4 ms·

One of the better comments by Jobs, "It’s really true, if you’ve got a bunch of rich guys who can afford their third computer — you know, they’ve got a desktop,

by tibbon 16y ago

One of the better comments by Jobs, "It’s really true, if you’ve got a bunch of rich guys who can afford their third computer — you know, they’ve got a desktop, they’ve got a portable and now they’re gonna have one of these to read with… that’s your market!" I've got my iPhone, I've got my Macbook Pro, I've got my gaming systems (and we have a few Kindles floating around the house)... I need the iPad because?

JMiao 16y ago
it's better at most non-geeky things than your macbook pro. i know because i own both.
- krschultz 16y ago
  Is it $500 better? Compare a Macbook Pro to another laptop that is $500 cheaper. I'd argue there is $500 worth of value there. Is there $500 worth of value for the iPad over the Macbook Pro? I can think of a lot of things to do with $500 that would be better for me than buying an iPad.
  - Retric 16y ago
    A 700$ dell laptop + 500$ iPad costs less than a Apple's cheapest 15" laptop 1799$ (MacBook Pro) and Apple's 17" laptop is even more overpriced. IMO, the best option for most people is to buy a cheap 17" laptop and an iPad. And for gamers a desktop + iPad is much more reasonable than a "gaming" laptop. PS: When you consider how often the average users system is down (software/hardware/virus etc) having a simple independent device that lets them use email and most webpages is a huge advantage relative to spending 500$ for a better version on the same basic HW.
  - roc 16y ago
    > "Is it $500 better?" For me, sure. I looked at all the things that a desktop is bad at, that the iPad is good at. Like reading on the couch, occupying the kids in the car, annotation and note-taking away from a traditional desk, reviewing a load of pictures in the field, diagramming or sketching. I've spent more than $500 on an assortment of devices to meet those needs and none of them have been half as good as the iPad. So for me, it's absolutely worth it. But my finding value in it certainly doesn't speak to whether you will or should. Maybe you don't have any of those needs.
  - glhaynes 16y ago
    For me, no question. I spent over $1000 to upgrade to a newer MBP just a few weeks before the iPad was announced. Beautiful machine, does just what I wanted; I still regret it. Since getting my iPad, most evenings it doesn't even get opened.
  - muhfuhkuh 16y ago
    >Is there $500 worth of value for the iPad over the Macbook Pro? If you're not working while you're on vacation, yet need to stay connected, that $500 will make you feel like a million dollars. I took my iPad on our vacation in Vancouver late April. It was the only electronic device aside from my cell phone that we took. Rocking that thing loaded with movies and TV episodes on a plane was unbelievably convenient (and try getting a netbook with an IPS screen at that price point). At the condo after walking around the city or hiking in the North, I'd shoot off some emails or map out where we wanted to go next and enter it into Navigon app for the next day. Not lugging a $2000 MBP around on a vacation is reason enough to celebrate :)
  - roofone 16y ago
    > Compare a Macbook Pro to another laptop that is $500 cheaper. I'd argue there is $500 worth of value there. Curiousity piqued: what makes it worth $500 more?
maercsrats 16y ago
In my case, I was caught in the flood of Nashville and lost all my electronics. The next day I bought an ipad to do email, get on the internet, play a few games and read whatever books I had saved in dropbox or my work computer. I even was able to find some youtube videos on how to (try) and repair some of my stuff. Still couldn't save my motorcycle, though. The ipad has been fantastic and only $500. There is the argument of "Why not just buy a netbook for $200?" To that question, I suggest you go try out an ipad and remember that you aren't going to do any coding on it. It's a pretty fantastic machine. That being said, I am a computer programmer in a Vanderbilt research department. At some point I will have to pick up a laptop just to do some real coding work (and SC2 when it drops). For everything else, I love my ipad.
joubert 16y ago
A few kindles?
- chollida1 16y ago
  My family has a few Kindles. If you were married to someone who read a lot then I think you'd understand. At night you just can't share the same Kindle to read 2 different books at the same time:)
notauser 16y ago
It's no longer 2003. A Macbook Pro equivalent back then was a lot more than $1800. An iPhone equivalent would have been really expensive and it would have had a 10 minute battery life. Combined WiFi+GSM chip sets were still new back then. Wireless data plans were running at around £2 per megabyte (packet) or a max of ~50kbps (channel at 1.5c/min+). Trying to build a useful tablet, with wireless capability, with the money left over in the electronics budget of the average consumer, after paying for a MBP and an iPhone? Not possible. There would have been too many compromises for Apple at the time, whereas in 2010 they can do a pretty good job at it.
jsz0 16y ago
You may not need or want one. I think the bigger point is our ideas about portability are evolving. In the late 80s people who wanted a portable computer were happy with 10-15lbs machines that were basically portable desktops. Throughout the 90s we started to get something that looked like a modern laptop but still too heavy an expensive for most people to carry around. In the mid-00s we get the modern version of a laptop. ~5-8lbs, wireless connectivity, fairly inexpensive. In the last few years we're seeing the shift towards even smaller machines. Inexpensive <5lbs net books with wireless connectivity standard. So maybe the next step is <2lbs tablets. The trend of evolution is pretty clear: Smaller, more connected, lighter, cheaper, better battery life. For lots of people a MacBook Pro is no longer the ideal of portability. It's a heavy integrated desktop that has to be plugged in every 3 or 4 hours to keep working.
- tibbon 16y ago
  Agreed. In the late 90's I thought a laptop could never replace my dual processor monster of the time in a workstation/server case (which I still happily carried to LAN parties and friends houses with a 19" CRT monitor)

by tibbon 16y ago

JMiao 16y ago

it's better at most non-geeky things than your macbook pro. i know because i own both.

