I'm in sales and I've found that the Ipad is great for that.

1. High resolution interface to present presentations to clients
2. Easy to navigate picture albums. I take all the lifestyle photos from a certain brand and store it on my Ipad. After I'm done with my presentation, I leave it on its stand and turn the slideshow on so that the client has somewhere to look and he's thinking about nothing except products associated with the pictures I show.
3. The wow factor since you're probably the first person to approach the client with this. Works everytime, I always have their attention much more than on a laptop.

However if you're thinking of replacing this for your PC, then yeah you are definitely a long way from home.

When I bought iPhone 4 I went to Demo stand just to play a little bit with iPad. I was disappointed, it's just bigger and faster version of iPhone 3GS, because iPhone 4 has same processor and even more RAM than iPad. I would expect them to add some applications like Microsoft Office or other stuff, but now it's useless, it's like big fat iPhone without function to make calls.

The screen is too big, which makes finger tied when touching for a long time.

the ipad is what it is. it's not geared toward people who need to work on it. t's computering lite - you're on vacation; or you're away from home and don't need to do hardcore work, but you want to read, read email and surf the web; or you've got a big house and could use an email/web-surfing device in the kitchen or the living room. that kind of thing.

it's a niche market, for sure. in the same way people shouldn't expect a netbook to be everything a full laptop/desktop computer can be.

many of my friends do nothing more than surf the web and do email. they only need a computer at work. when they're home, they don't use other apps.

if i had the luxury, i'd use it at meetings and on personal trips where i plan to do NO work but want to stay connected. or i'd keep it in my kitchen.

somebody wants the ipad: apple sold 300,000 of 'em the first day. you do the math (especially if you own stock).

and now the floodgates are open. i'd be hesitant to buy anything along the lines of this new tech entry until it washes out. this is like beta vs. vhs, blu-ray vs. hd dvd.

we're at a place now where people can, more or less, get the apps/features they want from something as small as a pocket cell phone to the ipad, and i'd even count netbooks in the mix. i'm not sure we'll know till a year or so out which size (combined with package of features) consumers will choose by consensus. once that happens, a lot of what's coming out now will fall away.

the new samsung product, by its size, looks even more star trekkian than the ipad. the smallest, most feature-rich, user-friendly device wins, but mostly size (the smallest display people can tolerate for intensive web browsing) will drive the outcome. consumers will choose the right size, and the manufacturers will fall in line. you might guess that storage capacity would be at the top, too, but that could depend on how much people embrace cloud computing.

too bad apple's newton was way ahead of its time. but i gotta salute apple for paving the way. the ipad is a work in progress, and someone had to take the first step. that apple consistently delivers "wow!" with style . . . well, that's what apple does best. i wouldn't even try to compare its products with those that are simply functional/practical/pedestrian.

I use my iPad on flights mostly, where it's great way to watch some movies and play the incidental game, while being less clunky than my laptop.

Reason I bought it though, is just to make money. Much like wearing a good suite or a nice watch, having your gadgets up to date helps to build credibility. I know someone will reply "I'm not fooled by no suit, and I couldn't care less about yer damn gadget!", and I'm right there with you, but the fact is that many people are (unconsciously) looking for exactly these things.

Call me crazy, but I do actually have a shelf with phones of pretty much every brand that. I do adjust my gadget style based on the client I'm about to meet, just like I do my clothing. Would I have lost sales without the right phone? Maybe not, but it certainly makes things easier and it beats having to use the more traditional smoke or drink.

jefftv wrote:I use my iPad on flights mostly, where it's great way to watch some movies and play the incidental game, while being less clunky than my laptop.

Reason I bought it though, is just to make money. Much like wearing a good suite or a nice watch, having your gadgets up to date helps to build credibility. I know someone will reply "I'm not fooled by no suit, and I couldn't care less about yer damn gadget!", and I'm right there with you, but the fact is that many people are (unconsciously) looking for exactly these things.

Call me crazy, but I do actually have a shelf with phones of pretty much every brand that. I do adjust my gadget style based on the client I'm about to meet, just like I do my clothing. Would I have lost sales without the right phone? Maybe not, but it certainly makes things easier and it beats having to use the more traditional smoke or drink.

i guess it depends on what line of work you're in, but i can see that, easily. first adopters do tend to earn some "awe" credits, and sometimes i measure a person's business/tech savvy by the products they use. fair or not, i draw some general conclusions about people who (still) use @aol.com, @yahoo.com or @hotmail.com as an e-mail addy, vs. @gmail.com or a personal domain.

frankly, i'm flat out jealous of anyone who owns an ipad. i'd love to have one, even if it's no more useful than the ipod touch was when it came out.