Apple has announced its pricing for the iPad, with the Wi-Fi only version priced at $499 for 16GB, $599 for 32GB and $699 for the largest 64GB model.
The iPad comes with built in 3G connectivity for US customers, priced at 250Mb/month for $14.99, and unlimited for $29.99, plus free Wi-Fi in AT&T hotspots. International deals are to be announced in June 2010, but let’s hope we get something a little less pricey than those figures.
The 3G-enabled version of the iPad retails for an extra $130 each, giving you prices of $629 for 16GB, $729 for 32GB and $829 for the largest 64GB model.
How all this will convert into UK prices isn’t clear yet but us hard-done Brits can usually expect to pay more than a straight dollar exchange rate when it comes to US tech products.
Wrapping up the presentation, Steve Jobs showed a neat, add-on physical keypad, which also doubles up as a screen protector – something that would be pretty much essential if you’re looking to do a decent amount of typing on the thing.
Here’s Apple’s Steve Jobs summing up the iPad:
WiFI plus 3G if you want it. So iPad. It’s phenomenal. Email is fantastic, best device for photos, great for music, great for video. It runs almost all of the 140k apps on the app store, as well as a whole new generation of apps
Our reaction
Our initial reaction is that we’re a little underwhelmed after all the hype.
Sure, it looks better than any netbook we’ve ever seen, but we’re finding it hard to find what niche this is going to fill in our lives.
For portable emailing and web browsing, we’ve got our iPhones, and for knocking out large amounts of text, a cheap £200 netbook will do the job just fine.
With the iPad offering no memory card slot, it wont be so hot for quickly backing up photos when were on the move, and seeing as it can’t run industry standard programs like Photoshop, it looks like we’ll still need to pack our netbook or small laptop when we’re out on assignment.
….looks for new mortgage deal.
PHOTOS! how the hell do I get photos from the LX3 onto an iPad? Can there be an iPad-usb interface?
I think it is a little unfair to use the term “after all the hype”, since Apple have kept tight lipped about this product, and it is the media who have been going on about it so much. Like most products, it meets a certain need, if you are using Photoshop, you will probably be carrying a MacBook Pro 15″ with you, so wouldn’t use a little netbook with it’s pathetic 600 pixel high screen anyway, would you?
This is an absolutely phenomenal product, which serve a particular purpose and meets a particular need, but it seems to me that all the tech bloggers out there are going to slag it off because it doesn’t do absolutely everything under the sun!
I think it’s fabulous, and I think that just like the iPhone, other companies will start trying to make products that compete with it, and that just like the iPhone, those other companies won’t get it quite right, and the iPad will continue to be the benchmark by which other similar products are measured.
Just by the way…. does anyone actually use Photoshop these days? Really? Seriously? I thought so.
@Nick Lee
Nick: just about anyone in the graphics business will have used Photoshop. It’s an industry standard.
It also works just fine on a netbook too.
@Nick Lee
Hi Nick. What need is this actually meeting? What does this do that a netbook doesn’t?
Nick Lee “Just by the way…. does anyone actually use Photoshop these days? Really? Seriously? I thought so.” Nick, what planet are you from. Most things you see advertised have been through Photoshop, including almost every photo.
Mike s – Photoshop will run on a decent netbook but with major lag problems. I use a dual core/2gig mem high end laptop for out of home editing and I can honestly say I still get performance issues when creating images. My quad core 8gig desktop (the bad boy as I call it!) however, runs it pretty sweet! Just hope it runs PS CS5 smoothly when she’s released!
P – The ipad is just super sexy and gracefully executed. Your basic netbook will probably do alot more than the ipad can and will hold no limitations on adding software and music ect. Apples only downfall on this and the iphone is the limited “you have to buy and install what they allow” policy.
Could you imagine the iphone and ipad looking and working like this but with a pc’s “do and add what you want” abilties!!!!! That would be ground breaking!
I think that there is room in the market for an Apple “netbook” for want of a better word, and it seems to me that this is Apple’s take on the field. It’s cheap, it does a lot of the things that people use a netbook to do, and it’s an Apple product so it’s reliable, virus free, and a joy to use.
Who knows, maybe a version of Photoshop will be developed for the iPad. But it’s a question of the right tool for the right job. Someone who wants to work on Photoshop is less likely to use a netbook with a small display than a conventional laptop. I know that a netbook is technically capable of running it but since you can’t watch HD video on most netbooks, I guess using photoshop wouldn’t be a very good experience.
This product will meet the requirements of someone who wants a web browser, ebook reader, and email client. It will do a bunch of other stuff too of course, but it’s not a replacement for a computer and I don’t think it’s supposed to be. It’s something intended to augment your computing experience, and even someone in the graphics business would be able to make use of it to great effect, even if they can’t run Photoshop on it.
To be honest, I don’t give a toss about what it can do as a ‘laptop smart phone hybrid’ because frankly, a pc gets the job done (and might I add I don’t have to pay extra just to seem more trendy and have the ability to install Linux if m$ pisses me off too much). However I am interested in whether it can be used as a graphics tablet with a computer, because I have been looking for an LCD tablet for a while so I can use them on my university projects, but those are ludicrously expensive. But as an Iphone owner I know Apple to be totalitarian software/hardware overlords, I wouldn’t be surprised if this feature (which to me seems like a no brainer as a selling point) is completely left out.
“Steve Jobs showed a neat, add-on physical keypad, which also doubles up as a screen protector”
Don’t most netbooks already have such a thing?!
OK, being a bit cynical there!
I’m the kind of customer that Steve Jobs would love – very tech savvy and likes the official updates and apps and even pays to get my 32gb 3gs PAYG model unlocked – yup as if I havent paid enuff up front yet I am still happy with my iphone and can’t wait to see what the next update brings. Having said this, I am simply dull & lacking when in comes to the ipad – what a waste! I mean how about adding an inexpensive wall projector to it – no, scrub that & put it on the iphone 4g instead as id lov to have my documents displayed on the blank white walls at work and pics at home! I have a quad core laptop which is hd & bluray and has all the associated trimmings like heaps of ram and looks fab but why id want an ipad – i still cant see anyone else convinced let alone myself. well, who knows maybe it will take off once they start shipping below the magic 100GBP mark. This is the only fair price I cna see for the ibrick/iflop/islab. sorry steve not for me!
@Nik lee
who told that the other companies will follow apple in that thing.
however,I think that there are many of such product in the market long time ago we call them UMPC many of them with MS windows platform (and many of other platforms of course)so how can you believe that the other companies will follow Apple in someting that is already exist.
Apple fanboys used to assume that all the thigs on the plane was invented by Apple and they ignore all the products around, and if one of apple products miss one feature they will tell us that it is not useful and who will need this or that feature like bluetooth file transfer in the 1st generation of iPhone.
so would you please stop such lies.