So how does iPad Specs compare with the Xoom and HP Touchpad? But is it even relevant?

OK – clearly there is a theme this week on BB – but iPad 2 is big news. Now that Steve’s reality distortion field has died down, we can start objectively looking at the iPad, and see how it stacks up against the flood of other competitors recently released. There are a few notable ones – the Motorola Xoom, which is built on Android 3.0 Honeycomb, and HP’s recently announced Touchpad based on the brilliant looking WebOS interface. There is also the Blackberry Playbook which was announced in September 2010, and is also not close to being manufactured yet. Details like release date, storage and cost is still scarce for the Playbook, so I am not seeing it as a competitor as yet.

As of now the iPad still compares favourably if you look purely at hardware specification, except for one glaring ommision. Memory. The previous iPad had 256MB, and then the iPhone4 got released with 512MB, so its pretty safe to assume it would have at least 512MB. Right? Looking at the competitors it might be beneficial if the device arrives with 1GB, especially with iPad’s big push into gaming.
But why is this even important?
Steve Jobs made a few interesting points during his keynote – he claimed these devices now constitute the “Post-PC” era. We are not interested anymore what is on the inside – do you really think the average person who bought an iPad above a Galaxy Tab did so because of what was inside the device? No – they bought it for ease of use, the range of apps, and the overall experience when using the iPad. Not all people bought it for the Apple logo, they bought it for what it enables: anytime simple computing, for people who are tired of computers. Face it – we should not be worrying about things like filesystems, corrupt documents, compatibility, virusses etc. These are all things that should be in history books of computing.
Now sure – there are some of us that would always base our decisions on what inside our hardware. When I buy a PC this is very important. But with post-PC devices it should be all about the experience. Now I realise than Android fans would obviously go for the Xoom tablet, people like the idea that their powerful hardware is capable of something in future. “Think about how great it would be if one day Android apps can use all that horsepower!” But therein lies the rub – the iPad can do amazing things right NOW. Just look at the new Garageband and iMovie software. These apps have taken traditional apps we use on our Macs and made them even better to use on the iPad. Now sure – you can argument that these apps are not possible without adequate horsepower inside. But the thing is people just dont care about that. They see the cool looking app on the iPad, and then go grab it in the appstore. Thats it.
If Apple can keep their price lower than the competitors, users will flock to the iPad in droves. After all – that is what is happening with Android Smartphones.
Curiously I think WebOS looks like a better competitor to the iPad. Sure it will probably take a long time to build the application base, and HP has a massive task to convince developers to get on board. But WebOS is simply stunning – the way multitasking is implemented is so good, that RIM decided to copy it for their upcoming Playbook. The interface is smooth and powerful without intimidating the user – even better than the current “grid of icons” look of iOS.
So do these specs matter? The fans of Android (who are arguably more technical) would still not love the iPad, but everyone else just do not care. They just care if the experience is good, and the price is right. Ask the 15 million who bought them so far.
 
Source of Grid: Laptop mag