EMC exec sees iPad taking over... his house

Seeing all those comments I wonder how many iPad owners will not upgrade their desktop/laptop computers (be it PC or Mac) and just continue upgrading their tablets (be it iPad or whatever comes next as alternative tablet). If you see your laptop gathering dust and maybe being used only for some small stuff that doesn't require processing power, wouldn't you just stop buying a new one and just use a tablet? Wouldn't tablets eat into home used laptop and desktop sales? And Netbooks will be bought by business users on the go only (unless special business tablets appear too).

I solved our problem when I bought a second iPad for my (non-tech) wife who took over mine.

The iPad has saved my iPhone and MacBook battery life. I no longer need to charge them constantly because the iPad Is better suited for many of the daily things I was using them for and has better battery life. I'm no longer fighting over the laptop with my girlfriend. We both prefer the iPad for web browsing. The only time we both don't have access to the web is when I'm syncing the ipad

I've found myself wishing I had select iPad apps available for my desktop Mac, invokable from the Dock or the Dashboard.

I think most of the critics coming to the iPad as a device come mostly from people who plainly speaking they do not like Apple.

Although with news, journalism and technology itself, everytime there is a device that doesn't appeal to the critics sense of what is right or wrong, it gets bashed, demoted or marked as trash and it shouldn't be bought or looked at. Some people find these new devices like a breath of fresh air, considering that there has not been a significant technology innovations since well the iPhone rolled out. I am pretty sure if it had been Nokia, Motorola or Blackberry to name a few, the criticism and comments would be normal. Apple is the mold breaker, and therefore they get all the attention good or bad. Because they are different, and present to its consumers products that in the hands of other creative individuals, would seem mundane, boring and not thought out.

Apple has taken the lead again to appoint innovation and progress in not only technological aesthetics, but improvement as well. Apple takes a lot of pride in keeping the products they develop secret, and out of the eye of journalism or critics so they can contain the "wow factor" they want to present to their consumers intact.

The iPad is no exception. Ever since the idea of making notebooks more portable, mobile computing and the rise of netbooks as a product itself, if you have noticed there has not been much improvement in aesthetics and functionality. This happened with mobile phones as well. Up till the iPhone rolled out we didn't have much of a mobile computing device as much as we had an extension of a peer to peer messenger service. We had seen the ideas of Microsoft and Palm come in the form of Pocket PC and Palm devices years before the iPad, iPhone came out, but they were cluncky, disorganized, non-user friendly and boring. Even Microsoft left their Windows Mobile OS decay, because they thought there was nothing else to innovate into.

Apple is a people oriented company. Even if you are not a fan, deep down you have to admit, they come out with nifty, cool looking devices and most of the time, very functional and easy to use. When they design a product, they try to bring forward a closer interaction between the user and the device. This kind of functionality is not seen in many products out there, and between Apple's rivals the only one that has a "similar" sense has been Google.

This being said, a lot of people lack the understanding of what the iPad really is, and it's not the same as what they wanted it to be therefore they don't justify any of the modifications and additions it brings. A lot of people label Apple to be a closed platform, while the "PC" has been more open all the time. This is sort of right, but most people do not look at the benefits this "closeness" in design and implementation brings, again considering this is not a Netbook, notebook or personal computer.

The iPad is the in-between of a Notebook and a Phone (or portable media device). I don't include netbooks, because netbooks and notebooks aside from size, processor and size are practically the same.

Let me give you a real scenario as an example.

At my household we have 2 Desktop Computers (1 MacPro & 1 Gaming PC currently connected to the 46" LCD TV), and we have 3 Laptops (2 Windows 7 and 1 MacBook Pro). The laptops are 1 in the bedroom, and 2 in the living room, where my wife and I use them. I mostly do my gaming on the Xbox360, and some other portion of gaming on our Gaming PC. The macbook pro is for programming for the web and other stuff and the Windows 7 Laptops are for meh.

