Since I got my iPad six weeks ago, I have only used my MacBook Air once.
I am not going to repeat the extensive reviews posted elsewhere, but after over a month of extensive use, give some perspective for those who don’t get the point of the iPad, or other similar devices.
First of all, commentators have focused on entirely the wrong thing: feeds and speeds, missing features like multitasking or Flash, Apple’s iron fist over app developers. The iPad begins and ends with the user experience, and that means multi-touch and the incredibly long battery life. That’s why comparisons to stylus-driven devices like the unsuccessful Microsoft Tablet PC miss the point. The amazing battery life, specially on standby (I have never managed to go under 60%, even after three days without charging), means you can use it as a real mobile device and not subconsciously watch the battery meter.
Is it a perfect device? Of course not. Mobile Safari has a hard time with complex and heavy pages like those from my Temboz RSS/Atom feed reader, the screen is too prone to reflections and fingerprints, and Apple’s use of high-quality materials like aluminium and glass instead of plastic and acrylic makes it heavier to hold than necessary.
As to whether it is a replacement for a laptop, the answer is yes and no. The iPad is the first in an entirely new class of devices, and I think it has the potential to replace desktop and laptop computers as the dominant form of consumer computing. The touch user interface makes for a very engaging user experience, far more than using a mouse and keyboard ever did. To be sure, the input limitations do not make it a very efficient content creation device, but that’s where opinions diverge.
I use desktop computers for real work (an eight-core Mac Pro with 12G of RAM and a 30″ display at home, a quad-core iMac with a 27″ display at work). A laptop just feels too constricting for extended use. I have the luxury of using proper desktops because I do not travel much for work, and the extent of my mobile use is reading books or browsing the web while commuting by bus. The improvements that most benefit me are in synchronizing my iPad with multiple computers, and offline capability (I got the WiFi model since there is no way I will pay AT&T for their garbage excuse of a network).
Road warriors need a more featured device, even if cramped, and will not be so impressed. I think genuine mobile users are a minority, however. Surveys in the past showed that most laptops are tethered, i.e. users would unplug them from home, take them to work and plug them there, and back. That is why Windows laptop makers introduced monstrosities like Pentium 4 powered laptops with battery lives that barely exceeded the hour. Laptop sales exceeded those of desktops because many people wanted the option of mobility, even if they seldom, if ever, availed themselves of it, and a less obtrusive presence in their homes than the typical beige box with its rat’s warren of cables. Those people would be better served by a well-designed desktop like the iMac and an iPad for the occasional mobile use.
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I so much want to get one of these for my technologically-challenged Mom, just for browsing, email, and IM. With push technology like WhatsApp I can get by the non-concurrent problem and make due for IM, but the deal breaker is Flash support. My mom won’t understand anything beyond “my friend sent me this link, and I can’t see it on this thing you gave me”. )-:
BTW, I’m currently setting up a new high-res matte screen 15″ MacBook Pro, and while it’s no replacement for my 8-core Mac Pro with dual high-resolution monitors at home, the screen feels positivity vast for a laptop, and I think real work will be quite enjoyable in its huge embrace.
In 2006 I lived off a first-generation 15″ MacBook Pro for 3 months, and you can get used to it (my main monitor was only a 23″ at the time). It’s easy to get blasé about screen sizes, I am starting to feel cramped in a 27″, even with virtual desktops. The absence of Flash is a feature as far as I am concerned (I block it in my desktop browser, Firefox, along with all media plug-ins). The MBP is too heavy, though. Mine was after a lightweight Toshiba Portege 2000 and before an equally light MacBook Air, and I have no plans to return to a boat anchor anytime soon.
I detest Flash as much as anyone else (or, more specifically, I detest how Flash has been used), and I also block it in my browsers, but I maintain the ability to turn it back on when I need it, and the lack of that ability can be a huge barrier to information. Case in point: I was at a large park on an island in Japan the other day and unexpectedly needed to check the schedule of something, but was completely thwarted because the site in question was all Flash, so all I could see on my iPhone was the “you’re screwed” icon. I did not consider this “a feature” of my iPhone.
In a perfect world the lack of Flash support would cause the market to drive web designers to avoid Flash, and the problem would go away, but the phrase “perfect world” does not really apply to web designers who make flash-heavy / flash-only sites in the first place, who most likely lack the technical ability to even understand that there is a problem. (“All the world’s a Vax” brought forward 40 years)
So it’s fine for you and me to decide we don’t care for Flash, but it’s disingenuous to claim “it’s a feature”. You and I can decide whether we want to live with whatever hassles the lack of Flash might entail, but it’s not credible to make that decision for everyone else. There’s a huge market of people for which the iPad could be a wonderful web-browsing solution if not for this issue, my mother included.
I would rarely use Flash support in an iPad, but I wish it was there; I wish it as a user for the occasional time I might need it, as a son who would like to give something cool *and* useful to my getting-up-there-in-years folks, as the owner of a small amount of ADBE stock, and as the owner of a much larger amount of AAPL stock.
Oh, and about the boat anchor, I need the laptop to do heavy photographic processing, so I need lots of CPU, lots of disk (the first thing I did was replace the 0.5TB disk with a 1TB disk), and lots of screen real-estate: the high-res 1680×1050 is sweet. It’s like a mobile desktop, without the desk. Almost wish I got the 17″ now that I’m working with it… I mean, really, if you’ve decided you need a boat anchor, get the best one you can!
I considered getting one for my resolutely technophobe grandmother (she doesn’t even have a cell phone), so she could have access to all her children and grandchildren photos, but I don’t think the device is ready for that population yet, or for very young children. There is no equivalent of the simplified Finder you have on OS X under parental controls, or even locking the home screen to an app of your choosing, you still need to sync with iTunes for a number of things, and a number of other assumptions that require a more sophisticated user than she is.