So much hate in this thread! It's as if a thousand anti-fanboys grabbed onto something to define themselves by (wow, awkward sentence structure).
You personally may not find a use for a tablet, but that does not mean other people have the same needs as you. Not all people have "a laptop and a smartphone" already, for example, and a tablet might work well for them in the living room.
Imagine, a computing device you don;t really have to mess with for checking email, casual surfing, video/audio chatting with the family and playing some casual games - that's what the iPad is, and it is selling like hot cakes because *that's what an awful lot of people want*. Not because they've been "told to buy it like mindless sheep", but because it genuinely offers something they find useful.
This doesn't mean everyone is going to find a tablet useful l -I don't own one, for example, but I can see how many, many people would love them.
It's also not a requirement that everyone must go out and buy the new one when it's announced - that seems to be something that Apple haters assume everyone who owns the earlier ones will do. Of course Apple is going to keep updating it as the tech advances, but this does not make the older ones obsolete. The iPad 1 is still a perfectly capable device running the latest iOS software (akin to the iPhone 3GS which is running iOS5 on the phone side). Just because the new one is coming out does not mean the old ones are simply going to stop working, or that they'll be left behind in software updates (like many Android devices stuck on older releases after the manufacturer simply abandons them).
This argument has been done to death, but just because you personally (or I, for that matter) can't see a use for a tablet in their own computing experience does not make them useless. They have been rightly snapped up by the multiple tens of millions by the less-computer-using demographic and perfectly filled a niche - it's a device that does 80-90% of their computing needs without all the associated hassle of... being a computer. They can just pick it up and it will do what it says on the tin.
I have close family members who own them (one with an iPad 1, the other with an iPad 2) and they have revolutionised the way they use the internet since they were simply not the type of people who would sit down in front of a computer (even a laptop on the couch) and browse. Now they're sending more emails, participating on family facebook groups, viewing photos, doing online shopping, watching streaming TV (both on the iPad and on their main TV with an adapter).
The iPad came along and made tablets useful to the masses. The computer-using tech-literate folk all laughed and said they would never sell, but they weren't looking past their Alienware 24 lb laptops and liquid cooled 1500 watt gaming rigs far enough to realise they weren't the target market.
The "smug Apple fan" is as much an accurate representation of the typical Apple user as the "12 year old who only knows the word 'gay' as an insult" as a description of Xbox LIVE users. Of course both types of people exist, but in a thread about Apple on almost any tech site the insults and stereotypes start flying from the anti-Apple side with great gusto and vitriol. It's virtually impossible to actually talk about anything to do with Apple in a positive light without being immediately jumped on. It gets tiring and annoying to the point where I stop bothering, which is a shame.
I have plenty of criticism for Apple, as well as plenty of praise for some of the things they do, but trying to raise any of the former points is an exercise in futility.
You personally may not find a use for a tablet, but that does not mean other people have the same needs as you. Not all people have "a laptop and a smartphone" already, for example, and a tablet might work well for them in the living room.
Imagine, a computing device you don;t really have to mess with for checking email, casual surfing, video/audio chatting with the family and playing some casual games - that's what the iPad is, and it is selling like hot cakes because *that's what an awful lot of people want*. Not because they've been "told to buy it like mindless sheep", but because it genuinely offers something they find useful.
This doesn't mean everyone is going to find a tablet useful l -I don't own one, for example, but I can see how many, many people would love them.
It's also not a requirement that everyone must go out and buy the new one when it's announced - that seems to be something that Apple haters assume everyone who owns the earlier ones will do. Of course Apple is going to keep updating it as the tech advances, but this does not make the older ones obsolete. The iPad 1 is still a perfectly capable device running the latest iOS software (akin to the iPhone 3GS which is running iOS5 on the phone side). Just because the new one is coming out does not mean the old ones are simply going to stop working, or that they'll be left behind in software updates (like many Android devices stuck on older releases after the manufacturer simply abandons them).
This argument has been done to death, but just because you personally (or I, for that matter) can't see a use for a tablet in their own computing experience does not make them useless. They have been rightly snapped up by the multiple tens of millions by the less-computer-using demographic and perfectly filled a niche - it's a device that does 80-90% of their computing needs without all the associated hassle of... being a computer. They can just pick it up and it will do what it says on the tin.
I have close family members who own them (one with an iPad 1, the other with an iPad 2) and they have revolutionised the way they use the internet since they were simply not the type of people who would sit down in front of a computer (even a laptop on the couch) and browse. Now they're sending more emails, participating on family facebook groups, viewing photos, doing online shopping, watching streaming TV (both on the iPad and on their main TV with an adapter).
The iPad came along and made tablets useful to the masses. The computer-using tech-literate folk all laughed and said they would never sell, but they weren't looking past their Alienware 24 lb laptops and liquid cooled 1500 watt gaming rigs far enough to realise they weren't the target market.
The only people who seem to get all het up about the "smug Apple fans" are the ones looking for it. I'm not accusing you of this, just noting that this thread got to page two with a a whole raft of insults at... who exactly?Daystar Clarion said:
The "smug Apple fan" is as much an accurate representation of the typical Apple user as the "12 year old who only knows the word 'gay' as an insult" as a description of Xbox LIVE users. Of course both types of people exist, but in a thread about Apple on almost any tech site the insults and stereotypes start flying from the anti-Apple side with great gusto and vitriol. It's virtually impossible to actually talk about anything to do with Apple in a positive light without being immediately jumped on. It gets tiring and annoying to the point where I stop bothering, which is a shame.
I have plenty of criticism for Apple, as well as plenty of praise for some of the things they do, but trying to raise any of the former points is an exercise in futility.
