Why I might buy an iPad

There's been a lot of ridicule and criticism of Apple's iPad since it came out a couple days ago. Most criticism has related to the lack of some feature or another that people were expecting in the long-anticipated tablet.

I think a lot of these criticisms miss the point of the product, by assuming that it should be all things to all people. Trade-offs between usability, price and features being inherent, it is not possible for a product to have every thing, and taking this into consideration, the iPad shows itself to be a very good product which makes the right trade-offs to get the features it has.

Here are the two reasons why I WOULD buy an iPad:

1) Mobile browsing/reading

It's lighter and has a more easy to handle one body form than a notebook/laptop, so it's likely a better device to read from when I'm on the go, i.e. in any situation where I don't have a desk or a table available to me to use as a makeshift desk (e.g. while commuting on the subway).

Its screen is far bigger than that of a smart phone, so it would allow for a much more enjoyable and practical reading/browsing experience. An iPhone for example is a good device for when you need to browse something and you are no where near a PC, but it's not a device that you want to spend too long reading on. If you can, you will wait until you get home and in front of a PC to do heavy reading and browsing. The reality is that the iPhone's screen, while impressive by smart phone standards, is still too small to give a optimal reading experience.

An iPad is not going to be very convenient for typing on, and so for this function, I will still prefer using a laptop with its full physical keyboard, but I spend a large part of my computing time on tasks that mostly involve reading, and little typing, so there is a significant niche for the iPad.

In fact, even at home, an iPad would make a more convenient reading/browsing platform than a laptop in many situations, owing to its greater mobility. I often find myself reading from the smaller screen of my iPhone, rather than using the laptop, simply because the laptop is too cumbersome to move from its position on the desk. In these cases, the iPad would provide the same mobility as the iPhone, and a much better reading experience. This would let me leave my desk more, as I wouldn't have to sacrifice reading experience for mobility.


2) Price

This is the key factor. At a starting price of $500, the iPad is a very economical purchasing decision. The purchase price can be justified by the added convenience it would bring to reading and browsing.

When I think about lounging around any where in my house, and browsing/reading on a large mobile screen, I envision a real improvement in quality of experience compared to browsing at the desk, and at $500, which is cheap by computer/mobile hardware standards, the value offered becomes well worth the price.

Given these two features, I do believe the iPad fills a real niche, and is something I would consider purchasing.