Gee, maybe I’m dumb, but I don’t get how using a device in person, enjoying the experience, and deciding that one’s life would be more productive, more fun and more exciting if one owned said product is “beyond logic.” Could you explain that to me?
I’m not in the least bit threatened by the notion that other people exist in the world who are more prescient and more imaginative than I am. I’m so sorry you have to labor under this heavy load.
In other words, there is a whole raft of “superior products” out there that can do what the iPad aspires to do much better – they just haven’t been “marketed” properly? Then shame on their manufacturers for dropping the ball by hiding their much brighter lights under a bushel. I have zero sympathy for a company that develops a great product and then lacks the stuff to market it properly. If they don’t grasp that marketing is an essential part of the overall process, then they don’t deserve to succeed.
Would you do us the favor of naming said products? And once you have, perhaps you would be willing to take on the same challenge that Knorf so far has resolutely ignored:
If I wanted a computer with me all the time a tablet type system would be good. The downside is I can’t put it in my pocket. My phone does fit in my pocket and it gives me email , apps and full web so that’s all I need for a fully portable system. If I need more than that I can use a laptop which is a full PC (and also does not fit in my pocket. )
Funny thing is, computer history is riddled in folks succeeding not because they’re better, but because their competition was amazingly inept. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve looked at a device and wondered if they every actually had someone USE it before it was produced, marketed, and thrown on a shelf.
I’ve often described OS X as ‘Linux with QA’. It’s not that Linux is worse, it’s that OS X has polish.
The iPhone was the same way. It was missing several ‘major’ features, but what it did it did SO much better than anyone else.
I’ve lost count of the <apple product> killers that were going to unseat #1…touted loudly that they’d be so…upon launch, however, they never seem to stack up.
The one competitor of note, Android, will do spectacularly well. I’m sure of it. But that success will be split up across a hundred companies, and it won’t make Apple irrelevant. If they, somehow, became #2…then it’ll be one company selling 40 million units vs 100 companies selling 42 million units.
Competition is good for the consumer, bitching that one is uber leet while the other is for sheeple is kinda dumb. Course, I never understood professional sports, either.
Since iPhone was the first big seller among consumer smartphones everything is now compared to it. Every new Android phone is automatically compared to the iPhone. It’s sort of like in boxing where to beat the champ you have to really beat him up. If it’s close the judges stick with the champ. The same exact thing will happen with iPad type PCs from other makers - they will be compared to the iPad.
Bzzt, wrong. Research Palm, Nokia, RIM, and a host of others. Smartphones were WELL entrenched before iPhone came along. In fact, Apple was slammed for even THINKING they could break into such a well established market.
The iPhone was the first big hit with consumers, not with businesses. Blackberries for the most part are not consumer devices, they are for business. The iPhone blew Palm out of the water. I don’t really count the old Palms as smart phones but I guess that’s a matter of opinion. They were so far below an iPhone or Android phone.
Waffle all you like, and read up on the term ‘smartphone’, it’s an artificial designation for ‘thing that does more than take calls’, by some definitions, the iPhone ISN’T a smartphone as it was a designation for Windows Mobile: Smartphone - Wikipedia
The point is this: They’ve been stupendously successful. There’s every indication they will continue to be stupendously successful. There are some people that feel the need to ‘slam the other team’.
Professional sports are kinda funny. There’s a LOT of emotion tied up into what is nothing more than a HUGE entertainment industry predicated on establishing that ‘my’ team is better than ‘your’ team.
The healthiest perspective is to keep in mind that, as far as computers and computing is concerned, they’re all tools, they’re all stupidly cheap when compared to historical pricing, and they’ve got a vested interest in keeping you buying the next new hotness.
What ever tablet you buy, it will most likely NOT be the LAST tablet you buy. And the replacement will blow it out of the water. So what’s the problem?
Until either those 100 companies start eating each other (Mergers and Acquisition) and/or are eaten by other companies (Google, HP, Smith & Wesson , etc)
I was considering the kindle, when I bought the iPad. I decided to get the iPad because it’s a multifunction device instead of single function.
Yeah. They definitely wouldn’t. The screen size is great, size reeky does matter.
I was thinking about getting ab Apple bluetooth keyboard for my iPad, seems like it’d be handy. I can. Use any bluetooth keyboard, is there a reason I should go for apple, or is it worth any investment at all?
Also, most iPad cases come with some kind of mount, i have the encase, and really like it. It makes it a bit bulkier, but it also makes it look “professional,” so I can carry it into meetings and whatnot without appearing like a child (which is helpful, because Im young anyway).
