iPad: Satisfaction or Disappointment?
CUPERTINO – Three months after the launch of the iPad, in April 2010, Apple has recently claimed to have sold over 3.27 million units of its new tablet and, according to some estimates, if the sales continue along this route, later this year the total number could rise up to 10-12 million iPads sold worldwide.
Beyond the unquestionable commercial success of the iPad, there are also some people who bought the tablet but were left unsatisfied and who, therefore, still rather use their old laptop or netbook.
The main reason for this situation is that not for all users the iPad can be regarded as the instrument to fully substitute their laptop. Before buying a product like the iPad, putting aside the emotional and impulsive approach, you should ask yourself what could you use it for and what would you actually do with it.
Personally, since when I bought the 3G + WiFi version of the Apple’s tablet I have completely abandoned my netbook and my MacBook. I used them to surf the Internet, read e-mail, keep me informed with my feeds on Google Reader and write articles for the blog when my desktop computer wasn’t available. So, ultimately, it was a limited set of activities that are fully reproducible with my iPad.
If your profile matches with mine (and I know many do), besides Safari and Mail allowing you to surf the Internet and read e-mail, I recommend you to download Pages for iPad which is the perfect tool for writing articles and publishing them on your blog. Furthermore, if you’re an avid feed reader you should try Reeder or Pulse. iBooks allows you to read eBooks and view PDF files. If you love travel, you can consult the electronic version of any city guide with your iBook and use the Google Maps application in order to choose your path and guide you perfectly through museums, restaurants and hotels. Finally, if you are a Twitter-addict there are many clients available that will allow you to keep in touch with your followers at times in a more practical way than any smartphone could do.
And now we want to know your opinion: how are you using your iPad? Are you satisfied or disappointed by the Apple tablet?
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I don’t have it, but I need one!! I know, I will love it!
I am 80% in love with my iPad, 20% bummed (but I don’t fault apple for most of this, because I knew the ipad’s limitations going into the deal…).
the 20% bummed is mostly due to the fact that I really HATE iTunes and only use it when absolutely necessary (I don’t like the way it syncs, the music library sucks, etc, etc.). I almost reconsidered my purchase when I found out almost everything done on the ipad must be done through iTunes. I love, love, love (!) apple, but, shame on you, for basically creating loophole monopolies with your own priducts or privilaged providers like ATT!! I would have loved at least ONE USB connecton or something for interfacing besides an AC cord and…. An output to, yeah. iTunes….
80% Greatness….
I LOVE THE APPS! But who doesn’t? As a photographer, this little gadget is utter heaven! Sooooo much more SPACE to edit and applications that can work in conjunction like Photoshop for a teeny tiny fraction of the price! I’ve spent probably 50$ on photo apps with ipad and the iPhone…. Over about one year. Almost all of my upgrades are free (as oppossed to CS5…. I was just getting used to CS4 and recovering from the financial shock!!)….
I’m ambivilant about pages right now…. I’ve always stubbornly clung to Office for all of my doc. Stuff. I need to delve in a little deeper to see what Pages can really do…
BATTERY LIFE is exceptionally fantastic, for all of it’s features (Bluetooth, push, etc.). It’s the Energizer Bunny of IT!
OVERALL QUALITY AND DESIGN…. it’s sleek, user friendly and intuitive (though I hate typing on the thing!), as well as totally superior in its resolution.
So many features to go on about, but I think my opinion is clear. So, I have issues with Ilitunes (HATE!HATE!HATE!), but I can email and use other apps to get around some itunecusafe and bite the bullet for thecrest…..
4 out of 5 stars – absolutely worth it!!!
*the deciding factor on purchase for me was (and still would be) its G3 Internet capabilities…. Indispensible!
Thanks for your comment Dionne, really interesting! :)
This is the in depth opinion I really love, rich of insights and clear.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts!
[fourth-from-last-sentence] * …. “iTunes stuff and bite the bullet for the rest…”
Should have proof read; sorry!
Are there any RoR or general web development applications available on the iPad? This would be the one function of my regular desktop/laptop that an iPad, as far as I know, couldn’t handle. Otherwise, I would get one – so can you guys sway me?
No great applications available for that. We ar waiting for Panic Coda.
