WHY APPLE REFUSES TO USE A CAMERA ON THE IPAD?

Of course, taking pictures on the iPad with its huge viewfinder can be fun, but it will have limited value, as you can use a smaller and cheaper digital camera to get high quality photographs. In fact, the best reason to use a camera on the iPad is for video chats. And Apple knows video chats with the iPad would be a cool, futuristic feature.

So why isn’t a camera included? It's simple, because a camera would ruin the iPad's excellent design. Video chat means using a high speed connection to simultaneously download and upload large amounts of data constantly during a chat. People mostly use 3G for mobile video chats and currently it fails to meet the Apple’s high standards in delivering a first-class user experience.

Sending live video stream over AT&T’s notoriously sluggish 3G network sounds dreadful enough. And although we can get more reliable provider, most HSDPA services are still unable to give us sharp and smooth high resolution, 1024 X 768 video. An exquisite tablet like the iPad showing blocky video streaming is not something that Apple has in mind.

Only a broadband Wi-Fi connection that can give us good quality video chats on the go, however continuously rendering video chats on large display can eat up battery power quickly, unless if you can set the video chat window to a smaller size. The lack of camera on the iPad is a bummer for all of us as we hoped to see a magical communication device straight out of sci-fi fantasies. Although a camera on the iPad may not be necessary now, it won't hurt to see the next iteration of the iPad with a 3 Mp camera similar to the one found in iPhone 3GS, larger battery capacity and of course a 4G (LTE) connectivity for video streaming with ‘acceptable’ quality.