Quote:
Originally Posted by Steve Jordan
Okay, I'm not really sick of it... I was merely thinking of an essay
But many companies are putting all their eggs in the iPad basket, and ignoring the fact that at some point, the iPad is not going to be the Big Toy on the block. only one.
something brand new, and better than what's out here now... and every manufacturer will switch over, again. Think about how you'll feel when all the apps you loaded into your iPad can't be ported into your new device, |
I will agree with you that there should be concern about ebook purchases, and whether or not they will be available in he future if technology changes. It is a personal concern, because I went through a deal with ereader, and was unable to download 40 or so ebooks purchased from there, out of 400 or so purchased, for several months. This concern really needs to be addressed if there is going to be a vibrant ebook industry. This type of nonsense is just an incentive for piracy.
However, I can't agree with the dissing of the iPad. Microsoft and others had years where they tried to develop and market computers in the tablet format, and all of the products sucked, in large measure because of m$'s crappy operating system and the pricing of these units. Apple gave us a decently priced device that works almost flawlessly. Will there be competition? Of course. I am waiting to see what the Adam tablet will be like. Is the iPad perfect? No, I would like, for example, to get away from the iTunes lockin and be able to access it's filesystem without jail breaking.
But Apple has given us a tablet that works very well, and the other companies couldn't do it. So what if I can't move my apps over. The most I have paid for an app is $20, and if one day I have to spend $100 to buy new programs for a new device, who cares? And if the tablet that replaces my iPad has an open source OS like Android on the Adam tablet, well, most of what I use will be free.
Content is another matter. It is more expensive, and I do not want to lose books I have bought, or movies, or music, or data I have typed in or documents I have created. Apple needs to do better with this. Many of the good companies that sell books or write programs have kept up with the technology, and have potted their programs to the new devices. For example, the Pleco Chinese dictionary was first developed for the palm, and is now on the iPad, and Users actually received a free upgrade. Amazon has made it's reader available for the iPad, so I can read on my iPad or kindle.
As for windows smartphone support, well, one would have to have rocks in one's head to buy a windows based phone. One of my daughters bought one, and it dropped calls consistently out of the box,until I tweaked various settings just like I have to on windows desktops, and even then the performance was crappy.
The iPad is not magical, as Steve Jobs claims, but it is a very nice device with no competitor at this time. Certainly not the "ugly baby" HP Slate, which crashed and burned after launch. Winows will get slam dunked in this market because of performance issues and crappy reliability. I think the future is in the tablet devices. You will carry one everywhere, and plug it into a dock at work and at home to be able to use network resources and peripherals like mice and keyboards. I use my iPad dock/keyboard when at home all the time.
The other thing the iPad needs is transreflective screen display, so it can be used outside. That is where the kindle shines. But you can't adequately access the net on the kindle, it really sucks for that.