krschultz 16y ago
Is it $500 better? Compare a Macbook Pro to another laptop that is $500 cheaper. I'd argue there is $500 worth of value there. Is there $500 worth of value for the iPad over the Macbook Pro? I can think of a lot of things to do with $500 that would be better for me than buying an iPad.
- Retric 16y ago
  A 700$ dell laptop + 500$ iPad costs less than a Apple's cheapest 15" laptop 1799$ (MacBook Pro) and Apple's 17" laptop is even more overpriced. IMO, the best option for most people is to buy a cheap 17" laptop and an iPad. And for gamers a desktop + iPad is much more reasonable than a "gaming" laptop. PS: When you consider how often the average users system is down (software/hardware/virus etc) having a simple independent device that lets them use email and most webpages is a huge advantage relative to spending 500$ for a better version on the same basic HW.
- roc 16y ago
  > "Is it $500 better?" For me, sure. I looked at all the things that a desktop is bad at, that the iPad is good at. Like reading on the couch, occupying the kids in the car, annotation and note-taking away from a traditional desk, reviewing a load of pictures in the field, diagramming or sketching. I've spent more than $500 on an assortment of devices to meet those needs and none of them have been half as good as the iPad. So for me, it's absolutely worth it. But my finding value in it certainly doesn't speak to whether you will or should. Maybe you don't have any of those needs.
- glhaynes 16y ago
  For me, no question. I spent over $1000 to upgrade to a newer MBP just a few weeks before the iPad was announced. Beautiful machine, does just what I wanted; I still regret it. Since getting my iPad, most evenings it doesn't even get opened.
- muhfuhkuh 16y ago
  >Is there $500 worth of value for the iPad over the Macbook Pro? If you're not working while you're on vacation, yet need to stay connected, that $500 will make you feel like a million dollars. I took my iPad on our vacation in Vancouver late April. It was the only electronic device aside from my cell phone that we took. Rocking that thing loaded with movies and TV episodes on a plane was unbelievably convenient (and try getting a netbook with an IPS screen at that price point). At the condo after walking around the city or hiking in the North, I'd shoot off some emails or map out where we wanted to go next and enter it into Navigon app for the next day. Not lugging a $2000 MBP around on a vacation is reason enough to celebrate :)
- roofone 16y ago
  > Compare a Macbook Pro to another laptop that is $500 cheaper. I'd argue there is $500 worth of value there. Curiousity piqued: what makes it worth $500 more?

maercsrats 16y ago

In my case, I was caught in the flood of Nashville and lost all my electronics. The next day I bought an ipad to do email, get on the internet, play a few games and read whatever books I had saved in dropbox or my work computer. I even was able to find some youtube videos on how to (try) and repair some of my stuff. Still couldn't save my motorcycle, though. The ipad has been fantastic and only $500. There is the argument of "Why not just buy a netbook for $200?" To that question, I suggest you go try out an ipad and remember that you aren't going to do any coding on it. It's a pretty fantastic machine. That being said, I am a computer programmer in a Vanderbilt research department. At some point I will have to pick up a laptop just to do some real coding work (and SC2 when it drops). For everything else, I love my ipad.

joubert 16y ago

A few kindles?

chollida1 16y ago
My family has a few Kindles. If you were married to someone who read a lot then I think you'd understand. At night you just can't share the same Kindle to read 2 different books at the same time:)

notauser 16y ago

It's no longer 2003. A Macbook Pro equivalent back then was a lot more than $1800. An iPhone equivalent would have been really expensive and it would have had a 10 minute battery life. Combined WiFi+GSM chip sets were still new back then. Wireless data plans were running at around £2 per megabyte (packet) or a max of ~50kbps (channel at 1.5c/min+). Trying to build a useful tablet, with wireless capability, with the money left over in the electronics budget of the average consumer, after paying for a MBP and an iPhone? Not possible. There would have been too many compromises for Apple at the time, whereas in 2010 they can do a pretty good job at it.

jsz0 16y ago

You may not need or want one. I think the bigger point is our ideas about portability are evolving. In the late 80s people who wanted a portable computer were happy with 10-15lbs machines that were basically portable desktops. Throughout the 90s we started to get something that looked like a modern laptop but still too heavy an expensive for most people to carry around. In the mid-00s we get the modern version of a laptop. ~5-8lbs, wireless connectivity, fairly inexpensive. In the last few years we're seeing the shift towards even smaller machines. Inexpensive <5lbs net books with wireless connectivity standard. So maybe the next step is <2lbs tablets. The trend of evolution is pretty clear: Smaller, more connected, lighter, cheaper, better battery life. For lots of people a MacBook Pro is no longer the ideal of portability. It's a heavy integrated desktop that has to be plugged in every 3 or 4 hours to keep working.

tibbon 16y ago
Agreed. In the late 90's I thought a laptop could never replace my dual processor monster of the time in a workstation/server case (which I still happily carried to LAN parties and friends houses with a 19" CRT monitor)