Posted by The Blogging Desk on Wed, Jan 19, 2011
The next iPad is coming. What do you want it to have?
More importantly, what do I want it to have?
If you believe the heavy stream of rumors flowing into my Google Reader, it seems that there will be a Retina Display-ish upgrade happening to the LCD. Will it be as good as an iPhone 4, or even the slightly less quality iPod touches? (Slightly lower quality only to supernerds, really.) I’m totally fine with an upgrade to the LCD. I’m even fine with this upgrade shaving off a few hours of battery. I mean, who cares? I can go at least a week without having to charge my iPad. A week! And that’s on heavy usage. I’ve gone two weeks on light usage without having to look at the battery. Will an upgraded resolution mean I have to charge it every six days? Oh, darn!
When I saw those mockups with an SD card slot, I nearly spit out my green tea that hip people drink these days. I mean, I had to change my pants.
I take many photographs. Lately, they’ve mostly been of my son. When I use my S90 I need to plug in the Camera Connection kit to transfer them. It would be beyond ideal for the next iPad to have an SD slot. One one hand, it seems very un-Apple like to add another slot to the iPad. But, this tablet is unlike anything they’ve ever sold before. I firmly believe many iPad users take photos and throw them onto their iPad. I even edit mine right on the iPad before loading them to Flickr.
If the next model is packing an updated screen, this thing is going to need a healthy upgrade in the RAM department. The multitasking upgrade was stellar, but it can totally drag the iPad down if you’re going from new app to new app.
What about some extended enterprise support? Apple has said that 80% of the Fortune 500 have started an iPad deployment in their business. That's insane. Hey, Microsoft, instead of slapping Windows 7 on a tablet, why not have your Mac team work on some Office apps for all those men and women carrying around an iPad? I know Andrew Levin and his OneNote seed money would love a native app.
Come April, I’d love to see a Retina Display upgrade, a healthy amount of RAM, and an ever so glorious SD slot. I’m willing to sacrifice a few hours to battery to make that happen.
Wouldn’t you?
You bet your green tea you would. If you're thinking about deploying the iPad or any other tablet to your small to mid-sized business, be sure to let us know so we can make the process as smooth as possible.
