Apple's iPad not so shiny once you get it home Many Brits can't be bothered to use their fruity fondleslabs once they have them and don't think they're worth the money, a new study has found. The survey, by money-off coupon site MyVoucherCodes, showed that over a quarter of UK iPad users only used their Apple tablet once a week and one in 10 don't even bother with it that …
Even when I'm using my desktop or laptop, the iPad sits next to the keyboard, when I surf on something else I instinctively try and double tap to zoom in on the content, which is a bit annoying when it doesn't happen.
In order of usage: surfing (research & recreation), email, Plex (films), games, books, music, ssh, VNC & system monitoring. Best gizmo I've ever owned, wife hates it.
I completely agree. We have an iPad and several computers dotted around the house, the iPad gets minimal use. Mostly just reading the news the in morning and thats it.
My wife commented that she feels restricted when using it, that there is not much scope for creating, it's mostly about consumption.
Is it worth all the money? Probably not. Should you get one if you are into tech? Yes, absolutely, even if it's not used that much in our household, having one helps to understand it's attraction. It's basically a TV, but highly personal and has the internet as a content source.
It challenges a lot of the computing industries paradigms and brings 'personal computing' to the masses as a traditional consumerist device (e.g. one way, mostly passive). While it may not fit our particular computer usage, this seems to appeal to a large amount of people.
It's more expensive than it needs to be in that Apple could still make money selling it for less but in relation to other products of the same type it's still looking pretty competitive in price terms.
Until there's a competitor which is equally good but costs significantly less (Amazon?) I'd not call the iPad overpriced.
People who aren't finding a use for it would consider it overpriced even if it was sold below cost.
Our iPad is in constant use and routinely fought over. I'm not in the scramble - being a dedicated laptop user, I don't really need it. I think difference accounts for the wide variety of reactions to a tablet. If you use a laptop all the time, you might wonder why anyone would want a tablet. But a huge number of people want an appliance for communication and entertainment that 'just works' - a laptop or netbook entails knowing far more about computers than they can (or want to) cope with.
Our laptop is in constant use and routinely fought over. I'm not in the scramble - being a dedicated desktop user, I don't really need it. I think difference accounts for the wide variety of reactions to a computer. If you use a desktop all the time, you might wonder why anyone would want a laptopt. But a huge number of people want an appliance for communication and entertainment that 'just works' - a desktop or workstation entails knowing far more about computers than they can (or want to) cope with.
there fixed it for you :-D
Not recognising the difference between an appliance and a computer is a bit disingenuous. We are surrounded by devices that technicians understand to be computers (under the bonnet so to speak) but no one else does. I'm not going to refer to my washing machine as a computer simply because it has a programmable imbedded processor.
All the complaints about "Apple's walled garden' spring from the same inability to understand the difference. iPhones and iPads are made to be appliances, distinct in their presentation, usage, and target audience from devices that are commonly referred to as 'computers'. What most of the world understands to be a 'computer' is better suited to technicians and professionals. The vast majority have no use for (or interest in) them.
"Our iPad is in constant use and routinely fought over."
Ok. I get that people use it. What I don't grok is WHY. Seriously. I've got a variety of these devices in the lab, and so I've tried the iPad2 for "non-site testing" purposes.
The dpi is way, way too low for e-books - and the devices is way too heavy for same. It's 4:3, so playing movies are, well .. if I could even get some ON there (iTunes tells me it won't even transfer the .mov file I wanted. mkv isn't worth bothering with. ). Type on it? Nope. I saw someone mention ssh - ssh to what? There's no ctrl key, no alt key, no ... music? I don't even WANT to think what I need to do to get flac on there - no, I don't have mp3s, and I don't WANT to conver 800+ albums :(
Fingerpainting, yes, I can see that one even if the precision is poor ... but honestly, ALL the time? Surfing the web? It's ... HEAVY, and there's no stand unless I buy one - but then it isn't very portable.
It drops wifi constantly, I can't very well carry the thing with me for todo-lists and calendars, and it'd look bloody silly screwed to the dash of the car for map apps.
I've used it for a photoframe, but it's a damned expensive one.
Nope. Don't get it. Really don't.
I'm surprised too. I have one (3G) and get loads of use out of it. I check email, catch up on news (MobileRSS) and read books & PDFs on the way into work in the morning; use OmniFocus heavily during the work day to manage my projects and work load; and it's perfect for a bit of light browsing, catching up on FaceBook and the occasional game when I get a spare hour or so in the evenings (N.O.V.A, GroundEffect, Nanosaur 2, RiseOfGlory, etc). It's even handy for calming down my son when he gets a bit hyper .. he loves SoundTouch and AlphaBaby. It's size, weight, portability and (best of all) amazing battery life make it a must have item for me. My other computers hardly get a look in these days,
I don't think so...
