“It’s hard to believe that the iPad and the hundreds of tablets that arrived in its wake have been around for only three years. On April 3, 2010, Apple released the original iPad to the public, kicking off a whirlwind of innovation in a space that was previously known only for niche, experimental, and downright odd products,” Jacqui Cheng reports for Ars Technica. “One could still argue that the iPad—and other tablets like it—are meant for a niche audience, but it’s clear that tablets as we know them today have struck a chord with the masses. Apple alone has sold 100 million iPads as of October 2012.”
“It feels like modern tablets have been around a lot longer, but three years is still nothing to sneeze at. Reflecting upon the last three years of tablet mania, the Ars staff and contributors began to share stories about how our iPads or other tablets have changed how we interact with our devices and the Internet,” Cheng reports. “Most of us were heavy tablet skeptics when the iPad was first announced, and some of us still are. So in honor of the three-year anniversary of the iPad, we decided to share some of our experiences with you on how our lives have changed—or how they haven’t, depending the case.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: “Most of us were heavy tablet skeptics when the iPad was first announced,” but some weren’t. Here’s how our own SteveJack reacted to iPad on the day it was unveiled by Apple CEO Steve Jobs on January 27, 2010:
Why I’ll be buying an Apple iPad – along with millions of others
First of all, let’s get the niche out of the way: I’ll be buying an iPad because the iPhone is just a bit too small to use for blogging (it can be done, just not as well as I would like) and my MacBook Pro is too much to carry around when all I really need is an iPhone with more screen real estate…
Now, who else might be buying an iPad?
• Older people: You see them all the time squinting at their iPhones and iPod touches and/or holding them at arm’s length. That’s sad enough, but they’re also usually the very same people can’t quite seem to master pinching to zoom in and out and/or scrolling. They want to see websites and their email. They’ll want iPads.
• Couch potatoes: Really, not just couch potatoes, but anyone who finds themselves parked in front of much larger TV screens with their iPhone/iPod touch in hand surfing, texting etc. They’ll want iPads for that instead.
• Frequent fliers/commuters: iPad is thin, light, and makes for a better movie watching experience, plus it has an iPod, and a web browser, and your email, and your calendar, and your newspaper, and your novel, and iWork, etc. An iPad is a no-brainer.
• Readers: Books, magazines, newspapers, etc. Look for Kindles to take eBay by storm. Apple will sell iPads to print consumers by the metric ton.
• Gamers: You like playing games on your iPhone and iPod touch? You’re gonna love them on your iPad.
• Navigators: Beyond iPad’s new and improved Maps app, I can’t wait to put my Tom Tom or Magellan app on my iPad and I bet other iPhone/iPod touch navigators can’t either.
• Kids: For movies, TV shows, music, games, etc. in the car and everywhere else, too.
• Students: Textbooks, word processing, spreadsheets, and everything else I’ve already mentioned above.I could go on, but come to think of it, maybe it would be easier to think of somebody who wouldn’t want an iPad?
• Let’s see… Somebody who only runs Photoshop or AutoCAD or Final Cut Pro while on-the-go and who never reads a book, magazine, or newspaper; who never watches movies, TV shows, or listens to music; who never plays a game, not even a casual one while waiting for an oil change; and, who doesn’t surf the Web or use email.
See what I mean? The iPad has a larger target audience than some people might think. And starting at just $499?! Seriously, Apple’s iPad prices are – channelling Jerry Carroll – INSAAANE!!! — SteveJack, MacDailyNews, January 27, 2010
I just met a college student whose dad is an IT guy. The laptop he got her is only a year or two old, but in her words, it’s a piece of crap. It doesn’t work and has constant problems. So with her own money she bought an iPad and *loves* it. It does everything she needs, never breaks down, never gets a virus, never has any problems.
I think she’s the new generation of “computer” users. For them, the iPad is better than any laptop.
My dad who has never used a computer that he loved all his life simply loves the iPad I gave him for his birthday. He won’t be parted with it.
And the first thing he does when he comes over my apartment is ask if he can log his iPad into the WiFi. He gets upset if my WiFi router isn’t turned on, which I occasionally do whenever I’m not around for extended periods of time and I forget to turn it on again.
