I’m already 100% bought in to the “Apple Way”.

Firstly, i’d like to point to a couple of neat things that people have been saying about the iPad.

Gruber nailed the hardware implications in his post:

Apple now owns and controls their own mobile CPUs. There aren’t many companies in the world that can say that. And from what I saw today, Apple doesn’t just own and control a mobile CPU, they own and control the hands-down best mobile CPU in the world. Software aside (which is a huge thing to put aside), it may well be that no other company could make a device today matching the price, size, and performance of the iPad. They’re not getting into the CPU business for kicks, they’re getting into it to kick ass.

Stephen Fry’s post can be boiled down to:

it’s not just a scaled up iPhone or a scaled-down multitouch enhanced laptop – it is a whole new kind of device.

Some of my peers have been skeptical on the impact of the tablet; It’s just a big iPod Touch to them. To me, this is another device that fits quite nicely into the way I run my computing experience. Most of them have no idea how the whole package fits together.

I’m already 100% bought in to the “Apple Way”. I’ve got an iPhone and an Apple TV. I’ve got a MacBook. I’ve even got a few Airport Express units. All of this stuff together allows me to have a pretty seamless experience across my home. The iPad will just add another layer to my setup.

Apple’s ecosystem extends beyond the ability to get content or have a snazzy device. It’s about how their whole media experience fits seamlessly into my computing. I can grab music from the store, copy over to my wife’s PC and then control which portions of the house it plays on using my iPhone. It’ll even play on my entertainment centre via my Apple TV.  Even the DRM on TV and Movies is unnoticeable to me, as I only have media devices that support FairPlay. Even my non-DRM cd rips are supported across the entire setup. It’s not even too hard to let my friends play their iTunes music over my speakers, all without cables.

The iPad probably isn’t as compelling a device for somebody that runs a Microsoft household, but even PCs will run iTunes, which gives you a gateway to this awesome way to run your media.

The iPad already has access to many of the applications that I’d like to use in a tablet platform

From a software perspective, I think that the decision to have the device run the iPhone OS rather than full blown OSX is a great move. The tablet is first and foremost a mobile device; by forcing the iPad into the same category as the iPhone and iPod Touch, Apple is ensuring that the expectations for the device remain clear – it’s not a replacement for your laptop and you’re not going to be able to run iMovie on it.

Using the App Store, the iPad already has access to many of the applications that I’d like to use in a tablet platform on the go. SSH, VNC and Remote Desktop clients are already on my iPhone, but will become much more usable on the bigger screen. Software developers will soon start to port applications that were previously impractical on the iPhone – They’ll be geared to run on a multitouch platform and scaled to the computing capacity of the device. I’m looking forward to apps like Coda, which would allow me to be productive without hauling around the MacBook that I use for heavy lifting.

I’ve also seen complaints about the hardware being underpowered. I’d agree if this was a desktop device, but it’s not. It’s got plenty of power for basic apps and browsing the web. I wholeheartedly agree with their decision to use custom silicon, as you get much more efficiency from using hardware designed to do a specific task. While I’m skeptical of their battery claims, there’s absolutely no way you’d get anywhere near those numbers if they’d used an off the shelf solution. The opportunities for power management are also better when you’ve got something that will only operate in spikes.

I’ll be ordering an iPad as soon as they’re available in Canada, and I look forward to the innovative things that the App Store developers will bring.