Most people I know with an iDevice have one because they just had to have one. There was no consideration of alternatives, no consideration of actual need - they just had. to. have. one. now.
Most people with Android devices have at least considered the alternatives and positively chosen Android as being better/more appropriate/more desirable for them.
It doesn't surprise me in the least to learn that a good proportion of those people that "had to have" an iDevice eventually realised that they didn't need or even really want one after all because iDevices aren't sold on the basis of functionality, just desire.
I would be very surprised if the same proportions of satisfied/dissatisfied are found in the Android space.
--
With the pocket device in the pocket.
...but then I bought my iPad 2 for content consumption. Had me laptop theived, and decided to junk whole laptop idea since it spent most of its time interwebing and iPlaying. I use it every day - its even packed alongside my unloved (work) HP Elitebook - it's faster and easier to deal with email on the train on the fondleslab. I've got the 3G 32gb version, and have to say the WiFi only version doesn't appeal in comparison.
I'm pushing for our IT bods to approve it as an alternative to laptop + blackberry combination. I'd rather have a laptop (for longer business trips) + iPad (short trips). It can't replace my work laptop, but it's certainly more convenient about 75% of the time.
... I've resisted buying one - ok ok, and I'm completely skint, so I can't actually afford one.
Heck, they are really tidy little numbers, well sexy, tricked up to the max and erm, well, what else?
Ah yeah, portable 1024 resolution - pretty good, looks nice on the coffee table, you can bore people with your family photo's.
I've said it before and I'll say it again - and this time, nobody will be listening either - the Tablet is the new Netbook, in terms of 'the new hotness' - the public will, in time, get bored of them.
It's a nifty little portable computer with a touch screen interface - that is all.
Certainly the way software is designed for multi-touch is, in some ways, revolutionary - and it will improve over time, but really, that's about it.
Where tablets *will* shine, once the price has shifted down to the right level, is for work related tasks. Hospitals, delivery men, labs, public transport staff, boardroom presentations, students.
Basic 'touch' screen devices have been around for decades, but they've been klunky and the portable ones have been stylus driven.
As a recreational device, the initial hype will cool down, probably after this xmas season.
What's very clear, get the price point wrong, get the marketing wrong and get the software wrong, it's dead-in-the-water on release (just ask HP) - which actually proves that the public still doesn't really know what they would do with a tablet device.
The Apple marketing machine is hurtling along at breakneck pace, making the iPad the ultimate desirable tech gadget - but for how long?
but when in possession it suddenly becomes apparent that it had few practical uses.
Check emails
Watch film
Play with aps
Then suddenly it dawns on you that it lacks application, tiresome to type on, limited storage space, needs to be.......
WAIT A MINUTE, MY LAPTOP DOES THAT AND MORE, OH WHY OH WHY DID I JUST SPEND SO MUCH ON IT!
Would you be able to point me in the direction of a piece of software like Snapseed for the same price?
In any case, I use the PC version of Nik Software plug-ins, but I don't always want to carry my laptop around with me and find my iPad more convenient to do so. Additionally, the touch screen interface affords me a different kind of functionality than the PC one - which has led me editing in ways that I wouldn't have with the latter?
Everytime I read one of your posts LarsG I imagine a sad little 13yr old sat hammering his keyboard, crazy eyed and foaming at the mouth.
Give it a fucking rest - we get that you don't like Apple (you're one of the most prolific fandroids I've seen) why don't you just stay away from these topics that apparently cause you so much emotional conflict, enjoy whatever non-apple product you use and let others who go the Apple route enjoy their kit. It might just do your blood pressure some good.
Or for people with disabilities, believe it or not but Apple's kit is great for people with disabilities thanks to features built in that noone else offers in that manner. As an example I'm visually impaired and my options for a portable device would be:
Laptop plus "screen reader" software for Windows, say £300 for a netbook plus £700 for a commercial screen reader (Narrator is the worst kind of crap)
MacBook Air with "Voice Over" screen reader built in, £850
"Notetaker", essentially a specially built PDA with integrated screen reader, £1,650
iPad, £500 plus the ability to actually access some of the apps
Android screen readers are available but presently the only ones worth using are commercial, plus require sighted assistance to install.
I imagine similar facts exist for low-vision users (built in magnification as opposed to paying extra, if a magnifier package is even available for the OS), along with many other disabilities which may struggle with conventional devices.
If I didn't have the need to balance accessibility (in the disability sense) with OS features I'd probably have gone for Linux given a free hand, I'm no Apple fanboy by a long margin. The simple truth is that Apple do accessibility right and for many people this makes a world of difference, many of us possessing a fair amount of technical knowledge.
