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Anecdotally, I know several people who have replaced their computers completely with iPads. They won't be buying new laptops any time soon (and yes, they use th

by swombat 15y ago

Anecdotally, I know several people who have replaced their computers completely with iPads. They won't be buying new laptops any time soon (and yes, they use their iPads for work).

Hov 15y ago
It might be illuminating to know what kind of work they do? Me being a software developer, I obviously can't use an iPad at work...neither can our Business Analysts or testers. If you're a manager I suppose you can get by with one. If you're actually producing stuff ie, software, tech specs, bug reports etc, then no.
lukeschlather 15y ago
Anecdotally, I didn't bother to set up two monitors when I started my current job (since I was the sole IT person) and after about six months I added one since there are a few lying around and was blown away by how much my productivity improved. Granted, I'm doing development, but most tasks involving a computer are positively impacted by increases in screen real estate. I've had the bookkeeping office say they won't work with less than two monitors, and one of them needs to be largish. Given the spreadsheets they work with, I see the need. There are plenty of tasks where the lack of real estate might seem to be unimportant, but what it comes down to is that when you're trying to fit anything of nontrivial complexity on a screen the size of the iPad, you use more and more mental energy on context-switching as the complexity increases.
- swombat 15y ago
  I'm not saying there aren't work tasks that require a proper workstation. I'm saying that even for work, there are some contexts where a full-on computer isn't needed. The people I referred to spend a lot of their time meeting people, doing sales, networking, responding to emails, sending presentations around, etc. If there are work contexts where the iPad is sufficient, it's not a big leap to imagine that there are even more non-work contexts where that is also the case.
- schmittz 15y ago
  This comment is interesting, because when the iPad first was announced, I had a lot of people give me the "oversized iPod" line and I tried to explain that even just significantly increasing screen real estate was enough to open the device to massively increased functionality. Glad to see some analogous, anecdotal support.

by swombat 15y ago

Anecdotally, I know several people who have replaced their computers completely with iPads. They won't be buying new laptops any time soon (and yes, they use their iPads for work).

Hov 15y ago

It might be illuminating to know what kind of work they do? Me being a software developer, I obviously can't use an iPad at work...neither can our Business Analysts or testers. If you're a manager I suppose you can get by with one. If you're actually producing stuff ie, software, tech specs, bug reports etc, then no.

lukeschlather 15y ago

Anecdotally, I didn't bother to set up two monitors when I started my current job (since I was the sole IT person) and after about six months I added one since there are a few lying around and was blown away by how much my productivity improved. Granted, I'm doing development, but most tasks involving a computer are positively impacted by increases in screen real estate. I've had the bookkeeping office say they won't work with less than two monitors, and one of them needs to be largish. Given the spreadsheets they work with, I see the need. There are plenty of tasks where the lack of real estate might seem to be unimportant, but what it comes down to is that when you're trying to fit anything of nontrivial complexity on a screen the size of the iPad, you use more and more mental energy on context-switching as the complexity increases.

swombat 15y ago
I'm not saying there aren't work tasks that require a proper workstation. I'm saying that even for work, there are some contexts where a full-on computer isn't needed. The people I referred to spend a lot of their time meeting people, doing sales, networking, responding to emails, sending presentations around, etc. If there are work contexts where the iPad is sufficient, it's not a big leap to imagine that there are even more non-work contexts where that is also the case.
schmittz 15y ago
This comment is interesting, because when the iPad first was announced, I had a lot of people give me the "oversized iPod" line and I tried to explain that even just significantly increasing screen real estate was enough to open the device to massively increased functionality. Glad to see some analogous, anecdotal support.