After the initial Apple iPad announcement I can say that I think that Apple needs to release two versions, an iPad and an iPad Pro. I have looked over quite a few tech blogs and through the pages of comments that people have posted in response to the new Apple product. I have not used the device in person so I cannot say anything from personal experience, just from the information that I have seen from the various tch blogs and the Apple site with it's information and videos. I do have an iPhone so I know that the basic experience would be. The general consensus is the the iPad, in it's current form, is best suited for a casual computer user while it lacks the features that would make it a viable purchase for a pro user.

A pro user in my opinion is someone, like me, who has multiple computers and does not just use them for web, videos and emails. The factors for this are as follows:

Multi-tasking
The iPad OS is a tweaked version of the iPhone OS. It had been rumored that the iPhone would gain multi-tasking abilities in it's next release. This may be true since the iPad is running iPhone OS 3.2 instead of iPhone 4.0, so multi-tasking might be a viable option in the near future. This is a pro user necessity that most casual users will not need. If someone is just using a computer to check their email or the news then what use would they need to have multiple windows or programs open at one time whereas a pro user would normally have several running at once. Usual pro users are doing multiple jobs at one time, be it coding web pages and having to jump to a browser to see how it looks or an artist using Photoshop and having multiple reference photos open.

iPad OS
Apple knows how to make a polished OS. All the features and little animations that Mac OSX and the iPhone OS use just adds to the whole package, but sometimes the polish needs a bit more function. The iPad OS, since it is running off of the iPhone OS, is a closed system, meaning that a user does not have full access to their files as they would on a desktop-class system. Whereas you could open My Documents or Macintosh HD and browse through your folders and manipulate them as you see fit, the iPad OS only allows you limited access to these files. Case in point would be photo management on the iPad or iPhone OS. When you have a photo opened you are only given a small amount of options as to what you can do with the image, whereas on a desktop-class OS you would have numerous options. One could say that the iPad is not a laptop or desktop and thus does not need a full fledged OS. I would say that they are correct if the iPad had been marketed as just an e-book reader or internet device instead of a netbook replacement. When the comparison to a netbook was made then the inevitable flaws would be revealed. Most netbooks will ship with either Windows XP or Windows 7 and allow you all the access that you would on a normal computer, while the iPad does not. This is the crux of why I think that the iPad should have two versions, one for someone that just needs an internet device and another that is for a person that wants an Apple tablet. The iPad also is a device that is dependent on a computer. One must synch up the device to a computer to transfer any music or information that they have on the computer that would be used on the iPad, and the opposite is true as well, any information from the iPad would need to be synched to the computer. The iPad OS is not fully independent from a computer.

Connectivity
The iPad comes with a myriad of wireless connections, but strangely almost no hardware connections. There is the normal 30-pin connector that is on every piece of Apple mobile devices and that is it. There is no USB port, display port or even an SD card reader. These functions are facilitated through adapters that you plug into the 30-pin connector. This is something that I think should have been looked at once again. Even a casual user would need to have access to at least an SD reader without having to use an adapter.

Aspect Ratio
The aspect ratio of the iPad is 4:3 or the same ratio as most tube TVs that we grew up with. 16:9 is the default widescreen ratio and what most media is sent in these days. HD TVs are 16:9, as well most laptop and desktop monitors. The 4:3 aspect makes viewing video in it's native ratio a surreal experience. Black letterbox bars are placed on the screen when not viewing a 4:3 ratio video or photo.

The irony of the situation is that the above reasons are why I and probably most pro users would not buy the iPad right now, but that if Apple resolves the first two or the second two and you could bring most people in. Fortunately the first two reasons are software based and can easily be fixed with an upgrade. The first generation of the iPhone had almost no features other than the phone, web and it's iPod function, but just after the second version of the OS, the phone exploded out in function and thus in popularity. The second two will probably have to wait for a hardware update sometime in the future. Apple is notorious for not changing hardware at a quick pace, so the hardware issues might be here for a while.

Through the comments and articles that have been written in response to the iPad announcement I can see that it resonated with people that were looking into getting an ebook reader such as the Kindle, but now for a little more could get more features and a color screen or someone that needed a cheap computer to check emails and surf the web. The iPad on the other hand failed to grab the pro users because it did not do enough, it was not the OSX experience in a touch and tablet form. I can see that Apple might bank on the casual set to buy the iPad en mass when it first is released, but since these people are not the tech-savvy or gadget craving group they will not be the ones that would buy the iPad v.2 or even v.3. One just has to look at most older adults that are not computer savvy, they are using computers that are almost ten years old because they see no need to upgrade. That is the reason I see that the iPad might become a niche device if Apple does not expand the features of the device. 3rd party developers can only do so much within the realm of the OS that Apple has allowed them.

I had been in the process of getting a netbook because I wanted to have a small laptop that had a good battery life for trips to see my family. I wanted to be able to pull out my Wacom Bamboo pad and draw while not having to hunt around for a power outlet. I also wanted one that had the graphics power, so I was looking into a netbook with a Nvidia ION chipset. I put the netbook on hold as I waited to see about the iPad. I might just have to wait a little longer to see where the iPad ends up.

So while the iPad is intriguing and my "new gadget" desire is strong, I will be on a wait and see position for the time being. The iPad has a lot of potential and only time will tell whether or not Apple can make the device something that will resonate with both casual and pro users.