On the other hand this doesn't change the fact that it's overpriced and underfeatured for users without such niche requirements.
In the interests of disclosure I'm using an iPhone but not an iPad, I decided that I don't presently have a requirement for an iPad nor any pressing need for any computing device I can carry with me aside from a phone. If I were still at college/university however I would have been yearning for such a device since I wouldn't need to rely on the crappy college/uni computers, nor fighting with the IT department to get the access software already owned by the institution installed on computers where I can use them and not to remove it whenever they change around the software available to that room or reformat the room as a substitute for defragging their old win 95 computers. (my old college used win 95 until at least summer of 2004, they claimed it was more stable than 98)
"Or for people with disabilities, believe it or not but Apple's kit is great for people with disabilities thanks to features built in that noone else offers in that manner."
Yes - and no. It's *excellent* for people with visual-related disabilities. Those missing limbs, or using mouth-held pointers ... not so much.
(Yes, it CAN be fixed, but then we are suddenly back to "we have to modify the tech to make it work", and Apple has no advantages.)
The people I know with an ipad barely use them, in fact one said it had been in a drawer for months. Two of those that I know are what you'd consider proper crapple fanbois too - they absolutely buy everything crapple - although they didn't buy the 4S and are now both considering Android for there next phone after being let down so badly with the 4S. One of them is selling his ipad as he says he just has no use for it.
Dear El Reg,
Please thank the maker you do not have to survive on subscriptions as I would be cancelling mine.
How much longer are we going to be subjected to lazy articles like this and your exclusive report series on how careless (or not) civil servants are?
For this report to have any meaning you'd need to do exactly what commenters like myself told you in those articles - you need to provide a point of comparison. How many PC/Playstation/Electric Drill users use their devices every day?
Many of us could have told you that before tablets came out - useless pieces of junk.
Then along comes Lord Jobs and his reality distortion field, backed by his armies of religious zealots and combined with the tech media having nothing else to write about and hypying them up. The result is crAppl€ earning $$$$$$$ for nothing, and Micro$oft destroying the next version of Windows by foisting a useless tablet UI upon PC users.
@LarsG WAIT A MINUTE, MY LAPTOP DOES THAT AND MORE, OH WHY OH WHY DID I JUST SPEND SO MUCH ON IT!
Here's why... I have a dual core Atom N550 Asus netbook with 12 hours of battery. I use it to do some rendering, coding etc. but most of the time a netbook is a broswer and emailer that I lug around. It takes 30 seconds to resume from standby, 90 from hibernate. Every few standbys the thing gets so slow I have to reboot, thats just using standard browsing apps and a few Office files open.
I didnt use my ipad for 3 weeks. Before I could open the cover it resumed. Let me repeat this so it sinks in. After 3 weeks of non-use, it booted up **before I could open the crappy smartcover**. Thats less than one second. And had 96% battery left. No screen lock, because I used the cover. Thats faster than my laptop, desktop, phone, or psion. Nothing else does that. Thats amazing.
I'm not a fanboi. I desperately tried Blaclberry, every major Nokia since 1995, a few droid phones (Nexus, Desire, Galaxy).... WHY do you have a 100mb limit on apps in HTC DEsire? So I have to choose between Skype or Medscape? Why do you have to say "New contact" click the name, scroll down, click the number, hide the keyboard, then scroll down to save?
After 2 years of android, I gave up and got an iphone 4s.The navigation/maps cant compare to android, BUT there are many free nav programs that dont use any data for the iphone.
Skype video, far better and faster than droid, on the same network. Same with Voip/SIP calls. Its one step ahead on the iphone. Same with the ipad, no other droid tablets compare.
Yes ipads basically a big phone without a phone, ie a brick without using a droid/iphone as a hotspot. And its severely crippled and limited in what it can do. But for web browsing, internet, skype & SIP it is a joy to use.
Iphone & ipad all the way.
Have to love the comments on these sort of articles - always good for a chuckle.
For my two penneth worth the iPad has never held any great appeal. It is undeniably an expensive tablet (probably because there's a lot of expensive tech in it - c'mon it can't really just be down to slapping an Apple logo on it?). Personally I can't forsee a situation where I'd need one. However my interest has risen in the kindle fire, it's the right price point (I realise it's effectively a muchly scaled down iPad) and will do what I want it to do - play the odd movie/tv series or read a book. big enough to be visible without being unweildy (yes, I find the iPad ergonomic but unweildy for holding in one hand while navigating with the other.) So, in summary if someone gave me an iPad I'd downgrade straight away.
