New Ipad in the house

[LCHIEN]

I'm not completely sure that it is ok to not at least have the option for factory upgrade, but everyone will have their own opinion.

As for the same warranty on refurbished, she got either 60 or 90 days, which isn't the same. Maybe that has changed? The iPod was first gratin video so that was several years ago.

Now for a hypothetical. You can have the new iPads engraved on the back. I wonder if you had to take refurbished unit if they would replace the engraving.

I got an Ipod with engraving for Christmas one year. If you ordered it they would engrave and ship it overnight in 24 hours. When I got it the left channel was dead, so i had to call for warranty service. They would ship one without engraving to replace it and it would arrive in a week, or I could wait and they would engrave another one and send it in three weeks.

By the way, engraving is free, or was at the time. But looking at used IPods from a dealer specializing in IPods, engraved ones were worth less than non-engraved ones. At least the used "blue book" Price was lower by about 15-20 dollars.

[LCHIEN]

as for the IPad itself, I think they found a niche. The netbook is too much like a laptop but the Pad with the touch screen and is more personal. It fits the class of person who surfs and consumes content.

I myself have a IPod Touch and a Notebook/laptop which I use around the house, as well as a desktop in my study... the IPod touch i use a lot when watching TV to look up references stuff that pops up in my mind when watching TV, its small and fits in my pocket... I;m sure I would enjoy using a IPad but I probably just don't need more hardware lying around at that price. When I have to do any real work, then there's no denying me my desktop with all the peripherals, I just need to set up my second monitor.

As for IPad price, it may seem high, but imagine you couldn't touch anything with its features 5 years ago for a million bucks.

[jcjrsmith]

Never was much of an Apple fan. For my birthday this year I got a Nook Color. I put Cynaogen Mod Android on a micro SD card and can boot off of it to have an Android tablet. Even running the stock Android OS on it, the browser and video are fairly impressive. I took it with me to Atlanta for a Microsoft conference and used it to access my email at work thru the the conference WiFi and it worked great.

When I use it with the SD card I created, I have full access to the Android and Amazon marketplaces.

Oh, yeah - it was $249

[aggrex]

Love the iPad...actually every one in the house wants the iPad to surf / check email etc. Hardy turn the desktop on anymore. The only thing missing is flash capability which is another story in itself. If I was not in the market for a more portable 7-10" android/honeycomb based tablet with flash capability it would be another iPad in the house.

[leehljp]

as for the IPad itself, I think they found a niche.

"Found a niche" is not quite right for 25 million sold in 15 months, and with forecasts based on "industry" demands, it won't be seen as a "niche" in the future.

It is far more than a "Nookbook" and does enough to satisfy basic content creation in class room. It doesn't demand a full blown OS as the "netbook" niche. In this sense, it could be classified as a "niche" only from the perspective that one does not yet know how to classify such a huge sales volume during a paradigm shift. When 100 million are out there then Samsung or HP or even MS joins in and brings the total to 200 - 400 million, we will look back and say "wasn't a niche from day one, but a paradigm shifter." (I used "when they join in" because they are not selling in numbers yet.)

It is interesting to look at who doesn't like it - IT and tech savvy folks, . . . and then look at who does like it - non tech minded consumers and non tech minded corporate folks and very mobile non tech folks.

AS to a "walled garden" or a "closed system", what we tech minded folks don't realize is how liberating a closed system or walled garden is to mass consumers! They don't have to be totally dependent on tech minded folks telling them what to do and not to do and making them feel like idiots. (We don't usually, but that IS their perception.) For them, it is frustrating to take it back to Apple or send it back, but the upside is that they don't have to feel like an idiot in front of others. Apple has capitalized on this to a huge sales volume in Macs, iPods, iPhones and iPads. But Tech minded folks set back and wonder why people would want walled gardens - (hint - so they won't have to listen to what they perceive as condescending advice on how to operate or fix their machines.) People go to great lengths to find how to exist in a technical world that they don't understand, yet they know that they have to use it. The result is a walled garden or closed system.

In the future, the niche people are going to be the content creators and the tech folks who work transparently behind the scenes for folks who want to get the job done without having to know all the ins and outs of gadgetry, electronics and software. This is where the mass market is shifting to!

[sailor55330]

Leehp
I have to admit I hadn't thought of it In those terms. You might have given the best description of why thet appeal to masses.

I really never thought I could be qualified as"tech savvy", but after thinking about your post, maybe I'm closer than I thought

I'd like to thank everyone for such a good discussion from many viewpoints.

[vaking]

Couple months ago LOML got me a 10" windows tablet for my birthday. Acer makes both Windows and Android tablets - choose what you like. Mine runs standard Windows 7 OS, has very decent hardware (dual-core, 2 Gbytes of RAM) so it can run any application a laptop can run. It has a battery life about 4 times longer than a laptop and weighs a lot less. Acer windows tablet came with a docking station and keyboard built into it. Docking station folds flat along with the tablet. Combined together tablet/dock becomes about as thick as a laptop but smaller in other dimensions and liter. Combined together tablet/dock makes a better laptop than an actual laptop. And you have a flexibility to leave docking station at home and then tablet works as an Ipad. On a train or by the pool - you use tablet without a keyboard - like Ipad. At a conference table you put tablet in a dock and have a normal keyboard. In either case it lasts full day without a charger.

[Kristofor]

Well, I'm a very tech savy IT guy who likes the iPad but only for certain tasks.

It's a great couch accessory that can be a remote control for both XBMC and the DirecTV receiver, while allowing me to browse IMDB or a news website. Likewise at the kitchen counter.

Also it's a much more enjoyable portable movie player (due to screen size and built in speaker volume) than the iPod touch particularly if you have 2 people trying to watch at the same time.

That said, while it's great for "downstairs" casual tasks it's nowhere near powerful/full-featured enough to replace any of the PCs (or Macs) elsewhere in the house.