Save me from iMadness

Meredith, I did Google it immediately upon reading and before responding in my post. Now I'm smarter than I was before. It was the acronym that threw me off, (and if you've seen the stack of stuff I've been reading about this you'd know why confusion is not an unusual state) which is kind of my point about those who live for gadgets vs. us poor mortals who merely use them to do our jobs and get on with what passes for our lives.

Thanks to all of you for reading, responding, agreeing or disagreeing. It's the conversation we appreciate most of all here at MI.

Surely as one who makes his living through the use of web technology ( and who in management circles doesn't these days?) your first thought should have been to Google W7 Slate.

Wow. In four years I've never had this much commentary, this soon, on a post. Yes, Paul, much of what you say is true (and a 500 word article will by definition be shallow and miss technical detail and valid points) and I don't pretend to be a techy...which is exactly the point. Comparing the iPad to a W7 slate is only helpful if I knew what a W7 slate was. Not everyone drools for the latest toys. Sure, if someone gave me an iPad would I play with it? Absolutely. That's a hint by the way..... after all I"m obviously a powerful media figure. Apple?

Why is it that Apple fanboyz all seem to need a sense of humor transplant?

Very poor account - light on logic, light on accuracy ... IBM invented the sector, Microsoft are/were a software company and had no hold on the design of the PC. IBM and Apple went different ways and decided to make the devices - became hardware companies. So the stage was set between hardware and software companies.

IBM eventually withdrew. Apple almost went out of business (until Jobs returned). Microsoft prospered - although the lack of quality control of the resulting hardware (Microsoft could only influence) created a very difficult market - Microsoft did well to support all of the combinations of hardware - it still made for a difficult to maintain, fragile, expensive to maintain system - almost everyone on the planet has experienced that.

Then Apple decided not to make business code - they moved to Open Source OS X (more open than Windows 7). They improved it and contributed it back.

Apple's strategy changed - they decided to focus on Media. Music, Photos and now Books, Movies, Apple University. i.e. Content. (rather than software for business apps - Microsoft's business). They have created devices to capture/display that media.

Apple's ability is to make devices that do not look like computers - ipods, ipads and provide easy mechanisms for the content distribution e.g. billions of music downloads.

The ipad will be another revolution - it's not too expensive - same price as W7 slates. Its open enough - anyone can write apps for it (just like W7) - they have commoditised software e.g. charging $10 for word processing software.

Apple's hardware is the best in the industry - they have a very good 3 year return/replace policy. Apple gets a bad rap for the up front cost of their hardware. $500 for a PC vs $1300 for a comparable MAC. People don't include the cost of maintenance - since we moved to MACs we spend very little time troubleshooting computers - the Cost of Ownership of a MAC is far less than a PC - many studies demonstrate this.

Its early for the iPAD. Lots of apps will appear - I like it because non computer people can browse the web, send emails, watch video, listen to audio - share family photos etc... It opens a market beyond computers for people to be connected.

Spot on ! I've been drinking out of a chocolate teacup for years and the taste experience just gets better and better...

Good stuff, Wayne.

On a "meta" level, it's important to understand there are those whose inner sense of emptiness can only be filled with stuff...regardless of how they rationalize, justify and otherwise force their decisions to appear "logical."

"A true sucker" - good description of the lemmings who are buying this useless gadget. Maybe in a year's time when they've all been left in the bottom of cupboards and forgotten about, someone might ask how they were ever dumb enough to fall for it. Chocolate Teapot, anyone?