I admit that when iPads first came out, I couldn't understand the excitement. I have an iPhone, and I have a small, light laptop; so why would I want something else that does not really combine the two in any convenient fashion?
But then various friends and acquaintances began talking about them and buying them. They raved about how light iPads are and about how good the screens are, not to mention all the great applications (most of which are available for smartphones, too).
So I stopped in at an Apple store last spring and spent some time playing with one. After awhile, I understood the "wow" factor in some ways, but I came away completely under-whelmed.
Not that the iPad features aren't generally wonderful. It's just that I don't want yet another electronic device that does comparatively little that I cannot already do with my iPhone and laptop. And my laptop has a real keyboard; people with iPads do not like doing much typing on a touch screen.
- The iPad isn't that much lighter than the light laptops, which are much more functional, with USB ports, hardwire jacks, real keyboards, etc.
- The size of the iPad makes things much easier to read on it, but I find reading on my iPhone more convenient because I always have it with me.
It looks to me as if the only thing going for an iPad is the larger touch screen. If that is really so great, I cannot understand why PC makers haven't brought out a host of small, light tablet-type PCs (the kind with a swivel screen). With a laptop-tablet, I would have the benefits of both a PC and an iPad, and I wouldn't have to worry about having one more thing to carry around or synchronize files with.
But most of the competing new products seem determined to compete with iPad directly, offering less computing convenience than a laptop but bulkier size than a smartphone. [h/t MA, who has concerns about the working conditions in iPad plants]
Meanwhile, despite the outstanding sales of iPads since their introduction, I am content to be using just an iPhone and a laptop. But maybe that's just because, to use a phrase from my son, I march to the beat of a different pianist.