PS3 Informer

Apple iPad Has Potential, Needs Large Installed Base

Apple today finally lifted the veil on its highly anticipated iPad tablet PC. We aren't huge fans of the product's name, but we are definitely excited by the gaming potential of the device. At only half an inch thick and about 1.5 lbs in weight, the iPad fits somewhere in between the iPhone and a traditional notebook PC. It prominently features a bright 9.7 inch, multitouch screen and accelerometers just like those found in the iPhone. It can reportedly run iPhone apps and games, either in native resolution or in hardware scaled double pixel resolution to better fit the larger screen. Game developers can also make use of the higher resolution for iPad apps using the new Apple SDK just released today. The prospect of higher-resolution games has us salivating, because one of the major drawbacks of touch gaming on the smaller screen is that our fingers block out the action.

It is interesting that Apple has given developers the option of targeting one or the other device using the same basic SDK. This poses an interesting dilemma for game developers: do you make software exclusively for the lower-resolution iPhone, which can reach a larger market, or do you scale your project up for the more powerful iPad hardware, at a potentially higher development cost?

We expect to see some cool gaming products for the iPad, provided that it catches on with consumers. No developer will spend the extra development cost to create higher-definition assets if the installed base remains fractional compared to the more compact iPhone.

Apple iPad features:

• 1 GHz Apple-made A4 chip.

• 9.7 inch color multi-touch display.

• Price is $499 for 16 gigabytes of storage, $599 for 32 GB, $699 for 64 GB.

• 3G wireless capability costs an extra $130.

• Optional AT&T data plan costs $14.99 per month for 250 MB of data, $29.99 for unlimited data.

• 10 hours of battery life, and a month on standby.

• 0.5 inches thick, weighs 1.5 lbs (0.68 kg).

• New iBook store allows users to purchase e-books from major publishers.

• Built-in compass and accelerometers.

• Compatible with all existing iPhone apps.

• WiFi models ship in late March, 3G shipping in April.

Steve Jobs demonstrates the new Apple iPad on stage.