Apple announced the iPad today and it’s a very compelling product. With a 10 inch touch screen, 10 hours of battery life (1 month of standby!), all 140,000 apps on the App Store available and other tech specs to make the geek in you drool. Gaming with your buddies, downloading publications through the new iBook store, watching Youtube at HD are all possible with this device. They are all activities that use boatloads of bandwidth, exactly what the overtaxed 3G networks of today need.
Who has Apple chosen to partner up with for this device? Well AT&T of course, haven’t they shown just how well their network handles user who use their mobile devices as intended? To top it all off the iPad comes with an “All you can eat” data plan for $29.95. I don’t understand how a company can, in good faith, make flat-rate offers on a network that cannot handle the traffic.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the iPad is a fantastic device. I think it can revolutionize everything from books to being a remote control for your on-line video library. However, this thing will live (and die) by the customer’s experience. If the network behind isn’t able to deliver then Apple might end up with a problem they can’t solve.
Towards the end of the announcement Apple said that the device will be unlocked for use on any 3G network. Maybe now other mobile networks will see how much pain this device can cause. I’d like to own a vendor that makes high-bandwidth mobile backhaul equipment 
.
Related posts:
- UK Mobile traffic set to explode?
- Mobile Network Evolution?
- Apple buys Quattro Wireless for $275 Million
