Behold the iPad

It’s official: the iPad is finally among us. This past Saturday, Apple released their long-anticipated tablet device that couples the touch-screen features, extensive App Store, and movie-star good looks of their iPhone and iPod Touch line of devices with a larger form. With its smaller form factor and portability, it’s safe to say that the iPad is gunning for the netbook market, where PC manufacturers have been emphasizing portability and lower price points over performance. The device is truly an all- in-one, offering a robust feature set similar to an iPod Touch, including access to the diverse iTunes storefront, movies, gaming, music, and online features like a web browser and email support, benefiting from more screen real-estate.

When it comes to gaming on the iPhone, one of the main issues that people have with the device is one of its most primed features: the touchscreen. Gaming on the iPhone is an experience unlike any other around due to this, but unfortunately playing on the iPhone can be a very cramped experience. As your hands are effectively taking up a portion of the screen as you try to control your character/car/avatar/what have you, it can make keeping tabs on the on-screen action difficult to say the least. For gamers with bigger hands, this issue can be exacerbated quite a bit. The iPad seems to rectify this issue simply by virtue of being much larger. The device offers up a gorgeous 9.7” backlit display capable of displaying a 1024×768 resolution, roughly 720p resolution in HDTV-talk. Like the iPhone before it, the iPad features a built-in accelerometer, allowing you to play certain games utilizing the tilt functions, which come in handy for racing games and other genres.

Since the device launched on Saturday, there has already been some big-name support from gaming publishers. Companies like Capcom, NAMCO BANDAI, Activision and EA Games have already released both original titles and updates of successful iPhone games on the system, including entries to the Resident Evil franchise, Need for Speed, Metal Gear Solid, Call of Duty, and several other big name titles. Each of these has been updated to support the device’s higher resolution, looking sharper and cleaner than iPhone games would on the device.

There are a few caveats to be had when it comes to purchasing an iPad. For starters, if this device is in fact meant to go up against netbooks, it comes in at an awfully high-price point. Starting at $499 for the base model (with only Wi-Fi and 16GB of storage) and going all the way up to $829 for a 64GB unit with Wi-Fi and 3G support sans-contract through AT&T, iPads aren’t really on the low end of bargain PCs. Additionally, the unit is lacking in several features, including Flash, which would make surfing the web not as complete as an experience as many users would hope. Flash games are unplayable on the device, bringing its vaunted capabilities as a true gaming device down a peg.

Additionally, the device is essentially locked into Apple’s official App Store. Downloading Apps from elsewhere is not possible on the iPad, and while the store is as complete an online portal as you’ll find, offering a huge array of movies, music, and programs for download, the walled garden approach is troubling for those looking for a more complete experience out of their tablets.

The iPad is still brand new, and judging by Apple’s actions with their iPod and iPhone lines, there will obviously be some modifications and updates as the device gets older. However, as it stands, the iPad is already a success for Apple, with launch numbers around the 300,000 sold mark and roughly a million iPad Apps downloaded in just the few days that the device was made available. Additionally, any possible revolutions that Apple and game developers have lined up for the system will have to wait, as at the moment the majority of big titles being released for the system are simple higher-definition updates of existing iPhone games at a slightly higher price. However, as a nascent gaming device, there is a lot of promise in the iPad, which we will hopefully see come to fruition in the coming months.