5 questions and answers about the iPad

Whatever your opinion on Apple’s iPad, you can’t argue that it’s received a staggering amount of hype, or maybe you can. Here are answers to five of the more interesting questions about this device:

1. Is it easy to use?

It is if you’re two years old:

2. How green is my iPad?

Not very. You’d have to read between 50 to 100 books on your device to “break even” according to this article by Daniel Goleman and Gregory Norris.

3. Will the iPad change the way sites are developed?

Yes, but these changes will follow trends established with the introduction of the iPhone. Because we’re dealing with touch screens, the most obvious best practice is to make navigation elements big enough for fingers to tap. There is one difference: when browsing the Web on the iPhone—or any handheld device, for that matter—users have learned to expect to find sites that are broken or render poorly. The iPad’s large screen, however, really makes mistakes—or areas containing unsupported Flash elements—stand out.

In fact, Apple has published a list of iPad-ready sites to showcase its new product.

4. But what about Apps? Will everything just become an App?

No. As long as there are PCs, laptops and other non-Apple handheld devices, there will be a need to maintain your Web presence and consider optimizing it for your mobile—and now your tablet—audience. However, the experience of a specifically-developed iPhone or iPad application should—if developed correctly—trump the experience of a site. But does your business need an App? It depends.  If you can offer an app that’s useful, entertaining, and/or something that can be used frequently, then an App might be worth considering.

5. Will it blend?

Maybe! For those of you who aren’t among the 4 million people who have already seen this, I won’t spoil it.