Just a quick aside before I get to the real article: Tim Schafer’s sleeper comedy Psychonauts is $2 on Steam as part of their usual Midweek Madness promotion. For that price, it might as well be selling on the app store.
Speaking of app stores, today Apple revealed its newest product: the iPad. The similarities to an iPod (Touch) go beyond mere graphemes: it’s a 9.7 inch touchscreen with wi-fi, optional 3G access, and accelerometers. The device has only one button and apparently should be able to run existing app store games with no modifications. That pretty much means that the iPad will subsume all the gaming applications of its little brother while offering a nicer screen.
The device is slated to come out in 16GB, 32GB, and 64GB capacities, though the price will vary by the optional networking. Wi-fi only devices will cost $499, $599, and $699, and 3G devices will run $629, $729, and $829.
An apple representative promised “another goldrush,” for app developers, though it’s hard to imagine how. Because the new iPad’s functionality so closely overlaps the iPod’s, it’s unclear what incredible consumer appetites or watershed development opportunities will drive the frenzy. Perhaps time (and marketing) will tell.
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Tags: Apple · ipad · ipod touch3 Comments
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I can’t figure the market for this device, but I’m sure that somehow, one will develop and it’ll be a smash hit like EVERYTHING ELSE Apple markets. I, for one, won’t mind. Soon I will be living in Star Trek; I always wanted a data pad like Captain Picard.
Okay, so these are shiny, and geeks like shiny things. But the idea that it will be another goldrush for app developers seems either like a) a lie, or b) that there has been complaining on the part of developers that the current iPod touch isn’t sufficient for their purposes. But unless they’ll let apps be exclusive to the iPad, which they may, I don’t see how developers benefit.
Maybe they were complaining that the iPod touch is just too damn portable.
Now that there has been some time for the hype machine to do its work, I’m actually surprised by the dearth of buzz for the device. The burden of proof falls on marketing, and they haven’t pulled it off.