I was actually disappointed when I heard the features of the iPad, as I have been wanting what I have called the “iBoard” for a long time — does everything that all the things sitting and hanging on my kitchen do, incl: phone, answering machine, thermometer, weather display, clock, radio, music player, calendar (Sierra Club, natch :-), and yes the energy monitor. I think I’ll keep my current coffee maker, but otherwise this device would clear a bunch of displays.

I think the iPad can do much of this, but there are two key aspects that make a display effective (thermometer, electricity monitor or whatever): 1) it’s always on and visible at a glance, and 2) it’s always in the same place. Perhaps if iPad could turn on a dashboard after a little while it could meet this need, but for $500, I think it needs to be more useful and used in other ways than just sitting on the counter.

At EnergyCircle.com we sell a bunch of energy monitors (and have a few more comin’ soon :-) — some don’t even have display options. We think about half the value proposition of energy monitoring is in having that continual awareness that a good (good!) display provides (and some interesting recently published studies confirm this point — we’ll post on this soon).

So maybe Apple will not be the one to make the uber-display for this kind of purpose. I have seen one called Chumby that might be more suitable.

Anyway, it’s a very interesting observation and great post. We’re certainly in the very early stages of this whole market!

Tom Harrison
CTO
Energy Circle