The new Apple iPad. Down the rabbit hole.

For the company that innovates and user experience into new realms, I am excited to see where this product goes. While Apple’s tablet is not the first tablet, it is the first forward thinking tablet.

The general consumer seeks simplicity, ease of use, and a utility aspect that justifies buying a product of a certain price point. Although .mp3 players existed before the iPod, it was Apple that made bringing your music with you into a utility. When the iPhone took stage, cell phones went from getting smaller to getting smarter, utility fulfill the things you need to do. Now Apple has made the iPad, something that is very similar, but steered towards the home environment.

Where will we go with this?

Instead of thinking of what we will be doing with this new device, think about what will be eclipsed by it. When introduced into the home environment, the market of non-development people who only use computers to check their emails, listen to music, surf social networks, access their documents and calenders, watch movies, and fumble around with their photos might find what they like in this compact tablet.

Also, let us not forget that you will be able to access 3g Internet on certain versions of it (when set up with AT&T or the future carriers). So say good bye to Comcast or wired Internet. Take your $30 a month Internet with you, whenever you leave your home. There has also been talk of tethering, so if you have a computer at home you can share your Internet connection to whatever you have at home.

What can’t the iPad do?

• Burn CD’s. Who honestly burns CD’s anymore? Mix tracks for your car?

• Store unlimited documents. Although the iPad can up to a 64gig hard drive, why not use google documents or cloud services? It’s safer and less of a hassle for your documents. If we are talking about your private selection of “movies”, you should try googling “streaming”, welcome to 2010.

• Play complex video games. Even with all the new game apps that will come out, why not get a gaming console? Use your TV for something better than Americas Next Top Model.

• Capable of using Photoshop, Flash, Maya and other processor killing programs. If you honestly hope to be doing extensive editing on the tablet, you are a moron. You most likely have have a monstrous computer with eight processors sitting in your house somewhere.

• Watch streaming video and porn on it. TBD

• Pirate music and movies. Illegal and fun, not a deal breaker. You can’t directly download pirated material, but you can transfer it from another computer.

It would be safe to assume that if you are considered a power computer user, actually using your computer for work (besides writing), the iPad is not your one stop shop. For anyone else, that is up for discussion.

The market of computers has had clear sides thus far, buffered by an odd gray area in between of computers that don’t fit on one specific side of the market. On the top side are the computers for power users. Those people who work and play games on their computers, pushing them to the limit of what they can handle. The goal is been faster, quality, better hardware. When people buy these huge desktops that can do anything, they accept that after paying so much money for quality, their computer will sit like a rock in their house and rack up a huge power bill. Also, the ability to update hardware easily becomes a negative because in the long run you pay more money.

On the lower side are netbooks and small notebooks for people who thrive on simplicity. These computers are cheap (both in cost and build), simple, truely portable, and have very long battery life. The downside is when buying these computers, it is all about the lesser evil. What are you fine with not being able to do, for the things that you can do?

Inside the gray area, for the people who have the money, are expensively fast computers that have power and portability. These are the computers that win awards because of all they can do, breaching both sides of the computer market. Only limited by how much they cost.

Into the gray area between comes Apple, with an interesting product that, although not targeted as a personal computing device, has the ability to refine personal computing into “specific computing” - computing that only gives you the tools to get the job done, and made effective by design and a lower price point. Essentially shaving off either side of the computer market into the gray area, and creating a new market the same way the iPod and iPhone once did.

Personally, the Apple iPad is entirely a gadget and not needed. But with every app available (on the App store) becomes a justifiable utility to get things done, the processing power is midrange, the user interface and design is fun, it has a very long battery life, it’s ultra portable, it has a vibe of forward thinking, and the price is fairly reasonable - it’s hard not to ask yourself two questions, “Will I buy one?” and if so, “How will it change the way I use computers?”