For the 21st-century technology user, it may come as a surprise that Apple has not always made trendy devices with slick interfaces. Over the past three decades, the company has introduced a number of duds, including the Pippin, a gaming console and, more recently, the ergonomic nightmare of the Mighty Mouse. Some critics are calling Apple’s latest gadget, the iPad, a failure as well.

I don’t believe it’s a total bomb. The latest iterations of the iPod Touch, iPhone and the iMac may lead one to believe that Apple’s products are polished from the day they leave the Cupertino, Calif. headquarters. However, in their first-generation forms, they were quite faulty. That is the case with the iPad. It will probably be a ubiquitous device a year or two from its launch, and not only will it have features that it currently lacks, but its price will also be slashed by at least half. For right now, though, the iPad is a curiosity, not a must-have product.

At first glance, the iPad is actually rather ugly for an Apple device. Its bezel is unnaturally thick, and its widely spaced home screen icons resemble one of the obviously fake iPad mock-ups that ran rampant on the Internet prior to its release.

Its second flaw is that it still relies on the closed system of the iPhone and iPod Touch. In other words, it doesn’t run a genuine operating system as all other tablet computers do, but instead runs applications downloaded from the App Store. So while Windows netbook and tablet users are running full-fledged applications like Photoshop, Office and Windows Movie Maker, iPad users are stuck using the same miniature, widget-like apps that run on an iPhone. While those apps worked perfectly for a device with a small screen, they seem very limiting when transferred to a lightweight computer that is supposed to sit in between the iPhone and MacBook Pro.

In other words, iPad users miss out on the opportunity to run whatever software they wish as Tablet PC users can. Admittedly, the closed system cuts down on security risks, but the iPad’s usefulness can only stretch as far as Apple allows it to.