iPad Rip-off?

Wow, talk about hype. I decided to let things calm down a bit before commenting on the new Apple iPad.

Now I must admit, I am for any computer equipment that enhances reading. That's why I own a Sony eReader (but it could just as well have been a Kindle, or any of the other e-readers). So I was waiting with great expectations for the new Apple iPad.

It's neat, but a ground-breaker? I think not. There are all kinds of uses for a tablet, e-reader or whatever they are being called, but for the moment I am going to stick with the general design.

It is a larger iPhone. It isn't ready to be released (2 months for the low end unit), it's too big for your pocket and too small to be a computer. It is too close for comfort in design to the P88 tablet from the Shenzhen Loong Brother company in China. And here's the twist.

China is famous for counterfeiting of DVD's, CD's, video games and of course imitation electronics. But the P88 was released six months before the iPad release. Sure they are not exactly the same, but amazingly, neither one solves the "next hot product" requirements of today's consumers.

Other than Apple fanatics, who can't get enough of the company's products, the iPad doesn't resolve a whole lot of print-to-digital issues. One of the issues is the struggling old media newspapers, magazines, TV networks, book publishers are all being hyped that the iPad will solve all their problems. After all, Amazon sold more e-books and traditional paper based books this past Christmas. So what does the iPad really bring to old media?

A way to charge for information, like iTunes changed how music was purchased, and therefore how much money the old music media companies made? If Apple decides to be the printing press, they may make money that way, but the iPad won't be the saviour, it will just be one of the digital reading platforms.