While I generally like the iPad, I’m one of those who is really disappointed. It’s a computer that needs another computer. You have to work with iTunes. There is no USB or SD card support without having to hunt high and low for 3rd party adapters. I found a SD adapter for iPad in a Flying J (I think) truck stop. What really bothers me though is that Apple says you can hold the whole Internet in your hands. Well you can’t. There is no Flash support. With 75% of the video setup as Flash video and a majority of games are built in Flash, that content is not available.
Great technology and it’s a cool device. However, I think I’m gong to be getting a PC tablet running Windows 7 that has USB, SD and even HDMI.
Adobe Flash is not a big lack for me.
While I don’t see myself ever buying a Windows 7 Tablet, or anything like that, I’d really love to see them bust out something that really forces Apple to open up the functionality of the iPad.
I might end up buying the next gen of iPad once it gets a camera (or two). At the moment though, I have an iPhone and my MacBook Pro and they both complement each other very well. An iPad, for the most part, would just overlap what I already do right now between my two Apple devices but down the line I think I’ll find ways for it to augment the way I work and play.
But as a graphic designer, web designer, and just overall power-user, the iPad will never be a replacement for my MacBook Pro.
I love the iPad, with one caveat…the inability to print. Sure, I can email my document, or use an app, but printing must come before my iPad can replace my laptop. The ability to run flash would be helpful, too. Some sites need flash to run, sorry Steve.
Would I buy it again? Yes. Do I recommend it? Yes. Is it easy and fun to use? Yes. Do I fall asleep with it sometimes? Yep.
- Flash? Not necessary, also every common platform (youtube, vimeo) offers an alternative.
- I’m also waiting for the iPad version of Coda, but “Gusto” is much more than just a decent tool for a quick coding session. Have you tried Gusto, Antonio?
- Camera? We have real cameras or phones for that. You would seriously look like an idiot holding your (big) iPad, trying to take a picture.
- Who said the iPad’s there to replace a laptop/PC? Nobody. It doesn’t have USB, cardslots, etc. just because it’s not supposed to have all that. It’s a tablet, so It’s an entirely different story.
And btw, I really own an iPad – so I know what I’m talking about.
PS: I just totally sounded like an Apple-fanboy. For the record: I’m not.
Totally agree with you Milos.
I agree with you… The things you listed are not necessary in the iPad… but, why i should pay as it have it all.
Is about the feeling that you can get more things at the same cost.
You want multitasking? buy a macbook.
You want camera? get a decent mobile phone or a 80usd camera.
Adobe Flash? HTML5?? CSS3?? with these two i give it 12 more month for the flash. That’s my humble opinion.
Like the post above, a tablet is a tablet. Apple dont want to ditch the notebooks, it just another product with it own nieche.
Ciao
Don’t buy an iPad is you think it is a laptop. It’s an iPad. And it does what an iPad does extremely well. I still use my MacBook Pro for doing lots of heavy email, Photoshop and iPhoto, and for posting to my websites, but for reading my RSS feeds, doing quick email and writing, surfing the web, movies etc, it is superb.
I think of it like this. If I’m going to be sitting at a desk, I’ll probably be using my laptop. If working in a comfy chair, the couch, or a coffeehouse, the iPad is just wonderful. Love it. I actually get more reading done than before, since I hate reading at my desk. My advice, go try one. You really can’t get an idea of how an iPad fits into your workflow until you’ve tried one.
Love my iPad. iPad Coda would be awesome and the only camera that would be nice is a front camera for Facetime.
I’m also waiting for Coda for the iPad!
The iPad is a sort of bigger iPhone. But without some of its functions. It’s also half-way from being a netbook but with a price tag which is almost double.
While I find it gorgeous, I can’t find an interesting use out of it. Admittedly I own an iPhone so I can read email, rss feeds and surf the web. I can also manage my Amazon EC2 servers, log into my boxes with SSH or post blog articles. All stuff I could do on an iPad too, but I can snap photos and record movies too (and make phone calls). It fits my pockets too. The iPad just isn’t of any use for someone like me (iPhone owner?)
I own a netbook too. I use it to read ebooks; emails; surf the web; chat via msn, icq, yahoo messenger, IRC and gTalk.
There’s one thing I couldn’t do on the iPad: code.
I run netbeans and/or notepad++ on my netbook. The iPad just isn’t up to par with netbooks for developers. Yet it costs double the price of a decent netbook. Obviously we’re talking about “targeting the audience”.
A software developer may be better off buying a Windows tablet or a Linux one. Even the JooJoo looked better on paper (sounds hackable too).
