You know what reminds me of? A handful of years back various people asserted that developer time was more valuable than computer time and the joy of using tool

You know what reminds me of? A handful of years back various people asserted that developer time was more valuable than computer time and the joy of using tools that might be ten or twenty times slower or even slower than that with quick dev times was worth it. Hardware is cheap, good developers are not, do what's fun. There is both truth and non-truth in that. iPads and especially the pro are the hardware device version of that assertion. Nobody seriously would say they'd outperform a stout Intel core chip, but they are amazingly close and when you look at all the people that were/are still living on XP I think the benchmarks miss the point. It's not the performance that will be the difference, it's the controlled ecosystem and walled garden of the device that does. Honestly, it looks like performance is in the realm of becoming a nonissue and I'm stunned at the app selection. The weak thing to me is actual data management, but that's a legacy emotion I have as a data pack rat. Laptop killer for technical pros? Not even close but a laptop killer for the masses? I'd say it's capable and just a matter of market perception.