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The iPad Is 5 Years Old This Week, But You Still Don't Need One
HughPickens.com writes: Five years ago, Steve Jobs introduced the iPad and insisted that it would do many things better than either a laptop or a smartphone. Will Oremus writes at Future Tense that by most standards, the iPad has been a success, and the tablet has indeed emerged as a third category of computing device. But there's another way of looking at the iPad. According to Oremus, Jobs was right to leave out the productivity features and go big on the simple tactile pleasure of holding the Internet in your hands.
But for all its popularity and appeal, the iPad never has quite cleared the bar Jobs set for it, which was to be "far better" at some key tasks than a laptop or a smartphone. The iPad may have been "far better" when it was first released, but smartphones have come a long way. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and their Android equivalents are now convenient enough for most mobile computing tasks that there's no need to carry around a tablet as well. That helps explain why iPad sales have plateaued, rather than continuing to ascend to the stratospheric levels of the iPhone. "The iPad remains an impressive machine. But it also remains a luxury item rather than a necessity," concludes Oremus. "Again, by most standards, it is a major success. Just not by the high standards that Jobs himself set for it five years ago."
But for all its popularity and appeal, the iPad never has quite cleared the bar Jobs set for it, which was to be "far better" at some key tasks than a laptop or a smartphone. The iPad may have been "far better" when it was first released, but smartphones have come a long way. The iPhone 6 and 6 Plus and their Android equivalents are now convenient enough for most mobile computing tasks that there's no need to carry around a tablet as well. That helps explain why iPad sales have plateaued, rather than continuing to ascend to the stratospheric levels of the iPhone. "The iPad remains an impressive machine. But it also remains a luxury item rather than a necessity," concludes Oremus. "Again, by most standards, it is a major success. Just not by the high standards that Jobs himself set for it five years ago."
Playing Angry Birds is much nicer on a larger screen, and DSLR remote shooting is also much easier with a large screen. With tablets being cheaper than smart phones, it is often a no brainer to just have one also.
Because I want to watch videos, view maps, view pictures, read stories, etc. on an itty bitty screen.
Tablets are perfect for quick, portable interaction with the internet...email, web, apps like weather, video, etc.
Phones work, too, but only in a pinch.
Tablets aren't to big. They aren't too small. They are juuust right.
"Just not by the high standards that Jobs himself set for it five years ago."
Jobs is dead, and Apple just announced the highest profit for a quarter for any company ever.
They're crying all the way to the bank. =p
people replace phones every two years. you can keep an ipad at least twice as long. I have an ipad 2 i bought on launch day with a cracked screen that i plan to use for at least another two years if nothing else as a cheap ereader to carry tech books around.
i will probably buy a refurb ipad air 2 this year when the new version comes out and keep it another 4-5 years as well
A client in the construction/demolition industry tells me that tablets are popular with those guys.
-kgj
I happen to be one of the people who admires many of Jobs' business decisions and ideas. But he was also known to "overshoot" reality at times, with expectations that went beyond what was reasonable.
I think he was desperately looking for solutions for a "post PC" world, where people would give up traditional computers, in exchange for a superior device. (After all, in the sci-fi "Star Trek" universe, nobody was carrying around a laptop computer, right? The computer was just built in to the environment so you could speak commands to it.)
I really like my iPad, especially since I started taking the train to and from work each day in a 1 hour long commute. It's the ideal device to read the news on, check email, waste time on Facebook, play a casual game or two on, etc. But it's really just a convenience item in the modern world. It's never been anything much more than a big version of Apple's smartphone, without the cellular voice call features.
A $700 smart phone is, too. Here in .us, a lot of the price is buried in your 2-year contract, so people see it as a $200 smart phone.
Calling it a phone is also a misnomer. It's a small computer that also makes phone calls. If all you want to do is make phone calls, buy a dumbphone. Having a moderately powerful, always connected computer in my pocket is nice--but admittedly, it's still a luxury.