I wouldn’t buy an iPad if it did cost the same as a netbook. Obviously it’s touch sensitive and has a nice screen, but no card reader, no usb, no camera. Also remember than on a small netbook you can run thousands of “applications” you could run on a desktop PC too (and you don’t need to hold it when viewing movies in bed).
Still I’m fascinated by the iPad. The design and the concept are simply beautiful. Hope someone else can at least copy the sleekness.
Typo: the iPad HAS the usb connector. Obviously.
Well, I have written some articles on iPad right from the beginning of it’s prelaunch for one of the sites of my Company. I still write articles on iPad, iPhone and more.
While the article and some of the above comments put together what an iPad in question can do or be useful in every way like a PC or Laptop, the fact still remains the same that it has its own limitations. iPad can be used for surfing, sharing, being connected, reading and more, but I’m still haven’t come across if you can use software for coding, DB Designing and designing. But maybe, i guess the versions, as the iPad becomes old, will have these updates.
Hope to see them soon.
Thanks
Rafi, Graphicsfuel.
@ Niccolo: where is the USB port? Do you mean I have to buy an adapter?
I work for a University in the UK and we bought a couple of iPads for testing purposes. I agree with the good design, great battery life and very good touch screen, but we found many limitations.
- No Flash: the majority of E-Learning suites produce swf files (we use Xerte)
- Safari for the iPad is limited compare to the Mac version: we were not able to upload pictures on Flicker by using the browser, we had to get a sort of Flicker app from the Apple store. We had the same problem with uploading files to our VLE and with some blogs we use. Some of my colleagues wanted to use other browsers to surf the net but I do not know if they made it.
- No memory card reader (no USB either) to quickly transfer pictures from a camera to a bigger screen and publish them on the web if needed. I guess there are many adapters, but usually they are the things you forget.
- No camera means no video calls or conference using Skype and we travel a lot in different countries. External kit? No, thank you.
-The screen is beautiful, but it is way too reflective. I was on a train close to the window and it drove me mad just to read a PDF. It is also very good to capture your finger prints!
-You always have to hold it somehow and after a while it is a bit heavy (this is a female complaint!)
-Typing is slower than a common keyboard, no matter how good you are with the iPhone (and some of us is a pro!).
After this experience, the bosses decided to go for some cheaper netbooks and to wait for an iPad 2.
I had the good fortune to try out an iPad, in the comfort of my home, for just one evening last week. So I have a small amount of experience using it, but I haven’t bought it, so I’m not just defending something I’ve already paid out money for!
My initial impression was that it’s a bit heavier than I expected, but it’s a lovely device to hold and interact with. It’s very easy to use, although some functions are less-than-obvious – for example, it’s not always obvious when something is ‘touchable’, and, because your focus is very much on the center of the screen, buttons on the edge are less noticeable. But, generally speaking, it’s easy to use right away, without reading any manuals whatsoever.
The screen is gorgeous in terms of size, and quality. Although it gets really grubby, accumulating fingerprints like nobody’s business, this is only really noticeable when turned off – the brightness of the screen hides almost all day-to-day digit grease. But the brightness IS an issue. I couldn’t imagine reading ebooks on it, certainly not with the default settings. Even after turning the brightness down to a minimum, and changing some of the configuration in the ebook application I was using, the screen was still uncomfortable to read a book on. I *was* using it late in the evening, which could have been a factor. But compared to the displays on dedicated book readers, this didn’t really do it for me.
The keyboard was much faster to use than I thought. But I didn’t really use it long enough to judge what my maximum typing speed could be; certainly by the end of my trial, I was typing about half as fast as I normally could, if that. And I still made quite a few more typos than I normally would. But I’m pretty confident that would improve with practice; for the odd email and blog comment, there’s no problem at all. For typing up long reports or articles, it’s not quite ideal.
Surfing the web was a joy, although I didn’t do a lot of in-depth reading. I have some issues with Apple’s ‘zoom to scale’ policy, because – IMO – it’s far less usable than ‘wrap-text-to-fit-width’. But interacting with the web using just your fingers, scrolling through pages smoothly with simple gestures, is just a revolution. I hadn’t used the iPhone before, so I guess I was extra-impressed, but the iPad’s screen is probably the absolute minimum size you’d need to really use the web.
