During the past months tech media have widely speculated about features of the upcoming Apple Tablet, which was fun to follow and participate in. My guess was the most compelling features would be in connecting to device to the supply chain: connecting to content and connecting to the data network. And although most of the keynote was about content, although there is a new iBook Store and although there actually is unlocked 3G connectivity, with hindsight I think I was wrong. The iPads most compelling feature is hardcore tech: a custom made processor.
Dealing with power consumption
One of the problems of portable computers has always been power consumption, leading to compromise in one direction or another. Laptops have relatively powerful processors and relatively large screens so they need large batteries and come in heavy. Smartphones are lightweight but have small screens and far less processing power. So depending on the purpose of the device manufacturers would either accept shorter battery-life, more weight, replaceable batteries…
For different uses different compromises would be chosen. A gaming device needs a great screen and fast responses but you’re not likely to use it all day so you can compromise on battery life. A smartphone needs a battery that lasts the whole day and for that reason it can not match the processing power of a gaming device. The newest category of devices, eReaders like the Kindle, has once again a different balance in the power consumption game. An eReader has a large high definition screen and a long lasting battery, but the screen is slow and grayscale which makes it ideal for book reading, not for gaming.
For the industry this isn’t a bad thing, they can sell consumers different devices for different purposes. Salesmen can spend their time which choice from their large assortment would match which need. And consumers, used to having a large range of tools for different purposes, don’t complain about that.
iPad is about performance
Now it becomes clear why we had to wait so long for the iPad. Steve Jobs wasn’t going to accept compromise. He wanted a responsive device with a colorful screen and a long battery life. And on top of that it had to be mass-produced for a very competitive price. He wanted something that was virtually impossible from a technical point of view. So the Apple engineers have been forced to optimize over and over again.
The result is a device with graphics and responsiveness suited for gaming and a 10 hour battery life. No more compromise, the iPad is competitive with gaming devices, eReaders, netbooks. It is competitive if you compare on a one on one basis but it becomes even more compelling if you realize it can replace several devices.
Apple achieved this performance gain by optimizing both hardware and software. Amazingly, despite accusations of secretiveness, Apple has been quite open about its design principles. It has done a lot of research about parallel computing resulting in open standards like Open CL en Grand Central Dispatch. No doubt A4 is some kind of multi-core RISC processor, optimized to accommodate these standards. But even while Apple has been relatively open about its design principles, the competition always sneered at them saying Apple was betting on the wrong horse. So it is not very likely the iPad performance can be matched by any competitor soon.
3G connectivity
When the iPhone came out I was hugely disappointed it was tied with exclusive contracts to a single carrier per country. In the discussions that followed I had to learn the American cellphone market works differently from the European. In Europe, due to GSM standard, SIM cards and regulation, phones can relatively easy be ported from one carrier to another. In America, due to different standards, ties between hardware and a carrier are much stronger. Still, criticism in America over the exclusive Apple – AT&T contract slowly grew. So I hoped, with the introduction of the iPad, Apple would make a bold movement.
Apple actually is moving, but rather carefully than boldly. Rather than leaving AT&T they seem to have conducted some tough negotiations and have ended up with an attractive deal. Given the current situation in the American market this is probably a wise thing to do. Apple is very clear it still has a partnership with AT&T and AT&T is the preferred supplier of 3G connectivity.
At the same time the 3G iPads are offered unlocked at unsubsidized prices without a data plan. It will probably very easy to activate an AT&T data plan. But any customer has complete freedom to connect his/her iPad to any 3G supplier anywhere in the world. And that – I think – is a very fortunate development.