Anyone Getting An IPad?

[SeeinRed]

I just don't see this product flopping.

I don't see it flopping at all. There is a large group of people who will buy it just because Apple produced it. I can also see someone buying it if they didn't already have and IPhone or Kindle or MacBook....

It would take quite a run of mediocre products for Apple to lose its allure to a large enough group of its fans and have a product flop. Even being a person who does not particularly care for Apple products I still know that Apple has made quality products that are very useful for a large group of people. They've created quite a following that most companies can only dream of.

Most Apple products fit nicely into a niche that they can dominate. I just don't see the IPad dominating an area where Kindle has such a strong head start or even the netbook niche where you can get a netbook for much, much less. Even though those netbooks may not have the computing power the IPad may, you can still multitask on them which is currently something the IPad lacks. Another thing that would turn me away is not having Flash compatability. Its just the small things that the "hardcore" Apple fans don't see that someone like me is turned off by.

Don't get me wrong, if I could get my hands on and IPad to play around with I would love to. You'd be hard pressed to find someone who wouldn't. It just suprises me that Apple would put out a product that is so underwhelming IMO.

[dougdirt]

I can't stand Apple or their 'computer' products. I am fine with the IPhone (though I prefer the Droid) and Ipod. But Apple's computer products are incredibly overpriced. The IPad itself is essentially a touch screen laptop, without the ability to use it as a computer. My $400 laptop I bought two Decembers ago isn't touch screen, and yeah, its probably three times as thick as an IPad is.... but it was cheaper, faster and has so many more functions and abilities it isn't even funny. I just don't get it. Apple has the best marketing in the world, because they sell a whole bunch of products that aren't better than their competition for a 33% mark up and people love paying for it.

[Hoosier Red]

This I can see, however you can get textbooks electronically already. I've tried it and honestly sometimes it is just a lot easier to have the physical book. I don't think it can really replace a laptop either. Typing on a touch screen is just way too inconvenient for my tastes. Then there is the whole multi-tasking issue. I'm not an Apple fan admitedly, but I see this as just another product that they are trying to produce hype about and get as many people as possible to shell out some big bucks because it is a new Apple product and that means its cool. Obviously, I'm not saying you are a fool for buying it or being an Apple fan. Most of the Apple products have a very useful place in the tech world.

I thought one of the advantages to this over other electronic book readers is it allows you to see graphics other visuals better than say a kindle.

[bucksfan2]

I thought one of the advantages to this over other electronic book readers is it allows you to see graphics other visuals better than say a kindle.

I also heard a report that advertisers are able to use animated (think web type) advertisements. It will be very interesting to see how the newspaper and magazine deals with the IPad.

[Reds4Life]

I can't stand Apple or their 'computer' products. I am fine with the IPhone (though I prefer the Droid) and Ipod. But Apple's computer products are incredibly overpriced. The IPad itself is essentially a touch screen laptop, without the ability to use it as a computer. My $400 laptop I bought two Decembers ago isn't touch screen, and yeah, its probably three times as thick as an IPad is.... but it was cheaper, faster and has so many more functions and abilities it isn't even funny. I just don't get it. Apple has the best marketing in the world, because they sell a whole bunch of products that aren't better than their competition for a 33% mark up and people love paying for it.

I'm in the same boat. Typing on a flat touch screen would suck, if it's sitting on a table you'd have to be leaning over to see what you are typing. Apple makes nice computers, but they aren't worth what they cost, IMO.

[OldRightHander]

I've got my Mac and my ipod touch, so I really don't have a need for this at the moment. It looks interesting, but that's as far as it goes.

[westofyou]

I can't stand Apple or their 'computer' products. I am fine with the IPhone (though I prefer the Droid) and Ipod. But Apple's computer products are incredibly overpriced. The IPad itself is essentially a touch screen laptop, without the ability to use it as a computer. My $400 laptop I bought two Decembers ago isn't touch screen, and yeah, its probably three times as thick as an IPad is.... but it was cheaper, faster and has so many more functions and abilities it isn't even funny. I just don't get it. Apple has the best marketing in the world, because they sell a whole bunch of products that aren't better than their competition for a 33% mark up and people love paying for it.

