“Now that the iPad Mini has been out for a while and many of us at Creative Strategies have been testing them, it is becoming clear to us that this 7.9” form factor or most 7” inch models will literally become the most important tablet for consumers in the future,” Tim Bajarin writes for TechPinions. “There are a lot of reasons for this, but the main one is that it is light, thin, and in the iPad’s case, delivers a best in breed tablet experience. Also, these smaller tablets will always be cheaper than larger tablets because the BOM cost for a smaller version will always be less than the bigger models.”
“There is an 80/20 rule with tablets that is becoming an important metric when it comes to tablets and PCs. It turns out most consumers can do about 80% of the most common tasks they do with a PC on a tablet, and any other key tasks, such as media management, large spreadsheets, music server, etc are designated to the laptop,” Bajarin writes. “But once I started using the iPad Mini, I found that it now became my go-to-device because of its lightweight, small size and literal duplication of everything I have on the iPad as well as the full iPad experience.”
Bajarin writes, “But there is an interesting twist to this. When my only tablet was my iPad, I defaulted to my laptop for heavy lifting tasks. But once I started using the iPad Mini, I found myself-defaulting to the 9.7” iPad with its keyboard as my main productivity device and found that in this case, a 90/10 rule kicked in. That means that I spent 90% of my time on these tablet solutions and only about 10% on my laptop.”
Much more in the full article – recommended – here.
Related articles:
InfoWorld reviews Apple’s iPad mini: Far superior; outclasses Amazon’s Kindle Fire HD, Google Nexus 7, Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 – November 6, 2012
Thurrott reviews Apple iPod touch and iPad mini: ‘demonstrably better than the competition; incredibly desirable tech devices’ – November 6, 2012
Ars Technica reviews Apple’s iPad mini: You’ll find yourself reaching for it over a full-sized iPad with Retina display – November 6, 2012
24 hours with Apple’s iPad mini: This is the real iPad – November 6, 2012
Why I just dumped my iPad 3 for iPad mini – November 5, 2012
DisplayMate: Apple’s iPad mini offers ‘just a very capable display’ – November 5, 2012
Apple’s iPad mini and ultra-mobile computing – November 5, 2012
Demand for Apple’s new iPad mini is huge – November 5, 2012
The Register reviews Apple’s iPad mini: ‘The tablet even Apple anti-fans won’t be able to leave alone’ – November 5, 2012
Apple sells three million iPads in three days; double previous first weekend sales – November 5, 2012
The Independent reviews Apple’s iPad mini: High-end gadget is worth the price – October 31, 2012
CNET reviews Apple’s iPad mini: The new standard for little-tablet design – October 31, 2012
NYT’s Pogue reviews Apple’s iPad mini: ‘All the iPad goodness in a more manageable size; it’s awesome’ – October 31, 2012
USA Today’s Baig reviews Apple’s iPad mini: ‘A splendid choice; terrific for reading, watching movies and playing games’ – October 31, 2012
Mossberg reviews Apple’s iPad mini: ‘An impressive feat; the perfect solution’ – October 31, 2012
Lap tops are going away, they are dying. Desktops will be the truck of the future.
Agreed.
The iMac in the household is the base station with 2TB of storage and the tablet is the thing to pack when on the road.
It also allows the phone to go back to being just that – a phone.
What’s the point of having a laptop, anyway when every time I stand up my lap disappears. I prefer a hand-hold, arm-strap or table-top.
Definitely – I’m going for 27″ iMacs when available as the base stations, with iPads and iPhones as the mobile components.
Sweet as they are, my MBPs – which with 20″ Displays, have been heavy-lifters for the last five years or so – are clunkers compared with the tablets, and not as good as iMac.
I don’t think they will be “going away.” Quite a few “experts” were speculating that desktop computers were going away when laptops started to possess equivalent CPU power and their LCDs became large (high res) enough, so that users were able to do the same tasks on laptop that previously required a desktop. But that did not happen, thankfully…
I think desktops (like iMac) will become more popular again, as tablets start to displace more and more laptop sales. I have an iMac and I plan to buy an iMac again, as my “big” computer.
