"Love at first touch": iPad lures buyers (News Feature)

By Andy Goldberg Apr 3, 2010, 18:11 GMT

San Francisco - Apple has touted its new iPad as a 'magical and revolutionary device' and many of the first customers to get their hands on the new device were quick to agree.

'This will change the way I use computers,' said accountant Barbara Freid, 36, whose pre-ordered iPad was delivered to her San Francisco home on Saturday.

'I use a computer all day long at work so the last thing I want to do when I get home is to keep tapping away at a keyboard. But the iPad doesn't feel like a computer at all. It's the perfect digital device,' she said.

Reactions like those will be music to Apple's ears. Since the invention of the personal computer over 25 years ago, the holy grail of computer designers has been to make the technology invisible - that is to allow the people to use and enjoy their digital information naturally and intuitively.

No need to know anything about such technology basics as the operating system - or for that matter files, folders, buffers or motherboards.

Early PC's never even came close. With processors that were puny compared even to the most basic of modern cellphones, early personal computers could be controlled only by hardcore geeks inputing complicated text commands.

The development of the mouse and the graphical user interface in the 1970's - which was first popularized by the Apple Macintosh in 1984 - marked a major milestone in bringing computing to the masses, who could now point and click to operate their new-fangled machines.

For Apple, and the many competitors who are also rushing similar products to market, the iPad represents the next stage in the PC revolution.

'The iPad has the potential to change portable computing profoundly, and to challenge the primacy of the laptop,' said tech columnist Walt Mossberg in the Wall Street Journal.

'It could even help, eventually, to propel the finger-driven, multitouch user interface ahead of the mouse-driven interface that has prevailed for decades,' he added.

That's not to say that the iPad is the perfect device, and at launch a number of serious drawbacks were apparent. The device lacks the ability to multitask - that is run more than one application at a time - a serious flaw if you want to check email while watching a movie, or send a text while playing a game.

The absence of a physical keyboard or stylus input will also deter many people, as will the lack of a built-in camera, a paucity of ports for connecting digital peripheries, and the incompatibility of the iPad with Flash, the format that is used to display most online videos.

But for millions of iPad buyers - and analysts predict that there will be some 7 million of them this year alone - none of these drawbacks are dealbreakers.

People will either use the touchscreen keyboard or buy the docking keyboard that turns the iPad into a vivid if somewhat diminutive desktop monitor. They will overcome the lack of Flash by visiting websites that encode videos in the newer format HTML5.

But if they need a camera or multitasking capabilities they might have to wait for the next-generation iPad or one of the dozens of iPad competitors that companies from Silicon Valley to Taiwan are planning to roll out in the coming months.

Some, like the Archos 5 internet tablet, are already available - though they lack Apple's renowned marketing buzz, or obsessive focus on streamlining the user experience. But future competitors are already planning to one-up the iPad.

Microsoft's still-in-the-works Courier tablet is a folding digital journal that uses two touchscreens and a stylus that recognizes handwriting for easy input, while a host of manufacturers are also preparing devices that run on Google's Chrome and Android operating systems.

None of those however will come with the iPad buzz - that indefinable Apple hallmark that makes buyers get all sentimental about their little machines.

'You can really feel the future with this device,' said John Walson, a photocopier salesman, who also nabbed an iPad on the first day of sale. 'I've never felt this way about a computer before. It's love at first touch.'