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Reasons NOT to buy an iPad

P

pizz

macrumors regular
Original poster
Sep 10, 2007
196
0
Well i've been asking myself should buy an ipad. Sure it looks nice, large touchscreen, portable.. but after thinking long and hard here are my top reasons for not buying an ipad:

1) $$$: I can't justify the price. Dropping over $500 for something I'm not sure I need is a bit too much. Especially since I have a home computer and a smartphone.

2) 1st Gen: Technology will improve. Like all tech products (including Apple) the hardware gets better, things improve and prices drop.

Learned that lesson when I bought my 1st ipod touch. 1st gen didnt have a volume rocker, which was sorely missing. The next week after buying it they came out with 2nd gen WITH a volume rocker. for same price :mad:

3) I have an iPod Touch: It's an iPad but more portable.
 
I wouldn't spend the money just because the OS is pretty much identical to the iPhone/iPods. I'd need some kind of motive to spend that kind of money besides a bigger screen.
 
A more interesting topic would be "Reasons to buy an iPad". I'd greatly appreciate if you could help me understand why this device has sold millions.

I can only think of two:
1. kitchen laptop: internet browsing, recipe book, video/music player, can be used with one hand while the other is busy cooking, with dirty fingers, and easily cleanable afterwards

2. ultimate magnifier when your eyesight won't let you decipher regular books anymore
 
Yinmay said:
A more interesting topic would be "Reasons to buy an iPad". I'd greatly appreciate if you could help me understand why this device has sold millions.
Click to expand...

Let's see:

I have an older MBP which works but doesn't work great. For what I use it for, I didn't really feel a huge need to go buy a whole new laptop. I use it for web surfing, email, and iTunes. So, instead of shelling out $1k plus for something that I didn't really need to replace, I was able to spend $499 to bridge the gap. I also travel a lot, and the iPad fits right in my purse and comes along easily anywhere I go. I also like to read RSS feeds and surf during down time at work, and my iPad is right there with me. I absolutely love it.
 
You clearly have never been on one
signature_HappyGuySmiley.jpg
justifying a use for the iPad is hard to do, but after being on one, you realise it fills that gap between smartphone and laptop, just perfect for use around the house. I let my sister borrow mine for a week and it was sorely missed
 
Until it can completely replace a laptop, which I have no doubt is what is eventually going to happen with PC tablets, I'll hold out. Either that or when it drops to a price range that justifies buying it.
 
pizz said:
Well i've been asking myself should buy an ipad. Sure it looks nice, large touchscreen, portable.. but after thinking long and hard here are my top reasons for not buying an ipad:

1) $$$: I can't justify the price. Dropping over $500 for something I'm not sure I need is a bit too much. Especially since I have a home computer and a smartphone.

2) 1st Gen: Technology will improve. Like all tech products (including Apple) the hardware gets better, things improve and prices drop.

Learned that lesson when I bought my 1st ipod touch. 1st gen didnt have a volume rocker, which was sorely missing. The next week after buying it they came out with 2nd gen WITH a volume rocker. for same price :mad:

3) I have an iPod Touch: It's an iPad but more portable.
Click to expand...

Nice blog post. :rolleyes:
 
ijen0311 said:
Sounds like you made your decision. What's the point of this? :confused:
Click to expand...

To help other people avoid making the knee jerk purchase I almost made. It's amazing how many people just bought and paid for a pre order just because it was a "NEW" Apple product.
 
ijen0311 said:
Let's see:

I have an older MBP which works but doesn't work great. For what I use it for, I didn't really feel a huge need to go buy a whole new laptop. I use it for web surfing, email, and iTunes. So, instead of shelling out $1k plus for something that I didn't really need to replace, I was able to spend $499 to bridge the gap. I also travel a lot, and the iPad fits right in my purse and comes along easily anywhere I go. I also like to read RSS feeds and surf during down time at work, and my iPad is right there with me. I absolutely love it.
Click to expand...

Ditto. Well, except my MBP works great. And the whole purse thing.
 
I think the iPad is cool. The main problem I see is that you have to hold it up with one hand while you work with the other hand, or you have to slouch in your chair/bed and rest it on bent legs (like all those billboards depict); I mean, it doesn't do very well just sitting in your lap.

Now maybe if they gave it a base, maybe a hinged base to rest it on. Yeah, and then they could put a keyboard on that base so while it fits better on your lap you can also do some real work with it. That's the ticket - I would buy one of those.
 
pizz said:
To help other people avoid making the knee jerk purchase I almost made. It's amazing how many people just bought and paid for a pre order just because it was a "NEW" Apple product.
Click to expand...

I think you're about a million purchases too late.
 
iPad or not iPad?

Did it ever occur to you that some people (dunno about an "amazing number" of them, but ok - we'll even go with that claim for the sake of argument) run out and buy the latest Apple products because they have a strong chance of being useful/great items that the user "grows into"?

I've found that unlike most computer companies, Apple doesn't really release a barrage of continuous new products (mostly boring, slight revisions of other ones they made before). Instead, they take the time to do things right, releasing forward-thinking devices that the general public doesn't always "get" immediately.

As for myself? I held off on the initial release of the wi-fi iPads, but decided to go ahead and get the 3g version the day it came out. I had a vague idea of things I would probably do with it, but it only became clearer after I owned and used it a little while.

In my case? I've actually gotten rid of my iPhone, replacing it with a much cheaper Samsung phone with slide-out keyboard and a cheap monthly unlimited voice/text plan through Cricket Wireless. When I want to use data-related things, I do it on my iPad 3g now. The "unlimited" data plan on it (which I bought before AT&T decided to quit offering it) set me back $30 a month - but I can have it AND my Cricket cellular plan for about $25 a month less than I was paying for my AT&T iPhone plan!