They changed their name from "Apple Computers" to "Apple" years ago.

That was the first clue of their direction.

[SeeinRed]

I thought one of the advantages to this over other electronic book readers is it allows you to see graphics other visuals better than say a kindle.

I will agree that some may choose to buy the IPad over the Kindle when shopping for an eBook reader, but I don't see a whole lot of people ditching the Kindle in favor of the IPad if they already have the Kindle just to get color pictures and animated ads. Not to mention the IPad is quite pricey if you just want it for an eBook reader. Of course that is a complete over-simplification but I think when you factor in things like cost it still holds true.

You keep hearing about newspapers and magazines using the Kindle or IPad to save their industry, but I don't believe they can do that. The main issue with print media is staying current when updating stories only once a day. People want to know the news as it happens, not read about it the next day. Reading it electronically the next day doesn't really solve this problem IMO.

I don't think Apple is losing its luster with this product, I just truly don't understand the point of it. They already have the IPhone for mobile surfing and a lot of apps, the MacBook does the computing and heavier surfing in what is a pretty small package, and the Kindle and others have a pretty large hold on the eBook market.

There is nothing really all that innovative or cutting edge that hasn't been done before with this product which is what Apple has really come to be known for to its "fans." Reviews have been mediocre at best. Usually Apple products are rolled out with such fanfare that it makes us who don't particularly care for their products sick. The response has been rather underwhelming. I've seen more people get excited about an update to the IPhone OS than the IPad. Thats the main thing that I've taken away from all of this.

[oneupper]

Dvorak has been wrong about Apple too many times to tell, but here is an opinion on the iPad I am sort of agreeing with.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/old...2?siteid=yhoof

I still love my Macs, but I liked Apple so much more when they were underdogs.

[TheNext44]

I still don't understand why Apple didn't release their version of a netbook instead of this IPad. That really is the direction consumers are going, smaller and cheaper, not bigger and more expensive.

Apple has been successful and made lots of money, but because they have less practical appeal than other computers, they actually have a very small slice of the market. This would have been their chance to shed their "elitist" image and grab a bigger chunk of the market.

I have a IMac, which really are the best deal for desktops, but a PC Netbook because spending $1k+ for a laptop is just absurd these days.

Now I am probably going to get the IPad, (if I get an IRaise), but it will be to replace my IPhone, not my IMac or Netbook. I will then get a cheaper phone that all it does is work as a phone, and use the IPad to do all the cool things that I use the IPhone for. It would have been so much better if I could have used it replace my Netbook, but that looks to be years away.

[Caveat Emperor]

I still don't understand why Apple didn't release their version of a netbook instead of this IPad. That really is the direction consumers are going, smaller and cheaper, not bigger and more expensive.

Maybe it's just me, but I see the netbook as an evolutionary dead-end for computers. It's the product of lazy engineering -- taking a laptop's form factor, stripping out tons of functionality, and trying to be an inexpensive "jack of all trades, master of none" type device. It straddles the line between a purely consumption device (watching media, viewing internet content, reading previously created documents, etc.) and a content creation device (producing user-created content) and ends up being just OK at both tasks.

I guess what Apple was going for was a device that is almost purely content consumption, with just a dash of content creation ability to keep people happy and do basic tasks (write an e-mail, input numbers to a spreadsheet, edit a document, etc.).

Your mileage will probably vary based on what exactly you like to be able to do when you're away from your main computer.

[TheNext44]

Maybe it's just me, but I see the netbook as an evolutionary dead-end for computers. It's the product of lazy engineering -- taking a laptop's form factor, stripping out tons of functionality, and trying to be an inexpensive "jack of all trades, master of none" type device. It straddles the line between a purely consumption device (watching media, viewing internet content, reading previously created documents, etc.) and a content creation device (producing user-created content) and ends up being just OK at both tasks.

