Should You Pre-Order an iPad? (Yahoo SmartMoney.com)

Another soon-to-be-released contender, Notion Ink’s Adam, “is probably closer to what the second-generation iPad will be than what the iPad currently is,”…

Notion Ink Adam Apple iPad

Ouch! I’d hate to fork out $499 on an obsolete media consumption device. That’s how I see Apple’s new iPhone on steroids. And what’s with the premium $180 for the 3G feature? You get more value from Adam at a starting price of $327 (WiFi and 3G included).

Adam vs. iPad

Looks like the Adam is gearing to be a real productivity tool, not just a more expensive way to read NY Times for the chichi kaffeeklatsch crowd. Even then, as a purely entertainment medium (unless you consider emailing to be work), iPad’s lack of support for Flash videos is a big bummer, no matter how much Steve Jobs bitches about those sloths at Adobe and how buggy the format is.

Compared on specs alone, the Adam blows the iPad out of the water… The biggest thing I’m concerned about at this point is that the Adam runs on Android – and I’m not yet convinced that Android has been optimized for a tablet experience. That said, Notion Ink says other OSes will eventually run on the tablet, including Chromium, Ubuntu and other Linux builds.

(from “notion ink adam price, specs beat ipad, but not release date”, technabob.com)

I like the idea of the open source platform–it encourages more innovation and free enterprise. Steve Jobs and Apple are about directing every aspect of the user’s experience with their devices, which feels alienating to their owners. Just look at what happened with the Google Voice app.

Apple has rejected Google’s official Google Voice app, as well as several applications, developed by third parties, that replicate the functionality of Google Voice on Apple’s devices.

Technology commentators have accused Apple of “stifling innovation”, while developers have expressed dismay at the ban imposed on their apps.

…the ongoing confusion surrounding Apple’s app approval process could lead to developers abandoning the iPhone platform, and instead focus on producing games and software for rival devices, such as Google Android-based handsets and the Palm Pre. “Apple is now actively stifling innovation,” …

(from telegraph.co.uk)

Apple will dam every spigot that leads the consumer away from how they envision their products ought to be used. It is clear that they manage the iTunes store like despots of a banana republic. I think the future is with the open platform, not the control freaks.

Kudos to Rohan Shravan, the diminutive CEO-geek of the Hyderabad, India-based firm behind Adam. I hope this beamish boy slays Apple’s Jabberwockian boondoggle.