Since the release of the iPad in the US on April 3, 2010, Apple has sold over 2 million units. That’s pretty impressive. The release of most new Apple products, especially one as sleek and sexy as the iPad, always causes excitement and sensation spurred on by the Apple faithful that’s the envy of most other companies.
Lots of content has already been written about the iPad and there is certainly no shortage of expert opinions and forecasts. Some experts forecast skyrocketing sales while others are saying we’ve seen the initial spike and sales will now begin to plummet. Some say the iPad is nothing but a toy while others predict that the iPad is the first generation of a new class of computer. I’m certainly no expert but I’m putting my money on the latter of the last statement.
Let’s compare iPads to personal computers:
- Having a laptop sit on your lap for a long time can lead to unwanted hot flashes but an iPad doesn’t suffer from the same heat emission problems.
- Battery life on most laptops is an issue but not on an iPad.
- While the keyboard on a laptop is smaller than that of a desktop, the keyboard on an iPad is software driven and weighs nothing.
- The size and weight of some laptops can be pretty bulky and heavy compared to an iPad.
- Finally, who has not had problems with the OS on their computer? On an iPad you press the home button and it’s available for use right away, you’re not kept waiting for a bloated OS to load.
I could go on but I think you see what I’m getting at.
Now let’s talk about what you can do on an iPad:
You can surf the web, email, manage your contacts, engage in social media, view videos, listen to radio and music, view and share your photos, read books (it’s got an awesome interface), newspapers and publications, play games, and run the over 200,000 applications that are currently available for the iPhone and iPad (maybe not all at once though). Oh! I forgot – you can probably get over 10 hours of use between charges on an iPad depending on what you’re doing.
Now, I better stop here as the battery on my laptop is almost done…
Barney Lawn
President & CEO
Disclosure: To write this review an evaluation iPad was very kindly provided by Mostly Digital, a consumer electronics store since 1995, specializing in Apple products, digital cameras and home theatre products, located at 611 Wonderland Rd. N. London, Ontario
