Let’s face it, the iPad is eating everyone else’s lunch and that not only goes for other tablets but for traditional computers as well.
MG Siegler has a rather interesting and excellent post over on TechCrunch the other day that makes this point rather well. In it he argues that the iPad represents a Clear and Present Danger to the traditional PC market. The reason? Unlike those of us who write for a living (whether as bloggers or… say… clergy) and need something that we can use to write hundreds or thousands of words, the vast majority of people can use an iPad (he is careful to point out that he means iPad and NOT tablet — sorry haters, but the current numbers support this so… back off!) for pretty much all their computing needs. Not only CAN they do so but the number of people ACTUALLY doing this is growing rapidly.
I am seeing the same thing and am not surprised in the least.
Last spring I noticed that every other week or so there was an additional iPad present in a class I teach, as yet another participant got an iPad.
And yesterday… Well let me tell you about that.
My in-laws aren’t into technology in the least. Still, they like their MacBook and my father-in-law loves his iPad. (He was, in fact, insufferable until I got not one but both of their printers set up for direct iPad printing.) We were at their house for the day and, at any give point except when we were eating, one of them was on the iPad. They leave for vacation tonight, and one of the top “agenda items” for packing was… charge the iPad.
My brother-in-law came over too. A few months ago he got an iPad 2. When I asked him if he is using it he reached in his bag, pulled it out and said, “I love it and use it all the time.” He is due to upgrade his iMac but isn’t doing so because, quite frankly, since he got the iPad it is seeing less and less use than ever before.
This scenario is playing out everywhere; it is gaining traction, and with good reason: the device is great and only getting better. iOS 5.0 will add some great usability features, and we still don’t know exactly what the voice integration with Nuance’s technology will look like. In other words, the hardware AND software is excellent, and it is improving with each generation.
I have, and use, a MacBook Air much of the time. The keyboard is great and, even now, posting from the iPad is limited (it stinks!!!). But much of the time if I have the choice, I’ll reach for the iPad.
Want to read my RSS feeds? iPad.
Want to surf the web? iPad.
Play a game? iPad.
Read? iPad.
Check email? iPad.
Write a post about how awesome the iPad is for everything except writing posts? Well actually I wrote this post on the iPad too.
As Siegler noted in his post, the change isn’t coming… It is already here.
A Clear And Present Danger
I completely agree. I have my iPad with me pretty much all the time and use it a ton. On a department outing for work today, everyone knows I am a ‘gadget head’, so they were talking to me about their iPads. Not tablets in general … iPad. And some were asking about usage – and I laid out the main use cases – email, web, writing, spreadsheet, presentations, note-taking, basic stats, RSS, writing posts for Gear Diary, games, games, and more games, and loads of types of music listening and making.
When we go away I only bring my iPad and phone. It is great to travel so light … and I don’t miss a thing!
My younger son has primary use of my original iPad, and I have worked with him so that for less than $50 he has a more powerful music production studio than the room full of gear I had access to back in the mid-80’s that cost well over a million!
I use my iPad a lot, but still can’t see anyone using it regularly and not having a computer as well – until iOS 5 comes out, how do you sync it, get existing content on it, etc?
iOS 5.0 DOES make a huge difference. (The iCloud integration with Pages is amazingly cool. I only tried it for the first time the other day and was wowed by it.) The simple answer right now for me is Dropbox which really does wonders for cross-device integration. That said, I don’t see NOT having a computer but I do use it less already with that happening more and more I suspect.
I’ll go along with that – tablets are great for web browsing/email – but try as I might, spreadshets on the iPad defeat me – can’t consistently select groups of cells 🙁
A lot of blogs/podcasts seem to say the iPad will be an “only device”, which I can’t see.
Speaking of podcasts – are you going to restart your GearDiary one, one day?