How soon can iPad replace notebook?

[michaelz]

Jobs made it clear that iPad is not going to replace smart phone or notebook. It was designed to fill in the gap between the two. I believe in few years iPad can be equipped with hardware as good as today's notebook and cheaper. In two years, do you think apple can put in 2GB memory, 200GB storage, 2x faster CPU and GPU with same price and battery time? If iPad has this kind of hardware, it will become the future of notebook. iPhone OS or full OS X?

Maybe it is more of marketing decision. Apple still want to make more money on macbooks. Let's hope iPad competitors can do good job to keep apple moving fast.

 

[anthonymoody]

For me it already has (see my signature...)

For many others, it almost has. There are a slew of posts here and stories out on the intertubez (check the one today about the EMC bigwig) about how the iPad has relegated notebooks and desktops to minuscule usage...

I think all this happens faster than most think.

 

[ParishYoung]

Jobs made it clear that iPad is not going to replace smart phone or notebook. It was designed to fill in the gap between the two. I believe in few years iPad can be equipped with hardware as good as today's notebook and cheaper. In two years, do you think apple can put in 2GB memory, 200GB storage, 2x faster CPU and GPU with same price and battery time? If iPad has this kind of hardware, it will become the future of notebook. iPhone OS or full OS X?

Maybe it is more of marketing decision. Apple still want to make more money on macbooks. Let's hope iPad competitors can do good job to keep apple moving fast.

From the amount of space left over in the device as it is, I'd imagine there are numerous ways that Apple "could" have added more stuff to it. However one of the things that Steve said in the keynote was that weight and battery life were key during production.

I think there will be other manufacturers who have taken their idea's back to the drawing board and will present us with X, Y & Z in the future.

 

[Maaz]

It already has for me,so iam happy as can be.

 

[HiRez]

I still need my desktop for graphics apps, which would be impossible to run on the iPad anyway. The only thing I do a lot on my laptop that I'd like to be able to use the iPad for is Xcode programming. A mobile Xcode would be super-sweet and then I could truly do without a laptop. It wouldn't be as good an environment as a desktop (smaller screen, virtual keyboard), but I don't see why it couldn't be done. And it would be great to build and run your apps directly right on the device they're targeted for. For web surfing, email, and reading any sort of document, the iPad has already replaced my MacBook Pro nearly 100%.

 

[nippyjun]

Now after using Print Magic it's getting closer to replacing my notebook. It can't print everything, but hopefully with time it will be able to.

 

[tomashi]

if it can replace your notebook it's because your notebook sucks or you just don't know how to properly use it

 

[dgree03]

I dont care who in this forums uses a Ipad as their main computer, it will never replace a notebook in what a notebook does best, produce material and doing that job fast.

There are FAR too many work arounds to get some simple tasks done that you could easily do on a notebook. The time wasted downloading apps, opening and closing apps, figuring out how to print, what i can print and to what printers. What websites can I got to or cant I go to, how do I attach multiple items to and email... I can go on on on...

Ipad is a great middle man, but it can run show as effeciently as a notebook.

PERIOD

 

[H00513R]

I think it all depends on where the software goes. Most companies make full use of the available hardware in the market. So unless the iPad gets a little more powerful (or apps are made for "lite" versions) I don't think it will replace notebooks. Netbooks yes.

 

[michaelz]

I dont care who in this forums uses a Ipad as their main computer, it will never replace a notebook in what a notebook does best, produce material and doing that job fast.

There are FAR too many work arounds to get some simple tasks done that you could easily do on a notebook. The time wasted downloading apps, opening and closing apps, figuring out how to print, what i can print and to what printers. What websites can I got to or cant I go to, how do I attach multiple items to and email... I can go on on on...

Ipad is a great middle man, but it can run show as effeciently as a notebook.

PERIOD

You are right iPad can't replace notebook now because the hardware is limited, therefore, iPhone OS is limited. I think in near future, the hardware limitation will gone. Just imaging what kind of OS and software will be running in iPad when iPad is as powerful as today's notebook.

 

[dgree03]

You are right iPad can't replace notebook now because the hardware is limited, therefore, iPhone OS is limited. I think in near future, the hardware limitation will gone. Just imaging what kind of OS and software will be running in iPad when iPad is as powerful as today's notebook.

Yes there are alot of limitations. There are a lot of good thing currently with the Ipad also.

