Why can't people get it through their heads that an iPad is not meant to take the place of a laptop?? You people are comparing apples and oranges. "The laptop has louder speakers." But not as loud as the Bose speakers in my living room! "The laptop has a bigger screen." But not as big as my 46" Samsung LCD!!! Apples and oranges. Get it?
If you want a laptop buy a laptop, this is kind of like "Why buy a motorcycle when you can buy a car."
Why is everyone so hung up on the entertainment aspects? The iPad has some very capable business and work features out of the box. It has... - ...a powerful email client - ...a solid word processor - ...a useful spreadsheet program - ...a Powerpoint-killing slideshow program - ...VGA-out to connect to projectors - ...an app store where new business programs are only a tap away I've been rather excited about the possibilities of pushing these devices to, say, hospitals. Existing tablets are fairly clunky and slow. iPads could provide a smoother interface that allows nurses and doctors to use it as a virtual clipboard. All the data will show up in their internal databases immediately, thus allowing for near real-time tracking of hospital performance. (Trust me. This stuff is a big deal right now.) I also have numerous ideas for how to target users like Executives and System Administrators. I'd lay out a few ideas, but then someone could write those apps before I do. Suffice it to say that a device like the iPad opens up a great deal of opportunity. If developers target the device appropriately, you could see it absolutely everywhere within 3-5 years.
It's a bit saddening to see the lack of imagination from a lot of the posters in this thread. Yes, the iPad is specification-wise a large iPod touch, but then again a truck is only a large car and a pitchfork is just a huge fork. The point being: The size actually changes the way you use the thing. A huge multi-touch screen will be revolutionary and the kind of software you will se for the iPad will be nothing short of amazing. More complex games will be infinitely more playable as your fingers will simply obscure a much lower portion of the screen. Actual multi-touch counting more than two fingers will finally make sense. Multiplayer-games on the same device will be brilliant. Magazines will find a new home and be able to include rich media with their articles. The iPad will be a game-changer, people just have to realize that in this case size does matter. My guess: In 6-7 years iPad (and similar devices) will be much more popular as a home-device than laptops.
Forgive me if I sound a little arrogant, but this question that titles this thread is wrong. Anyone asking "Why buy an iPad when you can buy a laptop" is really just trying to say; "I think a laptop is a much better value." I'm just going to go ahead and let the big secret out: We all know that. And some of us are going to go ahead and buy iPads anyway. Life would be awfully boring if we just restricted ourselves to buying things which happen to be the most cost-efficient, instead of buying things based on features that intrigue us.
- ...a powerful email client:not powerful, also with no keyboard meaning rock bottom productivity - ...a solid word processor:what word processor? iphone's notes app? LOL, also with no keyboard meaning rock bottom productivity - ...a useful spreadsheet program: with no keyboard meaning rock bottom productivity - ...a Powerpoint-killing slideshow program: with no keyboard meaning rock bottom productivity - ...VGA-out to connect to projectors: Electronic devices stopped listing this as even a feature somewhere after 1998 - ...an app store where new business programs are only a tap away okay I'll give you this, except you won't find MS office or Photoshop (and lack of capability thereof). So where exactly are you headed with this? See nintendo ds XL and youll understand what the purpose of the ipad is, for people who want to enjoy visuals on a larger screen. Your problem is touting the ipad as some kind of business/educational innovation where in reality that is completely false and it precisely the reason why many people who were expecting to have a new tablet for work/productivity are all turned off by the ipad. The features you pitched are all cleverly disguised as something that the iphone/ipod touch already have; reworded to sound like it is new.
The thing you're completely missing is the fact that there has never been a multi-touch device this size available before. And this does matter. The size and the possibilities made possible with Apple's multi-touch technology will pave way for loads of truly new user experiences. From a user point of view the iPad is in many ways more like a miniature MS Surface than a giant iPod touch. And as Wootbean states: You can connect a keyboard to it. This is of course not the main point of the device, but for anyone who has ever done any creative writing, a vertical screen roughly the size of a corresponding piece of paper is actually something of a dream come through. It frankly has the potential of becoming the definitive word when it comes to distraction free writing... For gamers, RTS games with a huge responsive multi-touch screen should breath new life to the genre. And while the iPad is definitely not the productivity tool to end all means, it will certainly be a perfect choice in many environments. Heck, what about house-planning? You can move the furniture with your fingers before switching to a 3D view of the house. The possibilities are nearly endless if you just try to use a tad of imagination...
