Today, Apple unleashed its Guided Tours for the iPad. Some thoughts on the videos...
Printing, or Lack Thereof
Perhaps the most important fact I've learned from watching the iWork tours: printing does not appear to be an option, yet.
I think the hue and cry for printing will mount. Certainly, if Apple wants this to be a serious business device, it will have to be addressed.
My best guess is that, since the iPad is primarily oriented toward consumers, and since many (most?) home users don't have networked printers, printing wasn't considered a high priority for the initial release.
Apple releases new features carefully (see: copy and paste), which is often a nuisance but usually results in a better experience in the long run.
iWork, My Oh My
The sheer visual appeal of the iWork suite leads me to a few conjectures.
First, iWork.com (still in beta) had better be ready for a significant number of new subscribers. I'd never visited the site, although I was vaguely aware of it; I think it'll be a popular tool for iPad users who also have a Mac and would like to edit documents on both computers.
I also think that iDisk and MobileMe may get more of a workout for similar reasons. Since performance of Apple's cloud solutions has been an issue in the past, I sincerely hope that their new massive data center in North Carolina is up to the task of serving millions of iPad users.
Accessories, Accessories, Wherefore Art Thou Missing?
Availability of accessories will, I think, also be an issue. Typing extended documents in Pages will be much more pleasant with a keyboard, but the keyboard dock won't be shipped until mid-April.
I could use my case to prop up the iPad for my existing bluetooth keyboard, but the case isn't due to ship until the 3rd, which means a few days (at least) of case-less iPad work.
Where's Calendar?
I firmly believe that the calendar and contacts applications will be big hits on the iPad, yet there are no guided tours for those.
Both applications need a back-end service to take best advantage of their features, and I wonder whether Apple is concerned about getting too many people interested in MobileMe before the data center opens.
Or perhaps it's simply a lack of time/resources/desire to create more videos.
iBook, Therefore I Am
Before my iPod, I rarely bought music[1], but that changed very quickly once I had easy access to $.99 songs. I suspect the iPad will similarly impact my book buying habits.
Today, I use the library for most books, and the rest are usually purchased from used book stores.
Particularly if good technical (O'Reilly? Please?) and reference books are readily available in the iBookstore, I can see myself acquiring the purchasing habit. Just one or two novels a month bought online would dramatically increase my current intake of fiction (unless you count re-reading the Harry Potter books a few times too many).
And if self-publishing is easy enough, what could this do for the poetry world? (I don't want to think about how awful self-published novels could clutter up the iBookstore, just as the App Store is increasingly burdened with subpar software.)
The Future
I really hoped that the iPad would bring a micropayment system to newspapers and magazines: while I appreciate free content, I would be eager to help keep vibrant journalism alive by paying a few cents (or more than a few) for every Economist or Atlantic Monthly article I read. (This is the year I finally subscribe to the Economist, I swear.)
Please, Apple, will you make my dreams come true? I'm sure you're getting burnt out on trying to get media publishers to let you sell their wares at reasonable rates, but this is another fight worth waging. It's time to help the news world recover from their free-content-induced hangover.
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