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Apple iPad Ping!
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Posted on 08/30/2010 4:36:33 PM PDT by Swordmaker
I’m flagging this as UNOFFICIAL because it’s not my intent to convey any formal Gartner positions here, only a few key personal observations.
I don’t buy every new technology that comes along (even my wife would begrudgingly agree but argue that I buy too many…). And I avoided the iPad siren call at announcement time. It was at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston in June (and a few other events in roughly the same timeframe) that I was seduced.
A lot of folks, particularly sales and marketing types, were using them. So I went out and bought a 3G 64 GB version at the end of June.
Understand, I have tried to be a tablet “fanatic” for years. I went so far as to go out and buy my own Lenovo X61 convertible Tablet (running Windows Vista and Office 2007) in April of 2008. I used it as a tablet until my peers complained that they didn’t like the handwritten emails hogging inbox space. Reading my scrawl was much harder than I thought it was…
The Tablet was also a brick, particularly with the extended life battery that usually conked out in about 2 and a half hours. And startup time? Well, like any good Windows machine, you could measure it in minutes…and then there were all the security patches and forced reboots and image backups and … well, we’ve all been there. And we’re there now…
(I am not a Windows tablet fanatic but I do like OneNote…)
My iPad hasn’t replaced my Tablet PC. And it hasn’t replaced my company issued notebook computer, my personal photo and music editing machine or any of the other computers in my apartment. It’s just made them more secondary.
I’ve seen cases already where iPads are being picked up in a variety of contexts, e.g., on the job in construction, in development for medical applications, in manufacturing operations for data collection and so forth.
Why?
The iPad is transformational because it just simply works. It comes on in a couple of seconds. Reboots? You’re kidding, right? I am sure I will want to or have to reboot my iPad someday. That day hasn’t come yet. (I rebooted my iPhone 4 once after 10 weeks of use.)
My expectation is most executives will use instant on, highly reliable (flash based), long-life tablets like the iPad. And as prices get driven down in a few years, these things are going to as ubiquitous as simple calculators once were.
And these things are *not* just “media tablets”. For many, they will be the almost everything device, with persistent storage on the web and offline operation via cached content on the device.
The iPad *is* the right *network computer* vision — it sort of fits what we described in 1997 when I started writing about network computing, but that’s another story.
The iPad is a mortal threat to most user PCs in existence today. I’m sure Microsoft and Google can come up with their own iPad equivalents. And I hope they’re more competitive than Zune. That’s not intended as a cheap shot. Apple needs more competition, but that’s another story too.
So what’s wrong with this story? Do you see most people having personal devices like an iPad?
Let me close with an interesting story. The Telegraph (London) published a story today entitled Oxford English Dictionary ‘will not be printed again’ from which I’ll reproduce the following quote:
Simon Winchester, author of ‘The Meaning of Everything: The Story of the Oxford English Dictionary’, said the switch towards online formats was “prescient”.
He said: “Until six months ago I was clinging to the idea that printed books would likely last for ever. Since the arrival of the iPad I am now wholly convinced otherwise.
Good piece to reflect on.
Tom Austin, vice president, has been a Gartner fellow for a decade. He is chief of research for social software, collaboration, communications, information management, business intelligence and high-performance workplace (HPW) research
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btw, I don't the mac system will run windows IDE?
I have a few terabytes of pdf books .......will the ipad allow / use em ?
I have no idea how Gartner is still in business. I’m starting to think either Mafia front for moving cocaine, or just a federal office.
Yes...
terabytes?
How does 64 GB get to a terabyte?
If you want to read them in a e-book reader that keeps track of pages, has margin notes, etc., download a free app called "Stanza"... it's great. It works with all e-book formats including natively with the Gutenberg project books without requiring conversion. It also works on the iPhone... and syncs your books between both.
You don't have to load them all on the iPad at once, driftdiver... I'd think that even you could figure that one out. You don't HAVE to have them with you... nor would you want to.
I keep some of my more frequently addressed files in my Mobile.me account and access them as I need them from the cloud. I have even more on my external drives on my Mac at home and can access them anytime I want from my iPad, anywhere either over WIFI or through my 3G connection.
So what exactly is the problem, except your propensity to toss non-existent monkey wrenches at Apple products?
