The iPad: What's the appeal?

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Kaito-kun
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The iPad: What's the appeal?

Post by Kaito-kun »

A thought struck me at work today; A customer was sitting at a table with both an iPad and and iPod Touch (Or possibly an iPhone, I didn't want to stare and make him uncomfortable) and it make me wonder, what's the point in the iPad? Especially if you already own an iPod Touch/iPhone. I almost asked the customer myself, but we were a bit too busy for me to be chit-chatting.

I've got nothing against Apple, they've made some fine products (Not used a lot of them, mind, they always seem to be slightly needlessly expensive) and like any other company they've done good and bad however, I just don't understand the appeal of the iPad: It just seems to me to be a giant iPod touch.

Surely what makes the iPod Touch a great device is that it does (almost) everything (as long as Apple approves of it, unless you're naughty and jailbreak it) and it fits inside your pocket, allowing you, in theory, to do anything, anywhere. So what's the appeal of taking the convenience out of it? Some people say "Oh, but it's great for if you don't want to carry a laptop around everywhere!" but, isn't that why netbooks were created? Heck, some netbooks are even lighter than the iPad! So it can't be that.

And the price! Seriously; £429 for the basic model? The laptop I'm typing on right now wasn't even that much! (Fair enough, I did get it from Aldi, but it's still a decent lappy I've never had an issue with electronics from Aldi.) So why should I pay and extra £140 to buy the most basic iPad model instead of the most advanced iPod Touch which does almost everything the iPad does? What makes the iPad special?
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Post by Gavvie »

Displays in HD resolutions, for one.

Seriously though, I agree. Although I'm trying to win one, purely for shits and giggles (and financial profit if I do decided I'm gonna sell it), I wouldn't go running off to buy one. It's just far too expensive for what it does, even when you compare it to other tablet PCs.

It's just Apple overcharging you because they know poor saps will go and buy it.
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Post by Kaito-kun »

Gavvie wrote:Displays in HD resolutions, for one.
Ah, forgot that one, then again, I'm the one in a million person who can't see any difference between standard and high definitions. ^__^""
Gavvie wrote:Seriously though, I agree. Although I'm trying to win one, purely for shits and giggles (and financial profit if I do decided I'm gonna sell it), I wouldn't go running off to buy one. It's just far too expensive for what it does, even when you compare it to other tablet PCs.
I'm exactly the same really; if I was given one for free I would probably be quite chuffed with it and use it constantly, however, I don't already own an iPod Touch (Or even a dedicated MP3 player!) so it would probably act as compensation for that and I certainly don't plan on paying for one.
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Post by Tru »

I agree with Gavvie, but I'm not that fussed about Apple in general, as most of their products are too overpriced for me, and for what I can get with other, cheaper products. It seems everyone at my Uni has an iPhone, but I just don't see the appeal of that either... Then again, I'm not the kind of person that uses a phone much :D

There are so many other cool gadgets out there. I was way more interested in the Microsoft Courier, if they ever get round to developing, as it seems to be what I would really want: an electronic notepad or scrapbook that you can fold up and carry anywhere.
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Post by Rayne »

The iPad is a luxury product and assuming you have the spare income, I'm sure it'd be wonderful to have. Plays great resolution videos, thousands of applications, effortless web browsing (which is fecking brilliant on the go), the ability to store loads of music, pictures, etc...

For a certain type of person it fufils a decent purpose (I know a dude that doesn't own a laptop, he uses his ipad to buy and view media and the like).

I would love to have one but I honestly couldn't justify the sheer price of them (a 32Gig with 3G is like £700 or something?)
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Post by SegaMark »

It's a luxury product, I'm yet to get one but two people I know absolutely love them, one has got shot of his MacBook since getting one.

It's a device designed to consume media in comfort. I want one and I look forward to surfing the web, reading iBooks and generally dicking about on some really good games on it. I don't find a notebook comfortable, they're red hot and the way you sit is restricted, and it's not exactly good for inflight entertainment if you travel much.

I don't understand the 'if you have an iPod touch argument' - have you tried reading web pages on it for say over an hour? It's not exactly comfortable on the eyes....

If it was pointless nobody would of have purchased one. Again, luxury product.
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Post by The Captain »

I had the option of getting an iPad (Note: getting AN iPad. Not "getting iPad" like the ads put it, like it's a bloody person).

Got a Blackberry Bold instead. *Thumbs are up*
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Post by Killer French Bread »

It's nice stuff aint it, the ipad. People like stuff, nice shiny stuff.
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Post by richarddavies »

^ I certainly like stuff. Can't get enough of it. The ipad is one of those things that make you go "Oooohh I want one" even though I know I've already got a computer that does most of it's functions anyway. It's not as shiny though....
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