Same with me. My MacBook, which I used to use religiously, has now been relegated only to stuff like my graphic design work (Photoshop and Illustrator and such), organizing and syncing media on iTunes, and occasionally Hulu (when the ABC app or Netflix or iTunes don't support the media I'm looking for... But I fully believe Hulu will be converting soon). The iPad just does everything else for me. It's simply more comfortable to pick up the iPad for every other type of computing need, and honestly, like others have said, 80 or so percent of what I did on my MacBook was web-browser based anyway so the iPad offers a much more convenient, more enjoyable and faster way of doing all those things. It's also a much better tool for reading and watching media. Its form factor makes more sense than a laptop for almost everything you do with a computer and its simplicity is liberating.

It may be seen by some as a new toy that will eventually wear off, but I can see no reason in the world why I'd go back to my MacBook for anything other than intensive work that i can't do on the iPad yet.

iPad in the morning, it's become like a newspaper for me. Very few are brave enough to say it, but it's great for bathroom reading. It unchains me from my desk, better than a laptop because you can kick back with it. You can hold it up naturally in ways that you wouldn't with a laptop. Why hold a keyboard up in the air? Its just different. Its a wonderful companion computer at work. I prefer doing my email and calendar on it compared with citrix. The only reason I need outlook is for meeting maker and personal folders. The calendar app in particular is way better than apple's own iCal, it's really a beautiful thing. You can use it in bed, read a few boring news stories to knock yourself out. Again, you're not going to hold a laptop up in the air in bed. Its surprising how naturally it fits into your life.

I did my annual tech upgrade last month and bought a new Android phone and MBP. I thought about the iPad but my issue was yet another $600 for something that overlaps the functionality of what I already have. Still I gave in.

The phone is awesome but too small for browsing and all the apps I use are for away from the house. I am already finding that I use the iPad more than the laptop while home. It's a much more personal device and is very easy to move in and out of your periphery. We pass it around to play Scrabble, do quick look ups on IMBD while watching TV, check out photos taken on camera, email, etc.

The issue I am having now is what to do with the MBP. Work gave me a brand new Dell. I am not a fan of the bulky hardware but between it, Android and the iPad, I don't have much use for the MBP (other than I just really like it)

Nothing ridiculous about this at all. I am a long time Mac user. At home, we have a common iMac, 4 laptops (plus my MBP 15 at work that hasn't left my desk since I first hacked a Dell mini 10 to run OS X last November), and two Mac minis (plus all the other media devices). My wife and I each have a 3G iPad, and I have canceled plans to add an MBP 13. I do most of my Aperture work at home anyway, so don't need all that power on the road. I am redeploying one of the minis with Snow Leopard server, and I expect that we will be buying few if any new computers in the foreseeable future. I have already taken two multi-day trips with my iPad (including a WiFi only version the first week it came out), and while there are some limitations (for work, 8 address these with DropBox/SugarSync/Folders), none are severe enough to make me wish I had an extra three pounds in my briefcase. Once Apple cuts the tether to iTunes--if it ever does--this is for me a laptop replacement.

Yep, in our household is a similar story. The iPad is getting most of the use. That reminds me, I need to cycle the batteries on the laptops now that they get almost no use. The iMac has become a home server of sorts. It does syncing, backups and the heavy lifting (dvd ripping, iMovie, iPhoto stuff) in the house now. But the iPad has taken over video viewing, music, photo viewing, and browsing. I think when it is time to replace the trusty iMac, I may go used PowerMac or Mac Mini instead and really treat it like a server. Install just the programs I need - stability and storage of data will be its main duties.

After a month, I'm done fighting or justifying to those who can't see what the iPad is about. I'm unfortunately old enough to remember reading computer magazines and the letters to the editor would be filled with similar comments saying that the new IBM PC-AT is still just a toy, look at what I can do with a mini-computer. (I wished I had saved the article, "Are 256 colors too much?") The iPad makes computing fun and safe for my family (you can't screw it up). So to see them be able to take a little interest in technology and finally have confidence in their computing use is fun for me as well. It has been a disruptive technology, in our house.