I loooove my ipad and use it more and more. Thinking of leaving the ole vaio laptop at home while traveling. Only down thing is the typing I do on it is hideous with the onscreen keyboard. Constant errs, run through other words,,it is so bad I hate to type. But for reading email, surfing web, paying bills, buying tickets and stuff it is great.
And some of the apps are wonderful. I am looking at the EVO 4 g phone and it is just like the ipad but I hate little screens.
Best thing, it boots up in seconds and reading newspapers on it is wonderful. I love it more than even my kindle.
I too an VERY impressed by the iPad, in fact we are writing an app for it at my business and using it for inventory. What scares me though is how books can be changed too easily if we ever get rid of REAL books. Would be very easy to make editorial changes without many people knowing...
I too an VERY impressed by the iPad, in fact we are writing an app for it at my business and using it for inventory. What scares me though is how books can be changed too easily if we ever get rid of REAL books. Would be very easy to make editorial changes without many people knowing...
“How does 64 GB get to a terabyte?”
Install Dropbox or another cloud data service. iPad gets what you need when you ask for it.
This is one thing most people don’t get yet about the iPad: it’s a cloud device - you don’t store everything on it, you store everything somewhere else and access it from anywhere, or tether it to load just what you’ll need.
This platform hasn’t ramped up to full speed yet.
Counting the old standby of 1K per page (not even counting compression) and “few” being the minimum 3, that’s 3,000,000,000 pages of books, or six million books at 500 pages per book. For reference, Project Gutenberg has only 32,000 titles. Amazon only has 670,000 e-books.
You either have the largest private library in the world, or it’s all technical manuals with photos far more high-res than they need to be for e-reading. Considering graphics, let’s say maybe only 1/60th, 100,000. Now you did buy the non-free titles, right? That means you’ve been able to afford almost 70,000 books, right?
“This is one thing most people don’t get yet about the iPad: it’s a cloud device “
Which requires you to have network access.
So in other words its no different than any other tablet.
“So what exactly is the problem, except your propensity to toss non-existent monkey wrenches at Apple products?”
I asked a question; do you have a problem with people asking questions? Just trying to learn more from the propaganda.
My expectation is most executives will use instant on, highly reliable (flash based), long-life tablets like the iPad. And as prices get driven down in a few years, these things are going to as ubiquitous as simple calculators once were.This will continue until Republican congresscritters find their iPads subpeoned as part of the ongoing systematic harassment by the Party of the Single Party State. Thanks Swordmaker.
Sure! You know there is an app for that, right?
I have “GoodReader” on my iPad, so I can put my charted knitting patterns on it, and can just keep on knitting without having to drag along the pattern or book with all the other paraphernalia.
So much easier to manage when sitting in a waiting room somewhere, and so easy to take along for teaching purposes.
I am sure you could put your PDF books in GoodReader, but there may be an even better app. Check them all out on the various iPad app sites.
The iPad can make use of the apple Bluetooth keyboard. Very sleek very light and long battery life.
Crap load of JANES, Pics etc as well as pdf and other documents like word etc ....all good including every pdf book I could get for free off gutenberg project, torrents etc ......lots of work related reports that are not books per se as I implied but in PDF format. No, your right, not 2TB of “BOOKS”......:o)
A 2TB WD external HD is 80%, most are duplicates etc in different formats . I’ll say I have close to
Good reader it is ......, I have a new kindle on order but my boss is looking at buying us the ipad .
Thanks, Stay safe !
My remote region has verizon only right now that is reliable from and to home and work etc so until verizon gets the iphone I am a blackberry storm II sort. Works well for me now .
Thanks for the info ......
Not just "network access", but high-speed wireless network access.
At home, my cell phone drops to Edge, and my internet is via DSL.
Thanks for the info....stay safe !
“Not just “network access”, but high-speed wireless network access. “
Of course, that is an important distinction.
I thought it might be magic from the tone of some of these threads. I have so much to learn about these things.
Go ahead and cancel the Kindle. I-Pad blows it away.
Practice, man. Practice. ;^)
That’s best review I have received.......
