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Posted on June 2nd, 2010 by Chris Brennan
Apple iPad in depth: for Mac lovers only?
Though to the outside world I may appear to be a Mac lover, I’m really not. Despite some, shall we say, compelling evidence in the photo above, I generally use my Macs and then discard them when they’re too old. I think that probably makes me more of a Mac philanderer.
However, I’ve been asked whether iPads are really just for Mac lovers. And the answer is a decisive no: the iPad requires no previous Mac experience or love whatsoever. Sure, some of the applications are similar – even the icons are identical – but that is where the similarity ends.
You need a copy of iTunes to register and sync the iPad with your computer, but by far and away the majority of iTunes users are using a Windows-based machine so no Mac love needed there. You can buy apps, music, movies and books from the iPad too, so you don’t even need an external computer. You can email, browse the web and play games on an iPad as well. There’s little need to ever have even used a computer, let alone love one.
You could argue that the Apple logo itself is the only thing that makes the iPad fit into a Mac lovers life. As I sit in trendy coffee shops with my smug white earphones and my pretentious iPad, I can rest assured that everyone knows the iPad is made by Apple. I am, therefore branded by association. Of course, only a very few really care about the logo, but it’s about the only area I can think of where an iPad is significantly linked to the Mac line.
This is, perhaps, Apple’s master stroke. Instead of making a tablet computer with a slightly modified copy of its desktop Mac OS X, it has created a new one very loosely based on the look and feel of the desktop OS. So loosely based in fact that few users would know they share anything in common whatsoever. Instead of trying to beat Microsoft at its own game Apple has clearly decided to play a different game and so far it’s working.
It’s still very early days for the iPad, but I don’t imagine Apple will make the same mistakes it did in the late 1980s and early 1990s this time round. I doubt it’s the end for the Mac, but the iPad fits more readily into the iPhone or iPod touch lover’s life than it does a Mac user’s.
Tags: apple, Apple iPad, iPad, Macs
Posted in: Random
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10 Responses to “ Apple iPad in depth: for Mac lovers only? ”
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June 2nd, 2010 at 5:35 pm
“only a very few really care about the logo”
Really? You think the same number of people would have queued for hours outside a shop if it had an HP or Dell logo?
June 3rd, 2010 at 7:41 am
“I generally use my Macs and then discard them when they’re too old”
I think that is typical of most Apple lovers. I keep getting told that Macs last longer than Windows PCs but I don’t know anyone with a Mac older than 5 years and I still have a 10 year old PC going strong. Well strong is perhaps a erm strong word. It’s going
June 3rd, 2010 at 1:19 pm
Hand up here Muck. I have a (running, usable) G3 deskside Mac, a G4MDD dual CPU, a G5 dual XServe – all on their second lithium CMOS batteries. They all do good work, too – and a mate has a dual G4 450 machine which he uses for his music library, web-surfing – the whole thing. Mostly, old macs are thrown away because OSX doesn’t have a friendly way of telling you the boot disk is dying – it either “beachballs” or freezes solid. I’m happy to take old macs because putting new disks in is generally do-able and the machines run on forever after. The only exception thus far has been a Mac Mini shich has been crushed by something so heavy, the solid alloy CD drive slot has closed up like some bit of the San Andreas fault. That one I couldn’t revive…
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:28 pm
You could at least crack a smile for the camera.
You look like you’ve just seen the cost of your iPad on your credit card bill
June 3rd, 2010 at 3:38 pm
I’ve not had an Apple product since the Newton MessagePad, but I have an iPad now.
I couldn’t care less who made it: if any manufacturer made a device that works as well as an iPad I would have bought it. I am not a ‘fashion victim’ like many people to have got an iPhone on contract but hardly use the functionality, and will end up paying more over 2 years than I paid for an iPad.
June 3rd, 2010 at 6:55 pm
Er, Mate… that eMate looks perilously perched.
June 4th, 2010 at 3:54 pm
Not for me.
A low-tech, high rent gizmo that adds nothing to my existing arsenal of gadgets.
Of course its mainly a foot in the door product for Apple in a (possibly vain) effort to monopolise the e-book and pay-video marketplace as they have domne in other areas.
Mr Smug will like it (he can afford it) me, I’ll wait for a proper lightweight high-tech reader\video player.
June 7th, 2010 at 9:21 am
I own an ipad- first Apple product I have purchased. Am really impressed with the simplicity, speed and usefulness. If other companies could make such a good product, I would buy it- but the alternatives just dont come close. Nothing to do with being a Mac fan in my case.
June 7th, 2010 at 1:33 pm
I was fortunate to have a play with the iPad in an Applestore and have to say it’s a very impressive product. Intuitive, fast and very slick. My wife loved it too, and judging by the heaving hordes, so do others. We also went to look at the Dell Streak afterwards (where the shop was empty). My wife thought it was horrible. I think that could be the general response for some non-techno people.
Btw, I’m not an Apple fan but I will be buying the new iPhone when it gets released as I’ve loved my previous two iphones but now need more than 32gb storage space!
I’d love an iPad too but on balance a new iPhone is more useful to me right now, but there’s always Xmas LOL!
June 11th, 2010 at 11:24 am
” Alan Says:
June 3rd, 2010 at 2:28 pm
You could at least crack a smile for the camera.
You look like you’ve just seen the cost of your iPad on your credit card bill”
I think he’s just realised what sad bastard he is with all those computers.