I admit it. I decided to buy that darn Apple tablet before I even knew what it was priced at. I’m as susceptible to Apple’s marketing tactics as the next guy. But am I the ideal audience for this class of personal hardware? As a software developer? As a business person? Not really.
From what I can tell right now, the Apple iPad is the perfect device for those who have lighter computing needs, or will serve as a companion device that covers the majority of your needs outside of the office -- books, magazines, movies, music, email, web surfing, and games. It is a great lifestyle device and Steve Jobs’ pricing strategy makes it clear he wants this to be a device for everyone. The possible competing hardware has a narrower audience. Netbooks for instance, I see more as an economical and light laptop alternative for students and business travelers who need to run PC software. The Kindle and other eReaders are uni-taskers. No, the iPad is in its own class right now. Finally, we have a device for the glossy, full page, magazine style ad experience. We don’t expect advertisers will want to run simple banners here.
Crisp Wireless has been anticipating new classes of devices -- and their new audiences -- as part of our product planning initiatives for Rich Media Ad Unit technology. Our innovative ad unit design concepts and ad rendering scripts work great on Android, iPhone and many other devices. And we’ve done this work to date to fit within the CPU constraints and screen limitations of these smaller super-smart phone devices.
Enter the Apple iPad: Mobile Safari + 1 GHz Apple 'A4' CPU + gorgeous 9.7-inch IPS LCD display. It is a great device for rich media advertising. Both in apps and on the web, the device has what it needs to be fully compatible with our products. Apple decided to leverage largely the same resource efficient operating system for the iPad as what runs on the iPhone. I believe this was necessary to get to the 10 hour battery life. And because our products are well tested on the iPod Touch and iPhone, we can already make accurate predictions about the iPad compatibility.
The following is a summary of the new products and capabilities Crisp Wireless will be offering on the iPad:
Yes, that’s pretty much the same offering as for Android and iPhone, but that’s what we are all about. Our dynamic and cross platform approach to creating mobile software works across multiple devices. We leverage Javascript and HTML5 to its fullest to detect, render and optimize a platform independent end-user experience. And once the iPad ships (with the promising CPU specs of this device), we will be able to push the limit further than ever.
Adobe Flash is still absent from this device and that's too bad. I don't think the argument about the device not having the CPU power to pull it off is going to stick any longer. Without waiting for Apple, we are working to solve this. Stay tuned!
If you have questions about the advertising possibilities on this or any other device, feel free to contact us.