Forget Apple's iPad, buy these gadgets instead

Jan 29, 2010, 02:55

Eoin Gleeson

Posted byEoin Gleeson

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Apple reduced a certain section of the male population to the status of dribbling wrecks this week with the release of the "endlessly anticipated" iPad. (Apple iPad: Jobs blows netbooks out of the water). Not quite a laptop. Not quite a phone. The iPad mostly resembles a bigger, shinier version of the iPhone.

Still, it's supposed to be the gadget everyone needs desperately to get their hands on this year.
 
"Everybody uses a laptop and a smartphone," a straight-faced Steve Jobs declared this week, "the question has arisen, lately, is there room for a device in the middle? We've questioned this for years."
 
You're not the only one, Steve! I can't tell you how many hours I've spent staring at my computer, then at my phone, trying to imagine what incredible device would come from marrying the two. And failing.
 
Thankfully, there are people who are far better than me at working out how to profit from tech gadgets.

Like Paul Hill. Last week, Paul wrote about the biggest tech event of the year - the Consumer Electronics Show. This is a mecca for anyone even remotely interested in consumer technology. And while everyone was talking about 3D television after the show, Paul picked seven smash hit gadgets that had escaped the media attention.
 
There was the AR drone. This flying toy, developed by French firm Parrot (Paris: PARRO), is about the size of a pizza and can hover almost motionlessly, propelled by four rotors and an on-board computer. Users steer the drones with iPhones, which act as remote controllers. A camera mounted on the AR drone sends a live video feed to the iPhone, meaning that you can see what the drone sees.
 
And the ShowWX Laser Pico Projector from Microvision (Frankfurt: MVI) - a pocket-size device that can connect to mobile phones, MP3-players or computers, and uses lasers to project a high-quality wide-screen image on to any surface. There has been an explosion in online video since the iPhone arrived. This gadget could really tap into that demand.
 
But perhaps the most exciting trend of the future is robotics, reckons Paul. He recently wrote about the best way to play the rise of the robots in Precision Guided Investments, his investment newsletter. Learn more about it here..

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  • 1. @SMSFs

    (30 January 2010, 12:04AM)  Complain about this comment

    Apple's way to make money has also always been to be very proprietary (it's what killed them in the 90s when Microsoft was willing to open their platform up). There is so much hype around them and they are trading at such stratospheric valuations (30x earnings and they make phones and computers ....) that I'd short them if I was into that sort of thing... (-:

    Had a quick look at the iPad and am equally unconvinced. If I want up-to-the minute information I'm likely to be carrying a smartphone anyway. So what differentiates a good ebook is a high quality (e ink) display, long battery life, no ongoing data charges, and a large screen. So the iPad scores 1 out of 4...?

    The Kindle DX (assuming you turn off the 3G connection to conserve battery life) seems a better bet on those criteria.

  • 2. Bob Roberts

    (01 February 2010, 11:27AM)  Complain about this comment

    Apple have very cleverly targeted the luvvie market so they get this positive spin come inverse snobbery from journalists and other luvvies about Apple versus Microsoft. You would not believe the pretensious statements I hear BBC types say about Apple v Microsoft. Having said that, and having made a livining from Microsoft products for 15 years, if I won the lotto I would throw away all my Microsoft stuff, never touch them again and buy myself an Apple laptop.

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