered Acer/ASUS laptop (if I want oodles of computing juice).

Money-wise, it doesn’t really offer much buck per bang. It’s really for people who buy gadgets without knowing the full extent of their use and for people who just want to get in to this whole “I got an iPad” thing.

People call it the next revolution. I call it a fad. But since people will be buying it and competitors will be imitating it, other people might just be right.