By [http://ezinearticles.com/?expert=Timothy_Arends]Timothy Arends
Apple has finally done it. Apple has released its new tablet device, that is. The Mac public was expecting, indeed clamoring — for Apple to release such a device — and soon! For Apple to have failed to do so would have been a major letdown (to its customers as well as its stockholders). The momentum was just impossible to resist.
After all, the iPhone is essentially a miniature tablet computer. Apple has shown that it can “do” such a device like no one else. So, despite Steve Jobs past protestations, releasing a new tablet was a no-brainer. All Apple had to do is scale up its brilliant interface to a larger device.
Did I say “all Apple had to do?” The technical challenges in producing this new device, called the iPad, were enormous. Apple had to essentially design a whole new operating system that is not quite the Mac and not quite the iPhone, rewrite its core applications from scratch, and basically rethink the entire way a computer operates.
Apple was not the first to release a new tablet computer, just as it was not the first to release an MP3 player or cell phone, but it may well be the company that succeeds in making the tablet computer truly “catch fire” with the public.
Apple has a tremendous head start with 140,000+ apps for the iPhone, and it wisely designed the iPad to take advantage of them. The iPad can run iPhone apps at their original size, or in “pixel doubled mode” twice the size as on the iPhone, so that they nearly fill the iPad screen. Developers can easily rewrite their iPhone apps specifically for the iPad in such a way as to take advantage of its new features.
How will the iPad affect Internet marketers? Of course, the “i” in its name stands for Internet (and it’s also a clever play on the name of the “iPod”). Surfing the web will be a joy, and a larger screen will give users much more room to work with. Apple’s developers brag that it’s like “holding the entire Internet in your hand,” or like reading a physical book or magazine.
continue reading…