From iPhone to iPad

Apple's release of iPad over the 2010 Easter weekend created quite a stir.  One of my old friends, Derek, waited in line for his iPad outside of the Apple Store Valley Fair in Santa Clara.  He got high five's from about 50 Apple employees and free Starbucks coffee/water courtesy of Apple. It was chilly out there, but he got his new toy and a picture with Apple's co-founder Steve Wozniak.

300,000 iPads were sold over a weekend, and US sales went so well that the international release had to be postponed.  The Biongo Hotspot blog reported that in 4 days (click picture to see full story), iPad already exceeded Android, blackberry, and iTouch generating over 5% of non-PC Boingo WIFI traffic at the airports.  Of course, these numbers are sort of biased, since Andoids and Blackberries can get online via 3G, however, the fact that it already made a blip in 4 days is amazing.

So far, people are using it for reading, browsing, sharing pictures, music, and playing games. Beyond hard core technology geeks, it also appeals to wide range of people as it is light and portable.  The potentials for education market is immense, imagine consolidating all the text books into a device like an iPad.  It will have a huge impact to the backpack market and could hurt businesses for chiropractors (maybe they are already focusing on carpal tunnel instead of back pains).

Yes, there are of course many shortcomings in its first release and many other similar competing products will be released in the coming days.  Successful introduction of iPad validates my last post, that a general purpose, web connected App devices like iPhone, iPad, and Andoid will forever change our lives.