Lack of flash, if anything, is a pro for me, rather than a con. The main source of video – youtube – falls back to HTML 5 video, so that’s not an issue. I don’t care about playing games online, and I’m not interested in visiting any site that is produced in such an amateur fashion that it requires flash to work (that’s the web developer/designer in me speaking!) I actually like the fact that, because of the no-flash decision, Apple is helping to change the mindset of certain website decision-makers, and we’ll all benefit from well-produced sites that don’t rely on flash.
I guess the real tester is, having tried it out for an evening, have I rushed out to buy one? The answer’s no. If I had a spare £500 to hand, I certainly would, but that IS still quite a lot of money for what is a luxury, albeit a very nice one! If I were to buy an iPad, by the way, I would certainly go for the cheapest model; I see no reason to go with 3G (I’m not about to use this thing whilst walking down the street, or even during my commute, to be honest) and, for what I’d use it for, I definitely wouldn’t need anything more than 16GB. I’d *like* it, but I wouldn’t *need* it.
I’d like to see what the iPad 2 will be like next year. If it has the same screen as the iPhone 4 (i.e. 4 times better), for about the same price, I’d rush out and get one. Honestly, though, I don’t think there are many other improvements that could be made because the device isn’t supposed to be all-singing, and all-dancing – it does what it does, very well.
I’m also double-minded about the iPad …
On one hand I think it’s great and it’s the most usable web browsing computer ever … way better than all the netbooks. But on the other hand, I really can’t do a lot of stuff on it …
I’m limited in some directions. I’m still waiting for the new Facebook iPad app, also I’m waiting for Remote, Twitter for iPad ( the other versions also work, but I generally expect something better ). I’m looking forward to see the iPad iOS 4.0 … so I can use multitasking .. which is the thing I need a lot of the time.
I’m using the iPad generally when I’m on a vacation or I’m travelling somewhere. It’s irreplaceable. And may be that’s the purpose of it… I think nobody would use netbook for making photoshop design or for hard code programming … because of the small keyb and screen. I really think iPad, also isn’t designed for that.
It’s excellent for reading books, web browsing everywhere ( except the places where I’m being stared like an alien … xaxa ( really liked the first 10 questions, but now I certainly don’t bring it on public places ). For videoclips and movies, when you’re on the run.
I don’t regret buying it … but there are a lot of features that are still missing from it – well, software features for my luck :)
iPad is by now very very limited. It is promising but buying it now is losing money, because newer versions will include many features that Apple just bans in this version.
I always go “WTF” when reading stuff like “Flash will be gone in a matter of months”. HTML5 will reach W3C candidate recommendation status in about 2012. The different engines have a lot of reds in the charts concerning what they support (http://goo.gl/mwF6) etc.
The people complaining about Flash are generally not the users, but mainly designers and as such we are offcourse entitled to our opinion.
Personally, I think that Flash definetly has its uses. It will be the choice for certain webcreations until something thats smoother and easier to implement is out there. We dont have a time-estimate on when the biggest browsers support html5 yet, so how to say that its soon here and that it will be an instant Flashkiller?
I just stumbled (!) across this page so I have no idea what concept it has. It looks very “pro-appleish”, and thats ok, offcourse, I just wonder if that small issue has something to do with the anti-flash-wibe?
Being a designer and not liking Apples products means I am more or less a minority, so I guess I am used to being the underdog in certain discussions, so sorry if I stepped on anyones toes. It was not intentionally. Mind your own feet when you comment on my comment though. ;)
Multitasking is coming soon :D http://zd.net/9ujalC
99.99% in love with my iPad…(iTunes is my 0.01% gripe…I use mail to transport most of myStuff.)
Love how I can have iPad running with my DesignFlows or how-to pdfs or Notes while I work on my desktop… Seems to keep me focused and much less clutter or little starting/stopping.
AppStore on iPad seems to work so fast…iTunes any place is soooooo slow!
my big issue with Flash is the volume of 3rd-party stuff it puts on your computer…without your knowledge or permission…
@Dennis…okay you make your choice…but do think you like some of the things Apple/Steve has given you…Harddrive; Color Graphics; GUI; Laptops; Trackpad; 1st commercial mouse;
and IMO if CERN didn’t use the NeXT computer, Berners-Lee might not have bothered with developing WorldWideWeb as his ENQUIRE program worked just fine. You may not like Apple or Steve Jobs…but your computing experience is better because of them.
MH
Moderation is still the best option out there.