The iPad is the only computer I have seen him carry around with him everywhere. It truly is a life changing device and it’s so simple to use that anyone from the age of 6 to 60 can use it.
Actually, it’s more like anyone from the age of 18 months to 108 years-old can use it. Hell, an orangutan can use it.
Ballmer can’t use it.
Minka Kelly can only use it with special assistance….from me….
And Kim Kardashian doesn’t use anything she can’t crush between her monster thighs…which is why she’s sports a Nexus 7, bent by the force of her thighs…because an iPad mini’s aluminium frame is too sturdy for her to crush.
Bill’s kids are not allowed to use it.
Kim Kardashian is a waste of space. I’d say you can’t get more retarded than her but that would be insulting to the mentally challenged. She’s beyond mentally challenged.
The truth is I rarely use my laptops anymore! What the the release of iPad 4 (128), I just can address all my needs !
I have an iPad that I rarely use. Between my iPhone and my Macbook Pro, I have no real need for it.
You don’t know what you’re missing. I have two and a MBPr and they are all used constantly (about 50% battery each day), though for different tasks. (Big iPad for web and tech docs and news, mini for novel reading, Mac for programming).
Geek
I don’t “get” people at all who don’t “get” the iPad or fail to see a use for it when it’s uses are practically endless in serving man (even cook books!). From my iPad 1 to iPad 3 it has been a daily companion I couldn’t live without. It’s like failing to see how oxygen and breathing could be useful to a human. “Inhaling and exhaling, I don’t get it?” said the clueless ultra-maroon.
I feel like that about my iPhone. If I could AirPlay video to my Apple TV without rendering said iOS device useless, I’d have absolutely no use for my ipad.
When the iPad was announced I indicated to my friends that it would blow away the low end computer market. The same day I bought a bunch more AAPL.
Buying a bunch of Apple then doesn’t look that good now.
Aapl was around $270.00 in April 2010, today it is $430.00. What is your point.
I don’t think he has a point, except on the top of his head? Maybe just mathematically challenged?
That’s the spirit!
Forget the latest 30% drop in price.
Be optimistic.
And his 58% increase since he bought it. Get real.
Our iPad is used only for home automation tasks and plane trips. Anything else, the MacBook gets the nod. There are just too many times when one needs to actaully type something, or share a flash drive, or download pics from someone else’s camera, or whatever.
iPad is a consumer device, not a creator device. It’s fine, but anyone who thinks it can fully replace a laptop obviously doesn’t produce much.
Get a Bluetooth keyboard and an iPad Camera Connection Kit, and you’ve eliminated a lot of the use cases where you said you couldn’t use an iPad. Sure, for you, maybe it’s more efficient or convenient to use your MacBook for those sorts of tasks; I’m in that camp, too. But, remember that for a lot of people, 95% of the usage of their computer consists of email, YouTube, Facebook, surfing, and a few other tasks, most of which can be done perfectly fine with an iPad. An iPad really is all the computer a lot of people need.
I’ve got several thousand photos on my iPad taken with a Lumix TZ30, copied directly from the SD card. I now use the Camera Kit, but prior to that used a Zoomit dongle with my iPhone 3G.
Your narrow point of view regarding how an iPad can be used is blinding you to the creative abilities of the Pad.
Photos can be extensively modified, and can be produced to a high definition quality, if you’re prepared to look further than the end of your own nose.
Try telling David Hockney, one of Britain’s greatest artists, that the iPad isn’t a creative device, he’ll laugh in your face and call you an idiot. I’ve seen a painting of his, drawn on an iPad, and printed off as a 12′ x 9′ canvas, and many other smaller canvases.
Geek 2
> Most of us were heavy tablet skeptics when the iPad was first announced
Most of us moron analysts and so-called “experts”…
I remember the tech blogs were almost uniformly negative on it. The are an echo-chamber where no one has an original thought and all read each others blogs so they know what to think. I got clobbered on forums whenever I opined that it would sell like crazy. Just like I got clobbered when I opined that an 8″ ipad mini would sell like crazy, just like I get clobbered when I opine a larger iPhone would sell like crazy.
While I think iPads are perfect for some roles and chose to deploy them in my workplace, I still don’t see the case for personal use. If I just want to facebook on the couch, I use my phone. If I want to do anything more serious I grab the laptop.