When the iPad initially launched it came with mixed fan fare. As expected, existing Apple users frothed and non-Apple users said things like “it looks like an overgrown iPhone, I don’t get it.”
I for one am not an Apple user (although I did have an iPhone for about a month), but came to a point that I had to get a birthday gift for my bride, who is fearful of technology yet enjoys the benefits of it. I thought that an iPad would be a perfect gift for her, it is easy to use and with only five buttons on the thing, how tough can it be to learn? Little did I know that this gift would make me “The Man” again for the first time since… well I will leave that alone for now. Anyway, this piece of technology has been embraced by the whole family, including me (I guess that makes me an Apple user now). It really is pretty cool and I am even taking care of some personal and professional business on it with ease. I mean, this thing starts up really quick and I don’t have to wait for a bunch of processes to complete (like my laptop) to begin. Banking, web-browsing, shopping or accessing a PC at work all while I am catching an episode of Emeril Live.
Does it replace my laptop? No, and I have a tough time believing right now that it will. Is it a game-changer? I think so. Dell and AT&T are launching an Android tablet this month, Blackberry is working on something called the “Black Pad” and Samsung is in the final stages of development on an Android tablet as well. With cloud computing becoming more the norm than the concept, it makes sense that a compact web-based tablet would be a useful tool for personal and business use.
I guess time will really provide the answer, but the inevitable rise of the tablet has already begun…. BAM!