First of all, the iPad isn’t *intended* to replace your laptop. Will it for some users? Sure, it would work just fine for the 90% of computer users who use 10% of their computers’ features. The iPad is a terrific consumption device (and personally, I think also good at producing, but most people disagree with me on that one). Nevertheless, Apple is trying to fill (create?) a “gap” market *between* the iPhone and MacBook — there are certain key tasks that it performs better than either a laptop or a smart phone.

As for the servicing angle, I’ve serviced my own Macs numerous times without issue, it just takes a bit more patience since everything is so impeccably (and tightly) laid out. This is a key example where a brilliant combination of form *and* function wins out, with the loser being the poor chap who has to open the thing up. Gotta’ admit, though, the insides of a Mac are shmexy.

The biggest point that you (and everyone else) seems to miss, however, is that the iPad is not a device designed and marketed for you and I. Look at the ads, look at the quick tours: normal people in comfy chairs. This is a *consumer* product for the not-so-technologically inclined, who quite frankly, don’t give a rat’s ass about any of those user-serviceable extras that might be nice — they’d be going to the Genius Bar anyway!

Finally, to respond to a couple of the comments you made:

Dear Apple, Stop holding out for later models Apple tablet and if you’re going to release, release your best first … don’t skimp on the “extras” so you can tack them on to later updated models and impress the masses.

Call me a doting optimist, but I’d bet good money that that’s not the strategy. One of the most remarkable things about this device is that Apple hit their target price of $499, which is no easy feat. I’m thinking some of the extras had to go in order to hit the cheap, and will return once the R&D is paid off.

No Tethering? No Flash? No Multi-tasking? Really?

a) Why would you want to tether a device that can do most of the light Internet-related tasks you’d use a laptop for, standalone? b) Flash has been the scourge of the Internet for far too long, and as any web activist will tell you, needs to DIE. (And quite a few big players agree: http://www.apple.com/ipad/ready-for-ipad/). c) As for multi-tasking… well, if my suspicions are correct, wait a couple of months, then we’ll talk.

Do I think the IPad (ok, I might make one joke about how it may as well be named MaxIpad … now I’m done) will have the influence on computing that the Ipod and Iphone did. No, I don’t think it will. There are too many pre-release notions that many buyers have about whether the Ipad is truly pragmatic beyond the big numbers simplicity desired by older audiences. I think there will be a clash between the incongruent forces of Pro- and Anti-Ipad users (both PC and Mac alike) with a not-so-very-chipper outcome. No Tethering? No Flash? No Multi-tasking? Really? Dear Apple, Stop holding out for later models Apple tablet and if you’re going to release, release your best first … don’t skimp on the “extras” so you can tack them on to later updated models and impress the masses. Release the best and THEN improve.

The tablet has been done without too much success outside the realm of graphic art such as with programs like Max or open-source Blender. And this won’t even be the half of old tablets – literally. It is sleek. It is pretty. If you can replace your laptop with an Ipad, you didn’t need a laptop to begin with, so go for it. If you love your Iphone and want more, shout “supersize me”. If you’re a techie and need your gear to do it all and make it work – you’ll hate this platform. I like being able to fix my PC with my own hands and hate the closed system that presents itself in many Mac INCLUDING the ones that are open platform simply due to how easy they are to break and how hard they are to open without experience. I work in hardware … Apples are the bane of our existance. Fix your PC, no problem. Fix your Apple … go see Steve (our local expert here at SLU). For me, that is not a way to own a piece of technology, let alone something that could “potentially replace your laptop”. Technologies like the Ipad and Macbooks and Ipods — they should be like cars. You shouldn’t own one unless you know how they work and how to fix them – and when you break, you can apply your knowledge and perform repairs yourself.

Will this be financially successful, maybe. I doubt it will revolutionize anything – not anytime soon.

p.s. – A compatriot of mine just walked out muttering about how the Ipad is just and over-priced piece of shit … he’s a mac user and our resident expert.

My advice, think before you buy. But keep an open mind. While this product makes me further disinclined to buy a Mac, it could catch my eye in the future depending on updates and reworks.