“I found myself taking it everywhere (I have the 3G version) and using it instead of my laptop at airports, on planes, and in the car. Not to mention using it at home when relaxing on the sofa,” Crothers writes. “I always thought that my MacBook Air was the ultimate portable computer and I would never need anything else. Wrong. It turns out that a laptop–because of its relative weight and keyboard-centric clamshell design–is not always the ultimate machine when traveling or when there is a need to some quick home computing.”
Crothers writes, “The iPad showed me that there is a better form factor and interface (touch) for a surprising number of tasks.”
Read more in the full article here.
I’ve been wondering the same thing myself. yes, a laptop Air would be a great thing to have. But I’ve been leaning toward an iPad.
v2 will sell incredibly well. I know I will buy @20 for family and work.
I need to wait for something I can use for work, Mac IT work. Serious Mac IT work.
Then I’ll buy.
If my wife lets me….
Yeah, mine disrupted my budget about $800. Funny though, there didn’t seem to be any buyer’s remorse. And I can’t believe how convenient it is to carry around and use. It was indispensable on my vacation.
Disruptive for whom? Certainly not for Apple or for consumers.
@anevilmeme
Maybe disruptive is not the right word for you, but it’s definitely a game changer, even in an-all Mac house. Once my wife got an iPad last summer she barely uses her notebook. The 3 kids and I fight over it when my wife is not on it and except for heavy writing/word processing for work and video editing on the MacBook, I’d rather be on the iPad for everything else.
iPad…the new Hershey Bar in the family…one isn’t enough…you’ll want more to feed the family…pop one in your mouth…touch one with your fingers…you’ll want to come back for seconds.
Wait till the wife gets the sugar rush…she’ll forget you ever existed…give one to the kids…let them squabble over it in the back of the car…the journey’s over even before it’s begun.
iPad…bringing up the next generation of axe murderers…that’s what granny shakes at me if I don’t let her have her Apple fix.
I read the full article and surely agree with the author. However, my “disruption” was brief in that I quickly had to synchronize (no pun intended) my expectations of the iPad with its capabilities. At first, I thought the iPad would be a laptop replacement. However, it clearly was never intended to be. Now that I am clear on its role in my professional and personal life, I am rarely ever disappointed.
Apple created a new category of devices. Yes, yes, I know there have been tablets before. I’ve used Lenovo tablets to teach at the university. The experience was horrible. The iPad is way ahead of those attempts.
Can it be improved upon? Absolutely. If nothing else, it has helped me to accomplish a long-held desire: a paperless graduate classroom. That, by itself, is major for me.
I hope the second version of the iPad has just a slightly larger screen. On the current version, the keyboard in landscape view is just slightly smaller than a full-size keyboard.
@Cubert
It’s called MacBook Air 11″.
The iPad will be the disruptive force this decade! “The ability to destroy a planet is nothing compared to the ability of the iPad” or something like that. Just as laptops have replaced desk tops for most consumers, so too shall the iPad! And I mean iPad, not tablets. No other company has in the last year even had a seriously “rumored” product that could compete with it and Apple is going to up the ante in 2011!
Darth Jobs has foreseen it’s future.
I got my first iPad day one, got second one day one of 3G model. We use both constantly—was a bit surprised when starting to collect info for years taxes that I had spent $177 on apps so far. A buck or two here or there and it does add up. I have so many apps that I con’t remember what a lot of them do. I need an app that describes what all my apps are for. Not complaing, I have only deleted a handful. What a great device. Great Xmas gifts as well.
They definitely need to cut the cord and try to make the iPad a real computer. They need a real file system and not have to connect to a different computer with iTunes.
I also have an iPad 3G when they launched. And, I recently got the new MBA 13″.
Let me say as politely as possible that anyone (looking at you scam analyst) who says the MBA is “cannibalizing” iPads is lying POS.
They’re both amazingly useful and fun tech. They’re use cases and UX do overlap, somewhat. Not enough though to effect each other.
Yes, yet again, SJ was right.
Got my iPad the first day and have logged hours on it each day since. It has been a game changer for me. Still use MacBook and IMac for heavy work stuff, but otherwise iPad is IT.
@KSA:
Keeping the iPad tethered to iTunes and as a single user account device will only help perpetuate the iPad’s halo effect when it comes to the rest of the Mac ecosystem. For that reason, I’d be surprised if we see this umbilical cord cut anytime soon…
I’ve had my iPad since my birthday in July (you don’t turn 40 every day), and I absolutely love it. I’m waiting for one more app that I know is coming, and then I won’t even need my “hackbook Air” for school anymore. Have a terrific external keyboard with it that doubles as a hard shell case.
This actually *does* link to a CNET article. I didn’t know the weather in hell could change so suddenly.