The iPad's battery life is pretty amazing, as is the larger screen size. Those two items alone make for a much more useful and pleasant experience than running apps on an iPhone. Plus, I can carry my iPad with me by throwing it in the side door pocket on my car or truck, and bring it in if I go out for lunch or what-not, just like I was carrying a book or magazine in. It doesn't require the whole "production" of pulling a laptop out of a big bag (and often plugging in a mouse, plus unwinding an AC adapter and plugging into some nearby outlet). If you have to get up from your table, you just tuck the iPad under your arm and go. You're not stuck leaving the whole thing unattended at your table for a few minutes, or struggling to pack it back into the case or bag.....


pizz said:
To help other people avoid making the knee jerk purchase I almost made. It's amazing how many people just bought and paid for a pre order just because it was a "NEW" Apple product.
Click to expand...
 
If you have a laptop and a decent cell phone, it's a very pointless and excessive gadget, IMHO.
 
pizz said:
Well i've been asking myself should buy an ipad. Sure it looks nice, large touchscreen, portable.. but after thinking long and hard here are my top reasons for not buying an ipad:

1) $$$: I can't justify the price. Dropping over $500 for something I'm not sure I need is a bit too much. Especially since I have a home computer and a smartphone.

2) 1st Gen: Technology will improve. Like all tech products (including Apple) the hardware gets better, things improve and prices drop.

Learned that lesson when I bought my 1st ipod touch. 1st gen didnt have a volume rocker, which was sorely missing. The next week after buying it they came out with 2nd gen WITH a volume rocker. for same price :mad:

3) I have an iPod Touch: It's an iPad but more portable.
Click to expand...

1. Can't afford don't buy. Should of stopped there =)

2. Argument valid for any sort of hardware and not specific to iPad or Apple device.

3. Yes it has a glass multitouch display but it is not an iPhone/ipod Touch. There are things you just wouldnt do on the small device which makes sense on the larger device. The OS is similar but they have made really good use of the space by changing the menu layouts etc, they've paid a lot of attention in those areas.

The fact that you can put this list together means you're probably not in the same market as what Apple was aiming the iPad for. Oh well maybe next time.
 
Okay, so you're speaking as if to tell others why they shouldn't get one.

1) YOU can't justify the price. Others can.

2) If everybody thought like that, they'd go out of business. Also, don't you have 14 days to return Apple products? You very well could have gone and exchanged it.

3) YOU have an iPod touch. Also, as others have pointed out there is so much you can do on a larger screen that you can't on a smaller screen. I'd much rather an iPad to write a document on then an iPod touch.

So you're basically telling us why YOU didn't buy one... Which while ever so interesting is somewhat pointless.
 
I already knew I wanted one after seeing the keynote - I had several reasons to want one, and since getting it, I still use it for most of those reasons.

My sister and her husband, on the other hand, are the types who don't do all that much on the computer. They have a nice desktop system with Vista and plenty of memory. I showed them my iPad on launch day, and within hours, my sister had to have one, so we went back out to the Apple store and she bought one.

Fast forward from launch day to about 3 days ago, when she told me that they have barely touched the computer, other than to charge the iPad and sync/backup everything back to the desktop.

They just find the iPad more useful, more portable and easier than using their desktop machine which technically should be more powerful and faster.

It just depends on what your needs and wants are.
 
I don't get that need of justifying obsessively ;) I mean, iPad is not -in most cases- the kind of gadget bought for its utility, but for the pleasure it provides while doing the tasks it can do. So, to sum up, it's more luxury than productivity, and the decision to make is very personal: do I want to spend the cash on that -if I have it-?

If you can't justify spending the money, then it's nice, you made the right decision by not buying it, and not having to go through buyer's remorse :p

Nevertheless, a lot of people around these forums have the cash, find the iPad fantastic for their computer needs, and know neither the iPhone nor the iPod Touch could do the tasks the iPad does without becoming, at least, much more uncomfortable and annoying.

So, I guess, it's not a matter of comparing with other apple products, but a matter of finding out if the iPad will have his space into your day to day computing.
 
I have a Blackberry and a 2009 MBPro and I too was on the fence. I had a 1st Gen iPhone but I couldn't stand the AT&T service. I had to have a phone that worked. My iPhone didn't.

I bought a 3G iPad about three weeks ago and absolutely love it. I travel quite a bit and it's been awesome. Movies you don't have to squint to watch, books/newspapers you can read with scrolling after 100 words...

It's nice. Very nice. I once bought a Windoze laptop to see whether it was worth the savings in money, and what a mistake.

You only live once. Get the iPad, you won't regret it.

Perfect size to throw in your briefcase and no fliptop screen to fall off your lap.

Go for it.
 
I've hardly touched my MacBook Pro since I got my iPad. Its fantastic. I can even RDC into the servers at work on it. If someone forgets their password, I can reset it just like that. I've read a few books on it and its almost as easy on the eyes as the E-ink readers. I did have a netbook for a while which just didn't do anything that well, mostly because it was running an OS designed for a much bigger screens and partly because the battery was rubbish.

The 1st gen' technology thing is rubbish. There will always be a new piece of tech that replaces what you just bought with bigger, better features. You could just as well say "I'm not buying that its 3rd gen' , 4th gen' stuff is so much better." . I never understand all these "Waiting for so and so macbook"frorum threads. Fair enough if its been announced but just waiting for apple to adopt the next CPU or chipset is a bit pointless. That said, I'm waiting for a white iPhone. But I just like the look better.
 
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