I'm thinking about getting an iPhone to replace my Nokia 63 cell phone. I'm on the fence though because I'm not convinced that upgrading from one to the other is all that worth the money. Should I stick with the <a href="http://www.Dozenmobile.com">cell phone</a> or go iPhone?

Sethandbuddy: "The iPad doesn't have an obvious comparison, due to it's multi-functionality." That was your claim. You're backing that up with "iPad will do a lot of stuff. Books, internet, email, games, word processing, entertainment of all stripes, and so on." Your list is all the same stuff that pretty-much any portable device can provide. I'd further argue that books, games, email, and word-processing are going to be pretty weak points for the iPad given the excellent competitors and the iPad's meager inputs, and are all features that the iPhone already provides in a more-convenient package. Who's going to "word process" on a touchscreen? Who's going to game without a joystick, keyboard, or any buttons? Have you tried playing the iPhone games that require anything resembling real-time input? They suck.

I aim higher than $500 for my own laptops, but my wife has been perfectly content with a $500 laptop for school and a netbook for her purse when she's going to be "stuck somewhere" like the kid's karate class. They're on the low-end on a power scale, but not prone to problems. They're certainly as powerful as the iPad if not significantly better, with comparable battery life. My wife's netbook gets 8 hours. Of course, cheap laptops and netbooks come with wifi and are compatible with iTunes, so... you can't even tip the iPad with Apple's branded media.

LOL @ Juvegirl. Very nice.

I will buy a 3G iPad the instant it becomes available. It's just what I've been waiting for... a device that is sufficient computer to move about my apartment with (17" MacBook Pro is too unweildy), read in bed, and in combination with a Slingbox, I can sit on the balcony and watch TV.

Could I do all of that with a Windows netbook? Sure. But this device is better for what I want to do and I dislike Windows. Ten hours of battery life is a good thing, too.

People made these same comments about the iPhone when it was announced and it flew off of the shelves. All you naysayers will see the iPad fly off of the shelves too.

Sorry the link may have language that you do not find suitible.

This is what I think most people reactions were to the ipad

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQnT0zp8Ya4

Sorry about the repost

Sorry the link may have language that you do not find suitible.

This is what I think most people reactions were to the ipad

I absolutely agree Scott. In fact, that is almost exactly what ran through my head when I read about it. "Hmmm, it looks like a laptop, but I'm not reading that it functions the same way. Oh look, he's reading on it. Well, I can do that with a Kindle. It might be hard to game on it. I don't game. Can I draw on it? Can't tell. $499? On to the next news article!"

~ManDee
www.chubbygirlcomics.com

Target Audience for iPad = QVC

Old people will buy it?? Old people don't buy iAnything.

Speaking of old people, Steve Jobs is getting old.

I'm late posting, but hopefully someone will see this and laugh:

"Apple announced today that it has developed a breast implant that can store and play music. The [i T i t] will cost from $499 to $699, depending on cup and speaker size. This is considered a major social breakthrough, because women are always complaining about men staring at their breasts and not listening to them."

Now that the dust has settled a bit I'd like to repeat a couple of sound bites:

1. The iPad is made for old people. Turns out the iPhone is the perfect home computer GUI for grandma, except for the fact that the FONT IS TOO SMALL. Now they've solved that.

2. The iPad is like the Segway. It's pretty cool, but I wouldn't buy one.

Speaking of "breakthrough" transportation, WTF is going on with this new bullet train initiative? Aren't trains 19th century technology? Wouldn't $8 billion be better spent shoring up our beleaguered banking industry? (Just kidding) I mean, wouldn't $8 billion be better spent on internet bandwidth, 3D real-time Streetview, 3D conference calling, 3D printers, autonomous freight helicopters, etc, etc. The idea being to expand our virtual realm, leveraging electronics, robotics and communications technologies.

And who needs to physically sightsee when you have a 3D wall at home that can seamlessly tap into satellite views and cameras on all the autonomous freight helicopters? Eventually, it would become proper etiquette to WebEx into your mom's funeral. I could go on, but you get the idea.

But trains? What's next? Bio-engineered super-horses that run 100mph?

I find it amusing that you find no real incentive in the iPad vs a regular laptop/netbook. In your last blog entry you complain about stuff (and technology) becoming more and more complex, and the iPad is (among other things) an attempt by Apple to makes things simpler. That's why they went with the iPhone OS instead of the full MacOSX.

It looks like you complain about complexity bu give no credit to the guys trying to make it simpler. To put things in perspective, one of the great advances the iPhone brought was simplicity. My father knows how to read his email, browse the web and more on an iPhone, when I wouldn't have spent 5 minutes trying to explain to him how to do it on another smartphone at the time.

