Jobs unveiled the first-generation iPad at the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco on January 27, 2010. Designed to fill the gap between smartphones and laptops, the original iPad featured a 9.7-inch LED-backlit multitouch display, Apple’s first custom designed chip, a 30-pin dock connector, and up to 64GB storage. With a starting price of $499, it offered users a new way to browse the web, read eBooks, watch videos, and interact with Apple’s growing app ecosystem. Jobs described it as “a magical and revolutionary device.”
I managed to wait until September of 2010 before buying my first iPad, and I have some photos of it on my desk at work from the time.
I get a kick out of seeing an old iPod in the background, attache to the Altec Lansing speaker dock I used at work. I wrote about my experience with it here.
The first iPad was a good bit of fun, although if you think feeling hamstrung by the OS is a limitation now, the original was really just a big iPod Touch. The criticism at the time was that it was just a “consumption” device, and couldn’t be taken very seriously because you couldn’t get much done with it. I got plenty of writing and email done with the first iPad, and every one after that, too, but it was not a laptop replacement. Things have gotten better, of course, but iPad’s still not a Mac.
The original iPad lasted me until the iPad 3 came out, which was a heavier device thanks to the Retina display. The original had, for me, been so RAM constrained that just reading a web page in Safari would often cause the app to crash. And unlike the Mac, the system didn’t give you a reason why.
I got the original Mini when it came out, too. Here’s a pic from the parking lot when I bought it, still in the box.
I’ve had a rotation of iPads since then: the original Air, a few pros, 10″ and 11″ and even 13″ models. While they’ve never been able to replace my Mac, I have always found a lot of use for them.