Writers can type on any productivity suite with actual paper-sized canvas, how much of a difference does it really make when you are now physically constrained to a paper sized work area (inconvenient access to toolbars and edit functions) when you are still whacking away at the same keyboard that you would be when at a regular computer? You think RTS games with multi-touch will breathe new life into the genre? Sorry while I understand why you feel this way, I wonder if you have ever played an rts outside of an iphone one, which goes back to my original statement of the ipad being the functional equivalent of a ds XL. Yes I suppose the ipad would be very convenient for 3D house arrangements. Although I can't help but wonder how hard you would have to sit down and think of that or any other non-game related reason to justify your purchase of ipad. BOTTOM LINE: I would purchase an ipad instantly for myself if it wasn't just a ipod touch resize.
Which is both a positive and negative, depending on which control interface is used. And accelerometer control will be more difficult due to the size and weight of the thing compared to the much more mobile iPhone/touch platform. Even on a Macbook Pro it typically doesn't go above three fingers, tbqh. Depends. Single screen multiplayer? Perhaps. But when does one truly want such a thing with a portable or mobile device? For multiplayer on a portable or mobile platform, it's far more useful and more common to desire system link (via Bluetooth) to other devices, or WiFi connection, which iPhone/touch has already. For SOME aspects, as I've pointed out: e-books - including magazines and newspapers, movies/shows, and productivity/creative software. GAMES, however, will NOT likely be a significant driver of interest because the market will most likely skew older for iPad than it does iPhone/touch. As a "home-device"? Doesn't that somewhat defeat the purpose? This is my issue with the outlook on this thing. People are talking about using it at home, but it's supposed to be a portable computing device. Yet, by bringing up using it more at home, people are almost admitting that it doesn't fit into the new paradigm of what is expected from portable devices, and also bringing up their desire to have a simple iPhone/touch style interface and App Store connection at home. And those are often the very folks who don't "get" the AppleTV idea I and others have.
Apple intends to have some people take the iPad outside their homes. Otherwise, why have built-in 3G?
3 words: It looks cool. XD Not amazingly useful, not amazingly great - but it looks FUN... just look at the calendar, photo albums - it just looks great. That's why everyone wants one. I admit to this. I think that can be said for us all - we argue that it's really useful, that it's revolutionary. But it just looks cool and fun to use, and that's what draws us in. If they were cheaper I'd buy one in a second. Hope I get one for my birthday...
As your grade school teacher taught you, compose sentences that are complete thoughts. "Not powerful" is not a complete thought. How is it not powerful? Is there anything it does not do compared to other email clients? The Mac email client has numerous fans due to its sophistication and power. Why won't they appreciate a similar email client on the iPad? As for the keyboard, there is an on-screen keyboard which is quite large. Time will tell the usability. As another poster mentioned, there is a keyboard dock available. If you're not familiar with Pages, you have no business arguing against the iPad. Your comment is a broken record. Your comment is a broken record. I'm listing it as a feature because it's important to realize that the Keynote documents are useful. Without the ability to attach to a projector, the device wouldn't be very useful. Since this is not a laptop (as the original poster made the effort to point out) it is not necessarily obvious. I'll give you Photoshop due to the impracticality, but you will find iLife. Which is MS Office compatible. So I guess my question to you is, why are you making false statements about this product? I'm intimately familiar with the DSi XL. These are not even close to the same market. In fact, I don't really expect the DSi XL to do all that well in America. It's really more of a Japanese thing. Considering that the example I gave (Healthcare) happens to be the industry I am currently a professional in, I find your statements to lack credibility. Furthermore, the fact that my colleagues in other offices across the nation have expressed similar sentiments, I know it's not just me. To recap, you are not familiar with the much-touted keyboard. You are not familiar with the much-touted iLife package. You are not familiar with the business areas I have identified. Yet you have dismissed all of them. Everyone is entitled to their opinion. That doesn't mean that every opinion is correct. You will forgive me if I find your opinion to be an unreliable predictor of the iPad's future.
I don't think I'll be buying an ipad right away, but I love how things like this are changing how we think about computers. Is it a laptop, is it not a laptop? craziness.
