Top 10 Reasons I’m NOT Buying an Apple iPad

Being a gadget fanatic, I found myself counting down the days until the  Apple Announcement on January 27th. Though this was meant to be a super secret project, we had a hunch the announcement was the Apple Tablet. After watching the iPad presentation by Steve Jobs, I was admittedly amazed by this device. I saw the eBook implementation, gaming possibilities and the sexy design.

However, the more I looked into this device, the more I’ve been disappointed. If I were to buy this device, It would need it to solve a problem or to take the place of both my laptop and iPod Touch. Unfortunately, for me it would just be an addition I really can’t nor want to afford. Take a look at the technical specification of the iPad.

Here are the top 10 reasons I won’t buy this device until prices drop or improvements are made.

10. No kickstand, keyboard or mouse included – Why Apple doesn’t include a kickstand is beyond me other than the obvious reason…$$$ for accessories. The device isn’t small enough to fit into your hand like an iPod. Sure, I can buy a kickstand, but dropping another $30 to $50 isn’t too appealing to me. The touch technology is amazing, but I prefer to use a keyboard while having an option to use a mouse.

9. No SD Card Support – This surprised me. Since all of our digital photos are typically captured on SD Cards, this is just another pain. Guess what, my laptop has a SD Card reader built in. To make this happen with an iPad, you’d have to buy an external SD Card Reader.

8. No built-in Camera – No camera means no Skype. I can Skype with my family using my laptop, but would lose this feature with the iPad. Guess we need to buy an external webcam.

7. No 16:9 widescreen video support - With the sexy design of the iPad, you’d think we would have widescreen support, but not so.

6. No HDMI – Now this is just getting ridiculous. I currently use a HDMI to HDMI cable to connect my laptop to my television. No HDMI port would have me looking for other options.

5. $150 more for devices with 3G Capability – Ok, paying more for a device that has 3G is acceptable if you’re paying for the data (i.e. The Kindle). However, take a look at my number one reason to share my disgust.

4. Lack of storage space – The biggest device has 64GBs of storage. My laptop has 300 GBs and I already have 80 GBs tied up.

3. No Flash – How is this a better browsing experience if you can’t watch Flash videos or access content that requires Flash? I accept this with my smartphone, but not with a device that I’d consider potentially replacing my laptop with.

2. No Multi-tasking – Perhaps the biggest disappointment. You can only run 1 application at a time. Bummer!

1. 3G Dataplan costs $15 for 250mb or $30 for unlimited data with AT&T - Total deal breaker for me. I already pay a monthly data fee for my Motorola Droid with Verizon. Having a Wi-fi only device doesn’t fulfill my needs and since this device doesn’t have a built in phone, you need a phone. Paying an extra $150 just to have 3G capability, then shelling out another $15 or $30 a month for the data plan is undesirable to me. On top of that, you have to use the AT&T’s 3G network.

Obviously this device will be popular with MAC fans or those who have some money to burn for something new and cool. However, it’s really not too practical for the rest of us. It’s not really a solution, but primarily just something cool for us to play with and show off. If you buy this device, you’ll still need to have a phone, you’ll still probably need to have a computer (depending on your computing needs) and you’ll probably still want to hold onto your iPod rather than fill this device up with your music. I’ll hold off until next Christmas, when hopefully the prices drop and they implement multi-tasking and flash. What are your thoughts on the iPad?