Now I am not saying the iPad will be a success, but it does try to makes things more intuitive and seamless.

Drow,

1) If you buy a laptop for $500 or less you had better hope the company you buy it from has good customer service, because you'll be in contact with them a lot. Besides, the iPad is not meant to replace laptops. It's meant to be something in-between portable media devices and laptops. Netbooks are basically just tiny laptops, so the function is exactly the same, just on a smaller scale. This will not be either a laptop or a portable media device - it's something totally different.

2) Why compare the iPad to what was built to be a phone? Would you complain about your watch not being able to take pictures or make calls? No, because it's not supposed to. The iPad is not intended to be a phone. But as has been mentioned, you will be able to get GPS with it.

3) I'm not a mac fanboy (in fact I built my own PC and the only Apple products I own are iPods) but factually Windows has a host of issues, and Linux is too hard to use for the average person. Mac operating systems are more user friendly than any of their competitors.

4) iPad will do a lot of stuff. Books, internet, email, games, word processing, entertainment of all stripes, and so on. That makes it multi-functional.

5) Netbooks are cheaper, but they will not be as useful for some things (like reading books, newspapers) as this will be. I really can't see why a netbook would be preferable to this, or to a laptop. I'd rather fork out the extra cash for a laptop or the iPad than spend it on a netbook. The only reason it would be preferable is because it's cheaper.

6) In buying an iPad you can be reasonably certain you will get a device that works, works well, and is easy to use, not to mention a lot of fun (unlike with a netbook). Put simply, the iPad will be a lot more relaxing and enjoyable to use than a laptop or netbook.

7) I'm not saying it necessarily will succeed. But it does have tons of *potential*. It's the potential that excites me. Especially as someone who loves comics, and newspapers, I think it is a shame that so many people have been pushed to giving away their content essentially for free. A device like this makes a door for that to quit happening and for journalists, cartoonists, etc. to actually make the money they deserve for the work they do.

There's a lot of misinformation going around.

It DOES have a word processor app (available for $9.99 at the App Store). It DOES have GPS. And while there are Windows-based Netbooks that cost less, iPad is cheaper than any Apple laptop. If a buyer decides that Windows or Linux doesn't offer the experience they want (and, based on Apple's market share, these days 7-9% of computer buyers feel that way), the iPad is a good alternative at a decent price.

The publicity photos all seem to show people sitting in jaunty positions... because you can't put this thing on your lap without having to crane your neck down, and that's just not comfortable for any length of time. As a handheld device, it's fine, but a lot of people are going to be disappointed if they think it will replace a laptop or netbook.

sethandbuddy: What are you smoking? You can buy a decent, useful laptop for $500, and you can get a cheap one for ~$400. You can get a netbook with 1ghz processor, 1GB ram, wifi, and 160GB hd for < $250 and run a popular OS on it. Why would you describe the iPad as multifunctional? Compare it to an iPhone: No camera, no phone, no gps. It doesn't have any functionality beyond a typical laptop, and nothing but disadvantages when compared to one. And it's MORE EXPENSIVE.

Oh, and I should add that the most expensive version of this device is still less than $900, and you get one in your hands for $500. That's going to be a huge benefit to the potential of this device as well. I'd much rather fork out that price for this than $1500 for a clunky laptop. But again, only if they pull this device up to its potential. If it ends up basically just being an oversized iPod touch, then I don't see it being successful.

The iPad doesn't have an obvious comparison, due to it's multi-functionality. That's true enough. But I don't think that's why it will or will not be popular. The popularity of this device will come to be based upon how they and its suitors (e.g. newspapers, book companies) use its potential. Because it is so multifunctional, I think it can be considerably more useful than a laptop. Some areas I see its potential in:

- Newspapers can start making money again instead of giving all of their stuff away for free (I don't need to tell you how beneficial this could be to comics)
- College students could potentially buy their books on this instead of hard copies which they have to sell back
- Doctors can just have one of these to carry around which would cut back significantly on paper work
- New authors can be discovered by making their work available on iTunes (or iBooks, whatever)

Even if it's not this device specifically, this type of device I think actually does have the potential to be revolutionary. Just on the size, I'd much rather carry this around with me than a clunky laptop. And that size benefit actually has significant impacts in its ability to be preferable to a laptop. But again, it's all in how Apple and others use the device. If they limit their vision of it, it could easily be a flop. But I and I think all of those who are interested in the newspaper and comics are hoping it doesn't.