I guess what Apple was going for was a device that is almost purely content consumption, with just a dash of content creation ability to keep people happy and do basic tasks (write an e-mail, input numbers to a spreadsheet, edit a document, etc.).

Your mileage will probably vary based on what exactly you like to be able to do when you're away from your main computer.

The Netbook does what 90% of people who use computers do nearly 100% of their time on computers: Surf the web, check emails, organize a photobook, word processing, spread sheets and power point. And it does it for around 1/3 of the price of a laptop.

It's a dead end in terms of technology, but not in terms of appeal to consumers. There are 10's of millions of people out there either who don't own a computer because they are too expensive, who who own a laptop and would like to pay less in order to get exactly what the need.

We are one the way to where everyone will own a computer, and I think the Netbook is the first step to that end.

[RedsManRick]

I can't stand Apple or their 'computer' products. I am fine with the IPhone (though I prefer the Droid) and Ipod. But Apple's computer products are incredibly overpriced. The IPad itself is essentially a touch screen laptop, without the ability to use it as a computer. My $400 laptop I bought two Decembers ago isn't touch screen, and yeah, its probably three times as thick as an IPad is.... but it was cheaper, faster and has so many more functions and abilities it isn't even funny. I just don't get it. Apple has the best marketing in the world, because they sell a whole bunch of products that aren't better than their competition for a 33% mark up and people love paying for it.

Doug, you're comparing apples to oranges. The iPad isn't meant to be a computer replacement.

Apple sees a niche' in a simple to use, media consumption, light gaming, social networking device.

The 'PC' approach, if you will, is to stuff as much functionality as possible in to the thing and then polish it as much as they can in terms of user experience.

The apple approach is to create a killer user experience and then provide as much functionality as they can while maintaining that experience.

For me, netbooks are the worst of both worlds. They give you the clunky, complicated user experience of a full computer in the size and form factor limitations of a portable device. The ipad is meant to give you the best possible user experience on a portable device that can do all of the primary things you'd want to do on something less than a full blown computer.

I can't read the WSJ or a book while standing in a crowded train on a netbook. If I'm watching a movie a plane, I have no use for a full keyboard that folds out. If wifi isn't available and I want to get on a cellular network, I'd need to carry an extra USB based dohickey. And if I wanted to write a report, build a presentation or mess around in a spreadsheet, I'm not going to want to that on a netbook either. I'll just carry a laptop and pull it out when a chance to sit down and set up somewhere.

I don't know that I'l buy an ipad, but I think you are selling it's benefits short. Form factor and user experience are no small things when when you're talking about a device whose key benefit is portability and easy access. I don't mind giving up a tiny bit of functionality compared to a net-book for a significantly better experience with the things I do most when not using my primary computer.

[TheNext44]

Doug, you're comparing apples to oranges. The iPad isn't meant to be a computer replacement.



For me, netbooks are the worst of both worlds. They give you the clunky, complicated user experience of a full computer in the size and form factor limitations of a portable device. The ipad is meant to give you the best possible user experience on a portable device that can do all of the primary things you'd want to do on something less than a full blown computer.

I can't read the WSJ or a book while standing in a crowded train on a netbook. If I'm watching a movie a plane, I have no use for a full keyboard that folds out. If wifi isn't available and I want to get on a cellular network, I'd need to carry an extra USB based dohickey. And if I wanted to write a report, build a presentation or mess around in a spreadsheet, I'm not going to want to that on a netbook either. I'll just carry a laptop and pull it out when a chance to sit down and set up somewhere.

Why not a netbook for Microsoft Office stuff? I use it all the time for that. Granted, it's not as sleek as the IPad, but it's also not nearly as "clunky" as a full laptop

Remember that the key "experience" that a Netbook gives you is when you buy it. You can buy a decent one for around $250 and a really good one for around $350. That's half the price of an IPad and it's a real computer, not just a "fun" device.

I like the IPad, I just wish it could be more like a Netbook and let me do some real work on it.

[paintmered]

The biggest problem with the iPad is that it isn't $200.