Apple has announced that due to unanticipated demand for the iPad in the U.S. (and also manufacturing problems) the April international release of the iPad has been postponed to late May.
I was going to buy an iPad for my parents this month, but now with the postponement, I will delay my purchase until, at least July and first see what the iPod Touch upgrade will look like in June. I might even skip the first version of the iPad because of Google's announcement...
When Google announced that they would open source the video codec from On2, I began having second thoughts about buying an iPad (or, at least, the limited usefulness of the current iPad). H264 decoding is done in hardware by the iPad, so if Apple accepted the codec, it would need to design a new asic to handle it.
If Apple announces their acceptance before next Spring (when iPad 2 will be released), then the current iPad becomes obsolete for playing video as most of the internet will move to the Google codec which will become the standard.
Something which was a foregone conclusion before yesterday, now becomes very complex when the near future is taken into consideration.
I was looking at least 5 years (approx. $100/year) of use for my iPad (Apple prefers 2.5 years before it's "not supported"). If Apple decides to postpone choosing an alternative code for another 2 years, it's still not enough of an incentive for me to buy and iPad.
Alternatively, Apple could also support both the H264 and the Google codec in hardware. That is a possibility which makes my iPad purchase more palatable.
And yes, I know I'm breaking rule no.1 of not buying first generation Apple products— I wasn't expecting to pay that heavy a price (namely quick obsolesence), though.
I was going to buy an iPad for my parents this month, but now with the postponement, I will delay my purchase until, at least July and first see what the iPod Touch upgrade will look like in June. I might even skip the first version of the iPad because of Google's announcement...
When Google announced that they would open source the video codec from On2, I began having second thoughts about buying an iPad (or, at least, the limited usefulness of the current iPad). H264 decoding is done in hardware by the iPad, so if Apple accepted the codec, it would need to design a new asic to handle it.
If Apple announces their acceptance before next Spring (when iPad 2 will be released), then the current iPad becomes obsolete for playing video as most of the internet will move to the Google codec which will become the standard.
Something which was a foregone conclusion before yesterday, now becomes very complex when the near future is taken into consideration.
I was looking at least 5 years (approx. $100/year) of use for my iPad (Apple prefers 2.5 years before it's "not supported"). If Apple decides to postpone choosing an alternative code for another 2 years, it's still not enough of an incentive for me to buy and iPad.
Alternatively, Apple could also support both the H264 and the Google codec in hardware. That is a possibility which makes my iPad purchase more palatable.
And yes, I know I'm breaking rule no.1 of not buying first generation Apple products— I wasn't expecting to pay that heavy a price (namely quick obsolesence), though.