The iPad mini is a great device for browsing and for light work.
The iPad Mini will impact laptop sales but also expand the overall market with its low price.
The iPad mini 4G will also become the device to Skype with.
You must be confused: we do FACE TIME on our iPads.
No we don’t. People actually use Facetime ?
Yup.
“That means that I spent 90% of my time on these tablet solutions and only about 10% on my laptop.”
how’d he do all that without a kickstand?
And a keyboard with a cracked case an exposes wire!
Remember when the experts laughed at the notion of a post PC world?
So who’s laughing now?
The 80-20 rule seems dead on, that’s about how my iPad and MBP use breaks down.
Take a look at the breakout of desktop to laptop to tablet sales. In those numbers lies the answer.
For the Windows PC Box makers, 10 or 20 percent usage is hard to brake and infect those turds. It could be 10 years (IF EVER) before people think about buying a desk computer. I think, the iPads and their apps will due what ever else people need to have done in 5 or 10 years.
This game is over!
SOON…. you’ll arrive at the office, plug your monitor into your pad, wait as Bluetooth mouse and keyboard connect, and get to work. When you do, you’re OS will change slightly, and power more full featured apps (software). The only missing element is Office for the Mac. (Yes, I prefer Pages, but the business world runs on Excel. )
It will just stream to the monitor, no plugs 🙂
Bad premise. Adding a large monitor does nothing for processor performance, app performance, or available memory. Unless you anticipate a monitor with additional processors, memory, etc. on board (i.e. an iMac), your solution makes no sense.
This is where cloud storage comes in and makes syncing documents a thing of the past. You don’t need multiple computers, just carry your iPad and mirror (AirPlay) to a larger monitor if you like.
Guess what? The Future’s pretty much here, we’re all just not using it as designed yet.
@Pirate: Very interesting observation. You could be closer to the way things will be in perhaps three years than many people think. My only added comment would be that if the h/w evolves to that point, you’d think that some component of s/w will evolve such that whatever’s on your pad, Excel and Word wouldn’t care. They’d just seamlessly integrate into whatever “editor” you’re using on your pad to create or use text or spreadsheet documents. I know, I’m probably an optimistic dreamer here, but one can only hope…
Yeah, the day of the Windows PC is over. It was a good run. Google and Apple now take it’s place. ios and Android will continue to improve in every way, the ARM chips likewise, and for Apple the homogeny between OSX and iOS will be fairly natural, obvious and painless.
We just need a XCode for iOS… till then macbook is still a need.
Until your iTunes dies like mine did. Then it’s 0/100, or 100/0. Actually becoming more like 0/0. My ipad is slow and laggy and very frustrating to use.
With my PC dead and no iTunes, I am totally screwed because I can’t wipe and backup my iPad on another iTunes without f***ing something up. Either losing my library, some photos, all my config or app settings layouts.. whatever.
My first gen iPad is making me need a new PC sooner ! PC free my ass.
You do know you can reset the iPad from the settings screen?
Looks like another retard didn’t take the advice to do regular back-ups. Just buy another Dell with Windows 8 and start the whole cycle over again. Stay away from Apple products, you’re not intelligent enough.
And who gave you the right to be so rude to someone. Do you think you are God’s gift to this board. Might want to make sure your brain is working before letting your fingers make you look like a jackass.
I gave me the right. Bet you’re another little turd who doesn’t follow common sense procedures and my comment hit a nerve.
This article will have to be re-written for the Surface:
“I would spend 15% of the time rebooting following all those crashes, 10% of the time getting my cover replaced when it starts to split (with 5% of THAT time being patched up with tape so that I can finish my email).
About 50% of the time would be spent figuring out where the heck my document got saved to and why my scrolling goes side to side one minute and then up and down – all on it’s own – and why my app store is so sodding empty …and the last 25% would be used up blubbering into my beer while I try to figure out if Microsoft will ever make something that just works…”