I can’t think if any actual reasons how an iPad could be any more useful than my laptop for work or business. I don’t know anyone who owns one and I’ve only spent about 10 minutes playing with an iPad at the local Best Buy so I admit that I don’t have a lot of experience with how it works.
From what I understand, it’s basically like an iPod Touch or an iPhone (which I do own). I’ve heard that it will (or already does?) have business software created specifically for it, such as a word processor and spreadsheet program much like Microsoft Office. While that makes it sound a little more useful, I don’t see why I would rather take that on a business trip or to a client meeting when I have a fully-featured laptop that has everything I need.
For pleasure on the other hand, I think an iPad would be great. If I wanted to read a book in bed or browse the internet on the couch, an iPad would super-simple and easy to use.
One of the biggest problems I have is that it doesn’t support Flash and since I would use the iPad mostly for web browsing, this really bothers me. I understand that Flash is a dying technology and is practically useless on mobile devices, but I thought of the iPad as more than just a large iPhone and I had really hoped Apple would have included Flash capabilities more like a desktop computer.
This isn’t to say that I would never OWN an iPad though. I’m just saying I would never BUY one. At least not for the price it’s selling for right now. For $200 more than the selling price of an iPad, I can go buy a brand new fully-featured Macbook.
This is why I’m hoping to win one instead 😀 I’ll enter a few contests here and there as I see them on Twitter, such as this one from hiTechPedia.com. I never win any contests, but you never know how things might turn out.
If I win, I might have a complete change of heart about the iPad and may even be able to provide some real reasons on why anyone should buy one. Here’s hoping 😉
*image Courtesy of Apple