Everything iPad

Another week gone by, another week in review. There was quite a bit going on this week in Apple/iPad talk, but most of it seemed to stem from the same issues: eBooks, pricing, subscriptions, and Flash. These are the big, burning questions for Apple since the announcement of the iPad, and issues that won’t seem to go away. Of course, a few of these probably won’t be settled for quite some time, and still others may (finally) die out here in the coming weeks, once we’re finally able to hold the tablet in our hands. Whatever happens, we still have to wait, so why not settle down in your favorite chair, grab a drink, and take a gander of the week past? We promise, it’s worth it.

First up, we’ve got the iPad’s price. Before Steve Jobs took the stage at Apple’s keynote and showcased the iPad to the world, there were some wild speculations running around regarding the tablet’s suspected price. When Jobs put up the pricing grid on the big screen, there was a collective sigh. It wasn’t nearly as much as people thought it was going to be. And, even more so, it didn’t seem to be as high as Apple usually priced their products. But, that’s not stopping analysts from suggesting that there’s enough room for Apple to maneuver pricing if they need to. Basically, if the iPad isn’t selling as well as Apple execs want it to, they could make the executive decision to drop the price. Not a bad deal for some consumers, if we do say so ourselves.

Those camera rumors just won’t die. Some would suspect that for the most part, they’re a giant waste of time. Considering that Jobs didn’t announce a camera, or even show any applications that would necessarily need a camera, those few people might be right. But nonetheless, they exist, and a couple of them are pretty noteworthy. First and foremost, an Apple-based position opened up, looking for someone who knew a few things about cameras, and video recording. Second, and probably most revealing, is some information found within the iPhone 3.2 SDK. It seems that Apple has put bits and pieces of code, as well as some application icons, within the vein of video calling, and iChat capabilities. Some would argue that this is meant for the future release of the new iPhone, but we’re a bit skeptical.

For a couple Norwegian Apple resellers, things got a bit rocky over the week. It seems there was some wild cravings for Apple’s latest piece of hardware, and they were forced to close down early pre-orders due to “crazy interest.” That’s right. Crazy interest. But, while that’s bad news for those over the pond, we’ve got some potentially good news to fill the gap. According to a sourced rumor, official pre-orders of the iPad may start as early as February 25th, or this Thursday. This hasn’t been made official by any means yet, but considering that it’s likely the iPad will launch on March 26th (if Apple sticks to their Friday launch days), then a month advance for people wouldn’t be a bad idea.

Remember that talk about iPad prices being dropped if sales weren’t good enough? Well, when we (and the executives) said they had room to maneuver the pricing, we were being serious. According to a iSuppli, the 32GB WiFi+3G iPad only costs Apple $287.15 to build, while they’re selling it for $729. There’s a lot of maneuverability in there, which is a good thing. It also shows that Apple is still the king of profit, as once again they show that they can build a high-profile device without breaking the bank in doing so.

It seems the iPhone, or iPod Touch, aren’t the only mobile gaming devices that the other companies out there, like Nintendo and Sony, have to worry about. With the announcement of the iPad, Shigeru Miyamoto of Nintendo, and several bodies from the hierarchy of Sony all came forward and said that the iPad is far from revolutionary, and that it will not provide the same gaming fun that their current mobile consoles do. While that’s all well and good, their voices are small in comparison to Bill Gates. Mr. Gates is not that surprised by the iPad, nor is he that interested. He doesn’t believe the iPad has done much for the market of tablets, and still believes that netbooks are going to lead the way with a combination of touch-based functions as well as a keyboard and mouse input.

Everything iPad had the chance to get an exclusive interview with Steve Ives, the CEO of Taptu. The company is heavily invested in the future of touch-based platforms, and especially the focus of the mobile web in relation to touch-based platforms. They’ve done a lot of research in regards to mobile web applications, and how they exist within a world of App Stores and native applications. What they’ve found is pretty revealing, and does a great job of showcasing just what the world of the mobile web is going to look like here soon.

The eBook War has a lot of facets, caveats, and trivialities. When it comes to understanding just what’s going on, we imagine you’d have to be personally invested within either the publishing industry, or Apple. For the rest of us, we can only look in from the outside, and try to guesstimate as to what the future of eBook pricing will be. Amazon was feeling the pressure early on, especially from publishers, and now it seems that they’re ready to take some pretty drastic actions to get their eReader (which is currently the best on the market) into as many hands as possible. Thanks to Amazon Prime, which is an annual cost for subscribers, Amazon has begun looking at the possibility of providing Prime customers with free Kindles. They tried something of the same nature last month, so we’ll see if it goes through. And if it does, what the results will be. On the other side of the coin, and perhaps a little further way down the spectrum line, there’s an official biography of Steve Jobs coming down the pipe. This will be the first (and only) biography Jobs will give his official word on, so it should prove to be very interesting. Of course, we’re hoping it will be turned into an iBook (that would be only fitting, right?). And if that’s not enough, the pricing war that’s been going on between Apple and everyone else heated up this week, when talks of prices actually being lower than previously suggested came forward. It seems those $14.99 price points were nothing more than a ceiling, and Jobs is actually trying to convince publishers to keep their eBook prices down. So, it seems that the $9.99 digital copy may not disappear into the gloom after all.

Flash. Adobe’s video and web animation software, that for quite some time, has been the very backbone to the Internet itself. For video fanatics, it’s really the only way to stream video in a mainstream kind of way. There are other options, but Adobe knows that Flash isn’t going anywhere, any time soon. Of course, Apple doesn’t want it that way, and would love nothing more than to see Flash Player gone the way of the dinosaurs, and HTML5 brought into the fold in a more widespread way. Jobs has scorned the company and its product on more than one occasion. But Adobe has shot back, saying that they’re aware of the issues on the Mac systems, and are working on optimizing their software so that it will start working without a hitch. Considering the adamant nature of Jobs in his belittling of the company, we don’t think any kind of optimization is going to help their cause, and we don’t expect to see Flash Player on any iPad, or iPhone/iPod Touch any time soon. And while Flash may not be paramount to Apple’s plans, Hulu doesn’t care about that. They’re in the video business and see the iPad as a great contributor to that business model. And so they’re trying to figure out ways right now to make that work, and rumors are spreading that it will be a subscription-based plan. And finally, there’s a great in-depth look at the Flash/Apple debacle, and what it means for everyone else.

In closing, we’d like to note that AT&T has gone ahead and increased the download limits over 3G. It used to be that people couldn’t download apps from the App Store if they were over 10MB, but all of that has changed. Now, 20MB is the limit, which should open up the gates for a lot of people. Of course, we have no illusions that this is because the iPad is on its way, and the applications downloaded from the tablet will be excessive to say the least. We’re just hoping that AT&T is also increasing their network’s strength, so that those 20MB downloads can actually be started and finished without hassle. We’re in the closing weeks here, folks, and hopefully you’re as excited as we are. By the end of March the first iPads will start to make their way into consumer’s hands, and the tablet industry as we know it will never be the same again.