Why I would get an Apple iPad

Back in May 2009 I wrote a post about how I would like to consume information from the internet from the perspective of what devices I would want to have. In that post I said I had a mobile phone and laptop which covers the two ends of the spectrum of devices, but that the middle was not filled. I had mentioned a tablet would be perfect and that I hoped that Apple would eventually produce one. Well, they are and it's called the iPad.

As with anything Apple announces, there has been a ton of online commentary as to why the iPad is (not) worth the minimum US$500 price tag. From what I can tell, most of the complaints against it are coming from the perspective that it does not fulfill all the needs one has from a laptop. Fair enough as Apple did make a direct comparison between the iPad and netbooks as the niche they were trying to fill. Complaints tend to be about things such as no USB port to connect external devices or the inability to do some heavy work like programming on it. All of these shortcomings are coming at the iPad from the perspective of comparing it to a netbook.

Since the iPad it meant to fill a niche it is important to be upfront about what that niche is. If you view the history of computer and mobile devices, originally people had a desktop and then a laptop for those times they needed portability. As the power of laptops have increased it has now become commonplace to find people have entirely filled their desktop needs with their laptops, leading to the desktop no longer being something people own at home. Netbooks have now come along to fill in the position that laptops once held: a computer that is more portable than one's primary machine -- the laptop -- but still able to perform all of the same functions if you are willing to do it more slowly. And then we have the mobile phone filling in the extreme end for those times where you want to do some task but didn't explicitly expect to need a computer. But with mobile phones at the absolute end of portability and power, one can only move up from there to try to fill in that gap between mobile phone and laptop. And moving up from the mobile phone is how the iPad is trying to take that gap between mobile phone laptop. It's a different approach from the netbook and thus serves a different purpose.

For me, I don't need a netbook. My MacBook weighs under 5 lbs which is light enough for me. Plus I have it set up nicely to fit my workflow for anything I need to do that's heavy duty. Having a netbook would require managing a second computer which I am not interested in. Plus my 13" screen is already at my limit for screen size for doing coding work. And I have big hands so I cannot afford to having anything less than a full-size keyboard (plus I can type damn fast so I am not about to want to give up that just for some weight and an extra hour of battery). So the netbook does not fit a niche for me by virtue of being a smaller laptop.

But what about all of those times I don't need a laptop but still want some form of a computer? At the moment I have used my mobile phone or my iPod touch. I don't know about the rest of you, but I spend plenty of time simply browsing the web; my nightly regime is to check Gmail for any new emails that came in since the morning, check Twitter and Facebook, and then go through my feeds in Google Reader, and maybe clear out some entries from Instapaper. Heck, in the morning before I roll out of bed I check my inbox on my mobile phone to help me wake up. Notice how none of those uses require anything that a mobile phone does not already provide? I simply end up wanting a bigger screen to make reading easier and to have a little bit better response to web sites and apps.

It's these situations where my mobile phone would suffice but I would like to have more that I think the iPad was designed for. There is a reason people were expecting (and got) an iPod touch XXL; it's the netbook/laptop connection in reverse for mobile phones. And I can think of two definite scenarios right now where I would love to have the iPad and where a netbook is just not needed.

The first one is my nightly browsing. This has become especially acute for me thanks to my girlfriend. Since my laptop is nicer than hers she has left her laptop at her place. That means when she is over she inevitably wants to borrow my laptop to check her email, follow friends on Facebook, and to do her homework. That means my laptop ends up being occupied. In those situations I either read on my Kindle or I pull out my mobile phone and do my usual routine on there. In the instances I use my mobile phone I inevitably wish for a larger screen and that's it. I browser mobile versions of web pages so performance is not a problem. I simply want more screen real estate to make navigation easier and to make the text larger to read. Nothing fancy. I definitely don't need a full keyboard as I don't do much more than maybe log into some service or jot down some Twitter-length comment. And getting to hold my mobile phone with one hand is somewhat freeing as I don't have to make sure to sit in such a way as to fit it on my lap like I would need to with a netbook.

My second scenario where an iPad would work well is travelling. In a typical year I take at least five trips; vacation, visit my mom, visit my dad, PyCon, and some conference. Once I graduate and have a full-time job I don't really expect that number to drop as the conference trip will be replaced with more vacations or filled in with visiting my brother. In all honesty I expect the number of trips I take to only go up once I have the money to afford to take more vacations, even if they are only for the weekend.

Traveling that frequently for multi-hour trips where I am not actively driving means I have needed to learn how to entertain myself for several continuous hours while away from home. And not only am I away from home, but I am most likely in an awkward chair (you try being 6'6" and sit on an airplane) where you are not near a power adapter for several hours (think five hours or more). At the moment I entertain myself on these trips in XXX ways: reading physical magazines (during the device blackout on flights), read a book on my Kindle (when I want to be thinking), podcasts on my iPod touch (assuming I have any to listen to at that moment), or watching a movie on my iPod touch (when I simply do not want to think enough to read). Once again, notice that none of this requires a laptop. The only devices I use are my Kindle and iPod touch. Both of these devices could be replaced by an iPad if I wanted to, although I don't expect to ditch my Kindle since I suspect for intense reading for hours on end it will still be easier to read than an LCD. But my iPod touch could definitely be dropped for an iPad's longer battery life and larger screen for movies.

But there is more to traveling than getting there. If I am traveling to give a talk I really don't need to have a laptop. When I am at a conference (other than PyCon) I am typically there to give a presentation and socialize. I really should not have so much time on my hands as to be sitting around coding. At worst I would need to make last-minute changes to a presentation, but since the iPad will have Keynote, which I already use, then I don't need to have my laptop with me. Granted a netbook could work in this situation if I used presentation software that could run on one, but it is not critical. Plus the idea of getting to use the iPad's touch screen over a laser pointer and such for dynamic markup of slides while presenting is intriguing.

The critical aspect, though, for wanting an iPad for travel is the fact that you cannot do everything on it. I have to admit I love to code, and I probably do it sometimes when I should instead be out relaxing. My girlfriend on more than one occasion has flat-out said that I cannot take my laptop with me on trips to make sure I don't get sucked into coding instead of enjoying my vacation. In fact I didn't pull out my laptop once on my last vacation with I took with just my girlfriend; I only used my mobile phone to check emails and get directions to places. When I visit my father, if I don't watch myself I very easily get wrapped up in a coding project instead of just relaxing and enjoying the break. If I only had an iPad I would simply not have the option to code (Mozilla Bespin withstanding), and that's a good thing. It even works well for visiting the family and sharing photos I have taken without having to bring the laptop.

I could also see the iPad competing with my Kindle as the thing I toss in my bag when I am going out to a coffee shop or any other place with WiFi where I will have some known downtime (although w/o paying for the 3G version, which I don't plan on doing, the Kindle still wins for sitting on a park bench). I could also seeing adding to my morning regime to reading the New York Times or Google News in bed in the morning as I wake up. Or you knows those quickie checks you do on your laptop or mobile phone (e.g. IMDb checks while watching a movie)? The iPad would be great for those situations (and the Chrome OS developers have found netbooks handy for those situations as well, but I would prefer the tablet form factor).

In other words I already have several compelling use-cases in my life for the iPad where a netbook would at best a comparable solution. Now the question is whether I can wrangle together the US$500 to buy the thing. I think I could get away with not syncing my entire music collection on it (want to do that on my mobile phone instead), so I shouldn't need more than the 16GB version for podcasts, movies, apps, and maybe keeping my favorite photos on it. Maybe an iPad can be a gift to myself when I graduate or something.