Apple's closed philosophy in their iPad is a disappointment

According to http://www.infoworld.com/d/mobilize/what-you-should-know-about-apples-tablet-246?page=0,0
Apple has also created a version of its iWork desktop productivity suite for the iPad -- that could make the iPad a competitor to both Windows netbooks and Apple's own MacBooks as an entertainment device that also doubles as a lightweight productivity device. Each app -- Pages, Numbers, and Keynote -- will cost $10 each and be compatible with the Mac OS X versions. The iPad versions of iWork can open both Microsoft Office and iWork files, but save only to the iWork and PDF formats. So sharing with Office users won't be as easy as it is on the desktop version of iWork.
I understand the reason for doing this -- it's to reinforce their bottom line. But in this day and age there is a huge push for collaboration and openness. By forcing users to only save in Apple's iWork format, they are moving in the opposite direction of what the public wants.

Apple had an opportunity to send a message that they support open file formats. But they don't, not in their office apps nor in their audio (no FLAC compatibity) or email attachment viewer (not compatible with  OpenDocument files).

$499 for a base model is not a lot of money; relative to the price of netbooks. If Apple had demonstrated that it was interested in getting along with the rest of the world, I would have been one of the first in line.

Unless they change their philosophy about this, I'll continue using a different portable platform -- one that supports open file formats.


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