I just think people are giving the Ipad a little too much credit... ipad is effcient only in a few areas: size, weight, Instant On.

 

[rittchard]

You are right iPad can't replace notebook now because the hardware is limited, therefore, iPhone OS is limited. I think in near future, the hardware limitation will gone. Just imaging what kind of OS and software will be running in iPad when iPad is as powerful as today's notebook.

Really this is more dependent on the end user, and not the hardware limitation that many people focus on. For some people the iPad will never replace a notebook - but that's because they use their notebooks essentially as a desktop replacement, so they need some combination of the full processing power, storage, keyboard, larger screen, mouse, etc. environment. But for others who use a notebook primarily because of mobility, for core tasks like browsing, multimedia and light gaming, the iPad can easily replace it NOW. The hardware is good enough already to handle these (plus for some things like reading is actually better). Now combined with remote login apps, the iPad is an extremely powerful tool in the right end users' hands. I see people get fixated on hardware "power" - but in an age where you can start to create your own "cloud" or access other cloud services, raw processing power on the primary interface (the iPad) is less and less of an issue.

 

[firewood]

Now and never.

Now and never.

Now, if the apps on an iPad are all you use a notebook for. The iPad is already more powerful in term of performance than a notebook such as the original PowerBook G3.

Never, if you mean something contemporary and 4+ times heavier, because some company will always be able to put more faster hotter CPU cores with more memory and a bigger battery in the bigger heavier box. And some bloatware company will make an app that needs all those new big hot CPU cores. If you need that application (HP-Adobe 4DHolographicFlashierShop+), you're forever out of luck.

Then again, you might be able to use the iPad as a remote terminal to your MacPro farm. But you can do that now... as in now.

 

[iSingandiDance]

They need to retool the keyboard first before we even start comparing the two.

Once they do that, the gap between a notebook and iPad will close more than people may think.

 

[bigjnyc]

They would have to either do a major overhaul to iPhone OS, create a whole new OS for the iPad, or beef up the hardware like you said and run OSX on it. Other than that I can't see how an iPad could possibly replace a notebook unless you are the lightest computer user in the world. like just email, music, pictures and internet... and even then there are some limitations.

I really don't see Apple going in this direction as long as they have a Macbook and 13" MBP line though.

 

[Dammit Cubs]

Jobs made it clear that iPad is not going to replace smart phone or notebook. It was designed to fill in the gap between the two. I believe in few years iPad can be equipped with hardware as good as today's notebook and cheaper. In two years, do you think apple can put in 2GB memory, 200GB storage, 2x faster CPU and GPU with same price and battery time? If iPad has this kind of hardware, it will become the future of notebook. iPhone OS or full OS X?

Maybe it is more of marketing decision. Apple still want to make more money on macbooks. Let's hope iPad competitors can do good job to keep apple moving fast.

It's not the hardware. It's the software. It can technically replace a netbook now, but the OS is limiting the user from having complete freedom.

I think over time, developers and apple will me this Mobile OS pretty crazy. they are just moving slow.

 

[fehhkk]

I think once we have OS 4.0 with multitasking on the iPad, it'll be even more compelling than a netbook.

 

[lilo777]

Jobs made it clear that iPad is not going to replace smart phone or notebook. It was designed to fill in the gap between the two. I believe in few years iPad can be equipped with hardware as good as today's notebook and cheaper. In two years, do you think apple can put in 2GB memory, 200GB storage, 2x faster CPU and GPU with same price and battery time? If iPad has this kind of hardware, it will become the future of notebook. iPhone OS or full OS X?

Maybe it is more of marketing decision. Apple still want to make more money on macbooks. Let's hope iPad competitors can do good job to keep apple moving fast.

If iPad has the same kind of hardware as notebook and OS X then... is not it a notebook? As I understand Apple's direction, they want to keep iPad as a consumer device using iPhone OS. It does not matter how powerful the hardware might get. As long as iPad OS remains as limited as it is, it can not replace a notebook. There is something to say about iPad form factor too. Touch interface is not that good for real productivity work.

 

[darngooddesign]

You are right iPad can't replace notebook now because the hardware is limited, therefore, iPhone OS is limited. I think in near future, the hardware limitation will gone. Just imaging what kind of OS and software will be running in iPad when iPad is as powerful as today's notebook.

But then it won't replace the notebooks that are out in five years.

Think of it this way, the iPad could easily replace an old Powerbook running System 9, but how relevant is that to you today?