My wife asked me: Why do you want it? Which one of your bloody
devices will this replace?
Well... it's just a great new thing darling! It cannot replace my MBPro (I
use Adobe SW) and it cannot replace my iPhone (I carry it in my
pocket). So what is it for?
Frankly, how many extensive applications do we really have to use? Do
I really need Lightroom, Illustrator and Photoshop? My core job is
managing businesses, marketing. All the CPU-demanding apps are
just for my hobbies. For my real work, I can survive with iWork, Mail
and broadband. My files are mostly stored in a cloud somewhere
anyway. And my personal files are stored on a 2TB disk elsewhere, not
on my MacBook with "just" 300GB.
Today, work is less CPU&storage hungry than hobbies. Is the iPad
meant for business users then? For being a machine ever-online (thus
always synced), tailored for visual sharing and presentation, capable of
phone calls, conferencing and IM, bringing the sexiest PIM apps ever
(either by Apple or other app producers like Guided Ways -
www.2doapp.com), I will use it as a great business device on my
travels. The business & productivity apps will explode in numbers and
will become a pleasure to look at and use.
My office is getting a brand new paint and most modern furniture!
That's it. For just some 900 dollars.
No surprise to the long-suffering Mac community, the PC punditocracy is having trouble understanding the iPad value proposition.
On one hand some say, users would be better off with a small Windows-powered notebook or a netbook, which are less expensive and are “real computers.” On the other hand, some said after the Wednesday launch event that the iPad was a “reliable notebook” that will work so great that it will eat into MacBook sales, especially the MacBook Air. Come on, get real!
Yes, the iPad looks to be “wonderful,” as Steve Jobs reminded the assembled media and partners over and over at the launch event in San Francisco. Sure, it’s a very mobile platform and provides a snappy and elegant user experience. But it’s not a “real” general purpose notebook computer that will do all the things that Mac users are accustomed to doing day in and day out.
Can users get some of their tasks done? Sure, there will be an interesting productivity story in a mobile context. But what about rich content creation, such as audio and video? Even a lot of writing would be troublesome on the multitouch screen keyboard. It’s a better experience than entering a lot of text into an iPhone, but it doesn’t have the ergonomics or real performance of a notebook or desktop.
Must we use just have one computer? Aren’t we now ready for a variety of computing devices, big and small, mobile and fixed, that can offer different values and performance?
I asked the same questions a couple of years ago with the launch of the MacBook Air in a post titled, Why does the MacBook Air make so many so dumb?
Somehow, longtime Mac users were deluded that this new machine would be some kind of a replacement for a MacBook Pro. Sorry, it isn’t the replacement for anything. The MacBook Air is something different.
The MacBook Air is aimed at a narrow upscale segment of the market. These customers care about style and what that style says about them. It’s all a part of their personal brand. They accept a bit-less computing power for more mobility and elegance.
Likewise, the iPad is something new: it’s an addition to the mobile computing lifestyle. Most of the time, someone would do their actual work on a notebook or a desktop computer, and likely carry a small ubiquitous mobile platform, the iPhone. Yet, often, they might like a more-powerful mobile device with a larger screen and easier input around town, while sitting in the coffee shop writing an email or even taking a meeting.
During the launch event, Jobs kept using the phrase that the iPad was something — a website, a photo album — “in the palms of your hands.” The iPhone is a device that puts the world into one hand; the iPad, two hands.
Of course, it will also an excellent content platform for rich media books, games and video. And more, no doubt.
The acceptance of the iPad will come when customers hold it, feel its quality (hardware and experience) and see with their own eyes its possibilities. Of course, the Apple Retail Store will be drivers for that acceptance.
As Apple pointed out in Monday’s conference call on Apple’s Q1 results:
We hosted a record 50.9 million visitors in our stores during the quarter compared to 46.7 million visitors in the year-ago quarter, an increase of 9 percent. We also conducted 586,000 personal training sessions and sold 280,000 memberships to our one-to-one program. We now have 52 stores outside the US and we are on track to open 40-50 stores in fiscal 2010, at least half of which we expect to be in international locations. We remain very pleased with the performance of our stores and customers continue to truly value the great experience our stores provide.
The stores will be very ready to educate visitors on the latest addition to their increasing Apple digital lifestyle.
Well sarcasm aside I'll stick with my Windows Based PC because I actually like to run lots of software and not just Adobe Photoshop and Sim City 2000 and perhaps some oregon trail if I'm really bored. There is a reason Apple does not even touch Windows marketshare 
