Judging from the hype that preceded its arrival -- the cover of Time magazine! and Newsweek! endless chatter from media folks looking for a Messiah to technophiles anxious to get their hands on the latest gadget -- you'd think everyone was clamoring for an iPad.
Well, not quite. On Sunday -- a full day after the iPad landed in stores, and before news outlets reported that more than 300,000 iPads were sold -- we spent a couple of hours in Union Square in New York City, where, within a three mile radius, three Apple stores are located. Inevitably, we found some people, a few of them loyal Apple fans, who were not quite sold on the iPad.
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The problem with IPads and laptops is that you can't service the hardware yourself. It costs quite a bit to have anything repaired, and the new prices are dropping so fast, that they will become disposable. That will be bad for the environment, considering the toxic metals that are contained in them. This is one area that needs to be improved upon very soon.
Ultimately our phones will be all that we need. Our computing power will all be contained within a personal phone-like device that will allow us to do pretty much everything that we need on a non-commercial level. There will still be a need for word processing (until voice recognition is perfected) and other tasks for which a small device will be unsuited. But the transition to the phone-sized device is inevitable.
If you're going to offer internet access.. then offer it.. not some scaled back limited version that someone feels has functionality enough and calls it innovative. Innovation is building on and improving what is.. not taking what is and throttling it then selling it with a straight face while calling it superior.
Innovation does more.. not less.
Market share illustrates this better than my opinion.
If something seems cheap, it probably isn't in the long run. It amazes me how much you in the US pay for mobile phone calls and mobile internet compared to Finland, where I am from. We usually pay about 9,80 €/month for unlimited mobile data. I have two connections (and pay only 9,80): for the phone and the laptop. And we don't have any stupid restrictions on it (Skype etc. work). Sure, the speed for that price is quite slow, but it is enough for non-hd quality videos.
1. Apple's walled garden / closed ecosystem strips me of my right to do as I please with what I own. Examples: No flash support because flash would make the app store useless, Google voice because google voice covers over core functionalities
2. Apple's ridiculous apps approval process chokes REAL and TRUE innovation
3. Apple's business strategy to hold back on simple features until next generations in order to keep the product life cycle cycling over a longer period of time angers your loyal customers but they still bend over for you. Examples: multi tasking & swivel camera for 2way video conferencing,
We're expected to run to the nearest store, salivate while visions of the new techno device dances in our head, while sacrificing hundreds of dollars just to be a member of the techno mainstream. But for how long, until we're once again riding the new gadget merry-go-around, discarding hardly used devices while investing hundreds dollars more for the latest attraction. These devices are luxuries and play things not necessities for a great many of us, hardly worth such excessive and relentless investment.
people should be saving not spending
Apple should be paying taxes for the profits.
All to stabilize our deficit.
it's simple economic - why do you think your paycheck is going down and prices are going up?
you really need to get a handle on understanding finances
simple reason as to WHY I should spend hard earned money to own this?
It is 10 times lighter, 10 times slimmer, and it's battery lasts 3 times as long as anything you are currently carrying.
The 3g one adds the following...
You go on driving trips. Your car does not have a built in dvd player or gps. So you bring (buy) a gps, and a portable dvd player for the wife or the kids. And you lug your laptop, dvd plater and it's disks, a gps, a power splitter and your car looks like a spaghetti factory.
I think if the ipad had flash support it would be a different discussion.