Maybe I have freakishly strong forearms, but I usually hold it like a book, or I sit with my right leg up, and the iPad pinned between my left hand and the inside of my right leg. It’s weird and strangely comfortable (I’m using it like that right now).
Windows does not work well on tablets. I have experience.
Its not indespensible, but it’s become as important as any other device I use.
Its considerably more expensive, and bulkier, and has more features, but I also own an HP Touchsmart laptop. The iPad is considerably better, as a tablet, thathe touch smart.
And not just because the touch smart has a leaf blower in it, but the screen itself and the interface is MUCH more fluid on the iPad. Even the touch smarts “tablet” program is way less user friendly than the poorest designed iPad app.
Windows doesn’t really work well as a tablet. It’s a point-and-click interface, not a touch.
I bought my dad a net book.
This (iPad) and net books are not the same. They do not fulfill the same niche.
I checked around quite a bit before I bought the iPhone. No other devices did the same set of functions.
A big factor was touch screen, I dont need a keyboard, and it’s one more thing to get gunk in it, and my fingers always manage to hit multiple keys at once.
I had decided I didn’t want to adopt the first gen, but after using it I realized that it’s really not a first gen product. They’ve capitalized on their experience with the iPhone and iTouch to polish it.
After using it, I gave strong consideration to it, and bought it the next day (a week after it came out).
Yeah, actually, I did. Most of my friends did. We’ve wanted something like this for years.
I bought an HP Touchsmart hoping it would fulfill this role… It didn’t.
Except you have yet to show one way that the product is inferior. And don’t worry, you won’t have to worry about software designers not designing stuff for you – they weren’t designing stuff for you before anyway.
The iPad is going to bring more popularity to tablets in general, the same way the ipod brought more popularity to mp3 players.
No 3G in the air, remember?
If you start wanting to browse SDMB from your couch, or play games on your subway ride, that’s when you’ll want something like this.
I can surf any website from my couch and play games with my smartphone. Don’t need a tablet for that. Screen is small ,but it has the advantage of fitting in my pocket.
I read that the makers of Farmville are working on an iPad version. Non-Flash I suppose. Scoff at Facebook flash games if you want, but Flash capability would rock for a lot of people.
Unfortunately, I am getting to the age where size does matter. While I like my Blackberry, the small screen that fits in my pocket is becoming less desireable. Another reason I probably will end up going the iPad route.
Honestly, I thought the same thing. I still broke out my laptop from time to time, though (like when responding to a post that’s more than 2 or 3 sentences). Now, I don’t break out the laptop unless I’m making a post that requires cites.
No, I didn’t need a tablet for that, but that, and the ereader, and the games, and the general web browsy-ness make it something that I wanted enough to justify the cost. The equation may not be the same for you.
Age, whaddya mean? Size is a big deal for us younguns too.
Yeah, it’d be a royal pain, but that’s not the start of it.
What’s a relatively easy task, repeatedly clicking in precise locations, is easy with a mouse, annoying with a trackpad, and downright obnoxious on a touchscreen.
One game that ported over very well, although not a direct port, was “Space Station” (for the iPad) based or inspired by a game released on Casual Collective called “mining defense” (or something to that effect, I seem to remember the acronym TSG?). Googling Causal Collective will find you the game (highly recommended, very fun and addictive).
Farmville would not work nearly as well.
I could swear that was posted om SDMB somehwhere before.
Plants vs Zombies was very good on the iPad, but overall I came away still not understanding why I would want an iPad. Internet browsing was a disappointment. Typing was a disappointment.
The only reason I can see for choosing an iPad over a laptop is the way people react to each. In many situations people would look at you funny for having a laptop, but might not if you had an iPad.
That is a legitimate reason for getting the iPad, but it does make me wonder… once the novelty wears off, isn’t it likely that people will start looking at you funny for having an iPad in roughly the same situations they would look at you funny for having a laptop?
Typing was a disappointment? Jobs might have been exaggerating when he said it was the best browsing experience ever but I have no complaints and it’s definitely a very pleasurable way to browse, for me.
As for the typing, it takes some getting used to. I use a hunt and peck type of typing on it, unlike a real keyboard where I type properly, and I do alright. But it’s not as pleasant, and by that I mean fast, as a real keyboard.
What kind of situations?
I have no idea, I hadn’t even considered that as a reason to buy an iPad.
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