Becoming an Apple addict has not been a direct and easy path for me.
My history with Apple products is rough—after Middle School and its Apple computer lab, I didn’t voluntarily touch an Apple product until 2005 or 2006—when I bought myself an iPod.
I really liked my iPod—and the iTunes interface for my music collection was fantastic. I couldn’t actually believe it was an Apple product: so easy to use, so logically designed—I understood it.
From there it was a short leap to the iPhone which I bought because my old mobile was really old and not functioning that well. I wanted the iPhone because it would reduce the number of things in my pocket from 3 to 2: the iPod and the mobile would now be in one device, which is a space saver. I still carry a separate camera because the one in the iPhone is not that great.
My MacBook
A year ago when I decided that I needed to buy a computer, I realized that I had two choices. First up was Apple, which I knew, by reputation, to have a stable OS and a decent interface. Second was a Windows machine, which might cost less, but it was Vista and nobody I knew liked Vista—so if I bought a Vista machine I would have to upgrade it sometime in the future, and that would be messy and expensive.
I ended up with the MacBook and I’ve been extremely happy with it: it has the best picture I’ve ever seen on a laptop, the OS is easy to understand, and Microsoft Office:mac is fully compatible with the Windows version, although the interfaces vary somewhat.
Consequently I’ve started following several Mac and Apple blogs in order to keep abreast of developments—and man there are some geeks out there. I’ve learned a lot from these blogs, including a fair amount about the iPad.
For those of you who don’t know, the iPad is Apple’s entry into tablet computing.
As far as I can tell from having read news stories and blogs about it, it is basically an iPhone on steroids: bigger, more capable, and faster, without the ability to make phone calls.
However it’s less capable and slower than my MacBook with the same disadvantage of not fitting into my pocket. About the only thing it will do that the MacBook does not do is have built in 3G cellular capabilities—and only if you buy the extra expensive version of it.
So why would anybody who needs serious computing power buy the iPad?
I can’t figure out why, to be honest.
The only thing I think it will do that neither the iPhone nor the MacBook do is make it possible to easily read eBooks—but still, at least as far as I am concerned, who would be foolish enough to haul around a $500 (or more) device on their commute to and from work in order to read a book? It’s too easy to drop and damage beyond repair; too easy to get stolen; and unless you’re carrying a purse or briefcase, it’s impossible to carry.
When it comes to doing work, the thought of an iPad underwhelms me. Yes my MacBook is heavier and thicker than an iPad, but when it comes time to sit down in the Weimar Office and work, it has a fully functional built in keyboard, it has a bright screen and it has a track-pad that I can use. None of the screen real-estate is taken up by a floating keyboard, nor do I have to carry around any accessories like a keyboard, it’s built right in and cannot be lost.
As much as I try to imagine a situation where it fits my lifestyle, I can’t.
Anything I picture myself doing on it can be done either on the iPhone or on my MacBook.
That said, I accept that for some people the iPad is a wonderful innovation that will make their lives better.
People want to be first.
However the urgency that some people have in order to get their iPad the day it goes on sale is somewhat alarming—and the fact is a lot of people were blogging about being online Friday morning to buy it as soon as it went on sale in the Apple Store. There were even 23-Step guides for people like me, who live outside the United States, to pre-order it for pick-up in store.
However the most bizarre blog entry I read was the tale by some poor sucker who was taking a cruise with his wife on Friday, when the iPad went on sale. He’s Checking in from Samana Bay, Dominican Republic, aboard the M/S Regatta:
Just before I went to sleep the evening of March 11th, I saw a post here on TUAW that outlined when the Apple Online Store would open for pre-orders and reservations. Doing a quick time calculation in my head, I determined that I’d be able to pop in at 9:30 AM local time and make my order… no, wait a second. At 8:30 AM, I was going to be taking a ship’s tender over to shore. Dang.
I was left with the impression that his entire day he was worried about getting back to the ship:
We were scheduled for the proverbial “three hour tour” in this beautiful tropical location, so I decided to be patient and wait until I got back to the ship at about 11:30 AM local time. Of course, when we were on the other side of the Samana peninsula at 12 PM local time and still hadn’t left, I realized that I was going to really have to put the order on hold for a while.
Poor guy, but it got worse because he didn’t get back to the ship until 2pm, when he had to stop, with his wife, for something to eat. He started the ordering process at 3:15, using the cruise ship’s costly Internet connection:
How expensive? Can you say US$0.60 per minute? Of course you can! How slow? I think the 300-baud modem that I had with my original Commodore VIC-20 was faster! The total reservation process, which would probably take about 5 minutes on my office Internet connection, took about 45 minutes to complete. Thank God we had a bottle of wine to open and drink while waiting….
So he spent $27 just to order the iPad, plus the price of the actual iPad. Personally if I’m ever that manic while on vacation I hope my friends/spouse/whatever will remind me that one doesn’t need to be a first adopter and, if necessary, hit me over the head.