I myself had a few laptops. IBM thinkpad, that super thin light Dell of the mid 2000's, then I got an iPad. Instantly I was like, "no need for a laptop anymore," (I still had a desktop for power using and torrents) they're great. The iPad even got my mom into computers more than she ever was, internet shopping, email, imgur, etc. is all because of my first iPad. They're great devices, relatively affordable and pretty affordable on the used market. Enough people buy one every year and put them in cases that you can find super clean ones in great condition. I just think that iPads have done a lot more for kids and older parents and grandparents than any other computing device has done in the last 5 years.
A lot of angry people, holding signs saying "I AM ANGRY AND HOLDING A SIGN!!!"
Is that they don't become obsolete as fast? My mother still uses a iPad 2. I sold my iPad 4th generation to my wife's cousin, and she and I now both have an iPad Air 2. And to be honest, I just sold mine because I could, not because I needed to upgrade to the Air 2. I think the iPad 4th gen I sold will be OK for at least 2 more years. And it wouldn't surprise me if it will get an iOS 9 update. Moreover, it wouldn't surprise me if it will get an iOS 10 update as well.
Perl Programmer for hire
The reason tablets haven't replaced conventional computers is that there are few compelling apps that rely on touch, and the ones that exist are for consumption only. All those commercials we saw in the early days of people doing creative things with esoteric hand motions... yeah, that didn't happen. Not the fault of the hardware, I think, but because those touch-centric content creation apps never really materialized.
Oliver's law of assumed responsibility: If you're seen fixing it, you will be blamed for breaking it.
I'd say many if not most people who have smartphones don't *need* them either. If you have a job that has you on the road constantly, working offsite, etc., then you may need one, but a dumbphone is perfectly sufficient for the average person. We've let companies with slick marketing campaigns convince us that we need a LOT of stuff we actually don't need.
My iPad is more portable than a laptop, but my iPhone is much better. My iPad is better for book-reading than phone or PC, but a Kindle beats it. If I'm in a hurry, I can post to a forum or answer email on it, but my laptop is better. There are a few games that I play on the iPad, but that just puts it in the "fun toy" category.
Slow down, cowboy! It has been 4 hours since you last posted. You must wait another few hours.
I need my iPad. For me, it is excelling in a critical role that neither phones nor laptops can fill. As a performing musician, I post the iPad up on my mic stand, and the access to music and lyrics triples (or more) the range of songs I can play. Granted, my use case isn't the most common. But there are actually tons of musical performers, and IME they're increasingly turning to tablets to replace sheet music and chord charts.
Nothing posted to
Indeed.
Steve Jobs didn't envision in a "Post PC" world that the PC would be dead - he noted there will always be a PC, just that they would do things more suited to a PC than trying to clunkily adapt when forced into situations they were not designed for.
You have a smartphone, you have a tablet, and you have the PC. The deal is that each does stuff better than the others. What we used to do clumsily on PCs we did better with tablets and smartphones.
I mean, people like to watch TV away from the TV - pre-iPad, that meant having to watch on a laptop or a phone. The phone was too small, the laptop too big and heavy and uncomfortable.
Or read a book - you could use a Kindle which works, except when you need color Read it on your phone or laptop is not very appealing.
There is not one device that's perfect for all tasks. There are things a smartphone will do better than either a tablet or laptop. There are things a tablet will do better than a smartphone or laptop. And there are plenty of things a laptop will do better than a tablet or smartphone. Sure you can substitute one for the other, but the end result is often sub-par.
Jobs even did the mandatory car analogy - the PC is a truck - a very versatile vehicle that can do tons of things, but to be honest, there are times when a car is far better. And it's why we have a variety of vehicles out on the roads - each has their own place. Sure they could all be replaced with trucks, but the truck can be quite subpar in some respects over a car. Doesn't mean in a "post-truck" world you get rid of all trucks - no, that's stupid. It just means you now have vehicles more suited to different activities.