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Do You See the iPad Completely Replacing Your Home Computer Eventually?

C

Cheebo

macrumors member
Original poster
Jan 13, 2012
36
0
I assume almost all of us are using a MacBook, iMac, or whatever computer of your choice happens to be in addition to their iPad. Do you see a eventual point in time where you'll see the iPad completely replacing your home computing needs in total? Picking a iPad OVER a laptop rather than in addition to one?
 
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From the CES 2012, it looks like it's not the near future. Ultra portable laptops still have high demand and will compete hardly with iPad or tablets in general

best-product-5.jpg
 
Cheebo said:
I assume almost all of us are using a MacBook, iMac, or whatever computer of your choice happens to be in addition to their iPad. Do you see a eventually point in time where you'll see the iPad completely replacing your home computing needs in total? Picking a iPad OVER a laptop rather than in addition to one?
Click to expand...

Perhaps in a decade or two… but not as things stand right now.
For a start I need something to store my music and movies and such (and no the f***g Apple Cloud is not up to scratch).

And games?

So no. Not a chance for quite a while.

Of course I am quite sure that *OTHERS* will disagree… ;)
 
For the average user probably, for myself no I do engineering on my home computers and need dual large monitors.
 
No possible way. If the iPad could replace your computer you did not need one in the first place.

For some, maybe, if you got real work to do, it is not going to happen soon
 
It has replaced our kitchen computer nicely for sure. (Used to have an old HP mini in the kitchen - now it's the iPad connected to Bose speakers.

For what it's worth - no one in our house ever uses the iPad for anything other than media. Airplay is super useful.
 
These types of devices certainly will at some point.

The trick is, the device will simply be connecting to some external cloud or home device that has the bulk of the computing/processing power.

You'll be able to drop a tablet in to a dock station to get full keyboard, mouse, and access to external devices for local storage, GPUs, bigger monitors etc. This function will let you create content.

Then you can pop it off and easily consume/display that and other content.

We're pretty close to this sort of functionality today. People may scoff at these new apps which connect you to a windows 7 running office, but that sort of functionality is the future.
 
I saw my iPad replacing my computer a year and a half ago (see my signature ;))

I do still retain a household iMac which serves as a media storage and syncing hub. But when I can do that securely and cheaply in the cloud, I happily will. Outside of that, my iPad literally serves all my computing needs. I can't recall the last time I had to use my iMac to 'do' anything because I couldn't on my iPad.
 
No, my iPad compliments my computer quite nicely. Maybe one day it will but I don't see it happening too soon.
 
No. It has replaced my laptop/ main PC in some ways and I do use it extensively for work purposes, but I need a larger screen and more power for a lot of my research work.
 
No ive become accustomed to two monitors plus I do much video work.

For play touchscreen is fine but nothing really beats a keyboard and mouse especially when you throw keyboard shortcuts in.
 
I echo the poster above with the docking idea. In 5-10 years time, I'd love to run some OS X/iOS hybrid on our iPads docked to an external monitor which, via Thunderbolt, has a host of other peripherals attached.
 
I think I would need true multitasking and multiple windows per desktop, but with a larger (touchscreen) monitor to dock it at and real keyboard I would love that!
 
Cheebo said:
Do you see a eventual point in time where you'll see the iPad completely replacing your home computing needs in total?
Click to expand...
Nope. Already has for my wife though.

Stealthipad said:
No possible way. If the iPad could replace your computer you did not need one in the first place.
Click to expand...
Nonsense. Prior to tablets you had to use a computer for functionality that a tablet offers. Plenty of people have very basic computing needs that can easily be met by a tablet whether you're in the same boat or not.

AQUADock said:
No, my iPad compliments my computer quite nicely.
Click to expand...
That is nice of your iPad. Oh wait, you meant complement.
 
If the iPad ever gets the ability to run full Photoshop/FCP/AE/Motion software suites, then *maybe*.

:p
 
No way...There is so much that I do on my MBP that I couldnt do with an iPad and I'm not even a "power user" I really dont see it happening any time soon. You'd have to be a suuuuper duper light user to have an iPad become your main computer.
 
What none of can even envision is what the future holds for technology products. 5 years from now, there me some revolutionary product that replaces the "tablet" style computer. We just don't know. What we do know is that the future will bring some exciting devices for us all to enjoy.

I find myself going back and forth between the iPad and the iMac. A change is nice every once in awhile.
 
The iPad already constitunes probably 85% of my computer use while at home. It replaced an iBook and fits that role perfectly for us. If it had about 500 GB of storage, iPhoto, and Time Machine, I would have to think hard the next time my iMac was up for replacement. But I think it will remain a complimentary device for the foreseable future.
 
I already use my iPad more than my computer. I could see it replacing my desktop in all but the most processor intensive tasks if Apple made just three changes to iOS:

1. Give it a central documents folder, which any app can load from and save to (with user confirmation required to avoid tampering)
2. Give Safari the ability to upload files.
3. Open up Bluetooth to accessory makers.
 
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