All such apps are not even comparable to their PC counterparts, and require the usage of aggravating workarounds for syncing. Also, seriously, a bluetooth keyboard? Or even the docking one? Why bother even bringing the iPad at that point? I'll just take my laptop, it'll end up being LESS bulky, and it'll run Excel. The full Excel.
I agree, if you want to run Excel then you need a laptop or desktop at the present time. But for overall usage, especially traveling? I'll take an iPad ANY day of the week over a laptop when it comes to in flight use. It's way more convenient and someone pushing their seat back in front of you won't cramp your screen viewing the way a clamshell design can.
Because it's accessible, not because it's featureful.
So people are only using an iPad because it's accessible? LOL...really? Please. People don't use something unless it works for them. You are in denial that for millions of people, it works just fine.
If you want to get a Pages document off of the iPad, you're forced to use Apple's terrible online service, or the horrible iTunes USB sync interface.
NOT true. You can email yourself the file. And which "terrible online service" were you referring to? Mobile Me? Or share via iWork.com. Cause that's another option as well. And more options will undoubtedly crop up in the future. An iPad is a product that's only a few months old. You seem to think an iPad is something set in stone that will never have software updates....ever. Which of course will not be the case.
The iPad offers nothing you cannot do on a regular computer, period. People seem to ignore this extremely important fact.
Because it's not a fact. Go try playing a four player touch screen game on your regular computer where all four people have their hands on the large screen at the same time. I dare you.
It's not a wash, you want it to be a wash. Buyer's remorse. And you can disagree all you want, it doesn't change the facts.
LOL..wow. You sure seem to think you know a lot about other people whom you have never met. Too bad you don't know what you are talking about.
Also, funny you mention "app store development is where the action is right now". Should I mention Apple's increasingly draconian app restrictions, and how they're pushing away more and more developers each day? The more successful other platforms like Android become, the less developers will target the iOS platform. In fact, I will go as far to say that a vast majority of developers only develop for iOS currently because it's a large market. As that continues to change, you'll see more going to Android/etc.
Sorry. You can wring your hands all you want over this issue, but anyone that doesn't understand where developers are focusing most of their efforts just has their head stuck in the sand. That being said, there is room for everyone much as there are room for both Mac and PC developers and Xbox and Wii developers and I look forward to seeing more high quality stuff on the Android platform. But that day is not today. Much as the iPad itself, the Android platform is an immature one that is still having some teething pains. The great news is that undoubtedly both will get better as time goes on!
Because it won't be, which is why I said /true/ multitasking and gave an example.
"True" multitasking vs. the way Apple does it? From an end user standpoint, it makes no difference. Assuming the iOS app has been recompiled to take advantage of the 4.0 features...which at some point all will be unless they have been abandoned anyway. I don't like using abandoned apps where development and support has ceased. But perhaps you don't care about such things.
None of what you said is in disagreement with a fad. How many Beanie Babies sold way back when? How many teachers in schools, doctors in hospitals, and news anchors on air had them?
Seriously? You are going to compare people using a device in their actual daily WORK to owning a beanie baby which I assure you couldn't display a medical record at any point in time....omg. At least try and make valid comparisons.
Developers are increasingly discovering the iPad is not worth developing for.
Got any citations on that??? News stories? Or is that something you just dreamed up all on your own?
Which is why there's a large dearth in apps designed for it.
Gee...you don't think it might have to do with the fact that it's a NEW device do you??? And you don't think some developers might be waiting until 4.0 releases in a few months rather then redoing their work so soon?
It has a much higher cost for development, and people don't want to pay
High cost then what? The Android tablet that doesn't exist yet?
It runs on the same iOS limitations as the iPhone, but it's not a phone device. This infuriates people.
Riiiight. That's why people keep buying them. And why Apple sells them as fast as they make them. Because people hate them so much. Now you are just making crap up.
You're projecting. Also, you can see the results of this fad already. Sure, you saw them EVERYWHERE when they first came out. But now, only months after launch? Not so much. Even people who swore they couldn't live without it, have reverted to their laptops. People are beginning to realize there's no room for a third device in their life.
Ironic to say I am projecting when you have attempted to speak for 1) Developers 2)iPad users and 3) "people" and 4) myself. As for seeing them in the wild, I see them all the time. Passed by a small group of people and a guy using his last night while waiting for fireworks. He didn't look "infuriated".
You have a phone which runs almost everything the iPad does. You can't ditch the phone, you have to be able to make calls, and it's pocketable. You're not going to take your iPad to a bar or to dinner.
Bar no. Dinner, yes. But this is no different from a laptop. You don't lug your laptop to a bar do you? Yet you assign value to it even though it can't fit in your pocket and you don't take it to bars. So if you are going to ding an iPad for not wanting to take it to a bar, then you would have to do the same for your precious laptop.
So where does the iPad fit in?
It fits in that sweet spot in the middle. A time and place where a phone screen is too small (Airplanes, trains, etc.) to watch a movie or read a book comfortably. It's much lighter and mobile then a laptop so it's easy to carry from room to room and just plop down on a couch somewhere with it. It's great for the (ahem) reading room too. Would never take a laptop in there. It's also good for taking to meetings that you need to playback a video for someone or to collaborate over. You can even take some notes on it. And it's the only thing I know that you can play simultaneous four player touch screen games on. I can't watch movies and shows for hours on a PC. Too uncomfortable. But on a train, plane or someone's couch with an iPad? Oh hell yeah. And if I were a Doctor, I'd be using it to display patient X-rays on like I have seen on the news. There are also businesses using it as a Kiosk display. That ad of Apple's showing the piano player using it for reading music was pretty sweet too. So, lots of uses. The possibilities are as numerous as the number of people using it.
The iPad was created to solve a problem that didn't exist,
Like the iPod??? After all, you could have kept listening to CDs. Do you think an Android tablet also is being created to solve a problem that doesn't exist?
They'll regret their fad purchase, and the iPad will falter. Unfortunately, I don't have a time machine to show you this, but hey, if you want to come back in a year or two and call me out on being wrong, go right ahead.
Well, I really don't have to wait a year or two to call you wrong on this issue. But yeah...I'll do it a year from now and two years from now too. No problem. And sorry everyone for being so long winded. I know it's hard to read. There was just too many things said that just weren't true to not call them all out.