I will whine till Uncle Sugar fesses up !~
As for books, I have my Kindle, as does Mr. Peel. I absolutely love my Kindle, although I do admit that I love the tactile feel of books. Mr. Peel is quite happy with an iPad and a Kindle and sees no need to ditch the Kindle for the iPad. In fact, he's thinking of upgrading his Kindle for the Kindle DX.
As for Oses, Mr. Peel is serious OS geek from way back -- we recently tore up that guest bedroom and converted it into a server farm so he could play with Cloud computing. In his office, He has many desktop machines - usually they are HP - but has recently tired of their design. Just took delivery today of a Quad core hyper threaded, 16Gig iMac 2TB harddrive + .25 TB SSD Drive with 27" screen to run Windows (amongst other things).
Fact is that the tablet will change the world as we know it. Print media will die a horrible death. Ten years from now, newspapers and magazines will be as distant a memory as cassette tapes and typewriters are to us now.
Everybody will be in the cloud. Tablets will be commodities. Everybody will have several. That's why I'm stating that billions will be sold. You drop one of your iPads on the sidewalk and the screen cracks? No big deal. Trash it. Next time to Walmart or 7-11, you pick one up and by the time you get back to your car, all your personal data has been uploaded to it (from the cloud).
People will have a tablet for the car, a tablet for their workplace, a tablet for the patio and even a tablet for the bathroom. All these tablets will be synced up with your personal data. Change one of your contacts phone number on one and all the others will be updated with the new number instantly. Download a book and all the other tablets you own will also have that book, all synchronized to the page you were last on.
People are going to come here and yap about keyboards. Well, no big deal. You can plug a regular size keyboard right into these things if you want. Keyboards will soon be built into trousers so you can type away on your pants. ASDF on the left leg and JKL; on the right leg. The mouse will be built into the crotch.
We are only in the first generation of the tablet. Future generations will make amazing improvements that will make the tablet even more useful than it is today.
Billions and billions of these tablets will be manufactured and sold. Soon, tablets will outnumber the stars in the universe. Even Carl Sagan won't be able to keep track of them.
3G.
You’re always connected.
And yes, if you just want to compare marketing checklists, it’s no different than any other tablet - arguably worse.
Except that the iPad is a runaway disruptive technology hit, while the others have gone nowhere for decades.
Jobs’ brilliance is realizing technology is not about marketing checklists.
I think you don’t want it explained to you.
I’m looking forward to Apple’s Wednesday event.
“I think you don’t want it explained to you.”
Sure I do, I’d really like to know why people will pay 3 times for exactly the same thing.
Pure marketing genius.
“Practice, man. Practice. ;^)”
LOL lots of it apparently.
Me, too...I hope they announce a retina display, dual-camera Face Time Touch, and an improved Apple TV that lets me junk my ISP.
Ed
DSL certainly qualifies as high speed. Wireless routers are relatively inexpensive depending on the brand, and worth it.
Answer: it’s not.
But you wont let go of the notion that it is.
Do you see a difference between a Toyota and a BMW?
All that is not normally what one would think of putting on an e-reader, especially since that much solid-state storage will run you over $6,000.
Answer: it’s not.
But you find it more fun to assert it is.
By your rhetoric there is no difference between a Toyota and a BMW.
There’s a free Kindle app for the iPad. You can transfer your Kindle books to the iPad, and purchase new ones as well.
Running all on a 700$ laptop now with a sub 200$ external wd 2TB hard drive now......
128k?
All you have to do is look at the market. Microsoft and HP had tablets in the pipeline, both canceled after the iPad. They saw their creations had no place in the post-iPad market. All but one of the upcoming tablets are Android copies of the iPad concept. Apple redefined what a tablet should be, and that definition fell right in with what the consumer wants.
All the marketing in the world won't help a product the people don't like. Just look at Vista.
I really like my KDX.
Not exactly a very portable, e-reader like solution, is it?
“All the marketing in the world won’t help a product the people don’t like”
What exactly do you think marketing is? You’re confusing it with advertising.
With all available .....Yes.
Carrying just a selection in a reader will be better.
Stay safe....
Can you ssh or scp from the iPad?
Squantos, you are living proof that data expands to fill all available space! LOL
I should talk I just found a program to allow me to make animations of Mandelbrot images. I suspect I'll need more space soon. Also, it's the first program I've found that will max out all 8 cores.
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