I'm seeing so many disappointed people on here, I'm wondering if the iPad should have never been released. Maybe the netbook people are right and Apple should have just made the iPad a netbook with a lite version of Snow Leopard. As a person still relatively new to Apple products, I'm beginning to think the release of iPad was a big mistake.
There is one aspect of the iPad that can be considered a mistake. It is a widely held belief that Apple doesn't mind cannibalizing Apple sales with another Apple product, but I don't think they realize that when I walk in the Apple store now, I see an iMac and think "I wonder if they could make the display dockable so I could carry it around?" or I see a Macbook Pro and think, I might have considered one of these before I got my iPad.
Apple's computer product line is in danger of shrinking to a family of tablets and a family of Mac Minis. The Mac Pro looks so out of place I'm surprised they still devote floor space to it in the retail store.
Now I'm not saying that the iPad I hold in my hands today is a real computer but I can say that I want my next OS X device to be in the iPad form factor unless it's a home theater machine or a desktop and then I'd like a stand for my iPad to use it as the monitor and a bt keyboard and mouse for when I'm using my iPad as if it were merely a display. Then I want to be able to grab the display, still showing whatever I was working on and go sit on the sofa and finish it up using the touchscreen. Can you imagine typing an article or report and getting interrupted when the cab arrives and you simply grab the screen and walk out to the cab and keep working during the ride to the airport and upload it using the wifi in the terminal before you get on the plane?
I visit people in the hospital, I sometimes see them using a laptop in bed. They have to sit up. They can't lie down comfortably and do anything. I've been using my iPad in bed almost every day. It's great for sitting, reclined or standing use. Granted, it can be awkward for some things like typing a lot of text but I can easily sit down and set the Apple case to tilt the device at a comfortable angle for typing a moderate amount of text. For even more text, I have my bluetooth keyboard. We have never had anything in computing with the ergonomics of the iPad. The iPad really is revolutionary. And this is true even though the iPhone OS only supports evolutionary uses of the device as of yet.
Yes, the iPad was a mistake alright.
It exposed us to what true mobile computing could be like and while I can't speak for others I can say I really like it. So long desktop. So long notebook. So long netbook. Hello tablet.