Now, before I get tarred with the anti-Apple brush I'd like to point out that I've owned a few macs, several ipods and am just about to join the iphone brigade for the first time. I like Apple design and the quality of their products but I do have a few issues with how they operate. For example, the first thing I'll be looking to do with my new phone is jailbreaking, so that I can actually do what I want with the hardware I've purchased. It's probably also time they started selling a cheaper iphone/ipad (like the mac mini is to the mac line up.) Joe Schmo isn't going to use half the features on his ipad/iphone so why not make a bid for a bigger market share by making a cheaper variant? Then all you have to do is focus on the design/hardware and killer apps you bring to the next version to make people go out and upgrade.
“… It is undeniably an expensive tablet (probably because there's a lot of expensive tech in it - c'mon it can't really just be down to slapping an Apple logo on it..”
Okay, I’ll bite – I deny that the iPad is an expensive tablet. It might more than you want to pay (and it does sound the Kindle would suit you to for the ground), but that’s another matter.
When the iPad – or rather, an Apple tablet – was rumoured to be launching, it was expected to cost around $1,000. When Apple revealed the actual pricing, there was amazement that that it was going to be half of that price. IIRC, there was disgruntlement from people, who expected rival manufacturers to produce something as good, or better, for less than £300 then discovered this wasn’t going to be the case.
Around the time that the iPad price was confirmed, Amazon was taking orders for the Motorola Xoom for around £750 – that wasn’t an official price, but that was what was being estimated… the price came down pretty damn cheaply when it was realised that a product supposed to be undercutting Apple was going to cost a darn sight more.
As manufacturers like Motorola and HP have found, producing a good bit of tablet kit don’t come cheap. Prior to its firesale, HP had reduced the cost the price of the Touchpad by $100, which meant it was making a loss on each sale.
According to some breakdowns, the bill of materials for the iPad is $333 (http://www.isuppli.com/teardowns/news/pages/ipad-2-carries-bill-of-materials-of-$326-60-ihs-isuppli-teardown-analysis-shows.aspx) – the manufacturing costs aren’t supposed to be great, but you need to throw in marketing, R&D etc. Incidentally, the iPad 2 launched at a slightly lower price than the iPad – and Tim Cook has said they’ll be trying to bring down the cost more.
Recently, El Reg ran a round-up of ‘premium Android tablets’ - http://www.reghardware.com/2011/11/09/review_roundup_ten_high_end_android_tablets/page6.html - for the most part, ‘premium’ means ‘it’s a actually a decent bit of kit’. Although there are well-regarded (and I’m going by what people I know have said, forum posts, as well as the article) products which are cheaper than the entry iPad 2, they’re not drastically cheaper (e.g. less than £75), whilst others as more expensive.
I know there’s a temptation to think Apple kit always has an “Apple tax”, but I’m still surprised that people have forgotten that the ‘smart money’ was betting on an Apple tablet that was going to cost twice as much. If Apple were selling it for £250, I bet there will still be those who say it only costs that because of the logo.
"...61 per cent said they were just too busy to fondle their slab"
I just love El Reg's "fondleslab" moniker :D
Also got one - but use it at home after work. It is the model with both 3G and wifi.
Prefer it above a cellphone as it's got a larger screen for emails and IM.
/goes off to fondle the slab
"Before you wonder why they shelled out over £400 for it then, it turns out not all of them did. The survey found that 14 per cent of people polled had been given the iPad as a gift and hadn't had much use for it in the first place."
I fall in this category. I was considering one as a gift for an iPhone user even though she shows no interest in them (I took her by a shop to see how she would react).
This article was the last nail in the coffin. The money would be better spent elsewhere than on a £500 coaster.
iGigBook to save lugging tons of RealBooks to every jazz gig I play at.
OnSong for all the chord charts I use at church (transposable too!)
iRealb is considerably cheaper and easier to use than Band In A Box.
Ten hour battery life guarantees that it won't run flat half way through a gig, even after it's aged a bit and this is down to 5-6 hours.
Decent sized screen means it's readable on a music stand, and it's light enough not to cause the less solid music stands to collapse under its weight.
Everything above but OnSong got me interested, but you can get PDF viewers on other tablets (although there's more to iGigBook than simply viewing PDFs), and I have BiaB on my PC. OnSong was the tipping point.
Obviously you only buy hardware for the software you can run on it. If you can do everything you want on a laptop, get a laptop. No point buying an iPad if you don't know what you plan to do with it. It's a heck of a lot to spend "just to see what it can do".
Fringe benefits but I wouldn't buy an iPad for any of these (unless it was around half the price): several games, net usage, email if I switch to GMail but I still do this on my main PC, downloaded several Bible translations (YouVersion), got my entire photo album on it too, and still exploring. There's loads of free stuff on the App store.
I wasn't going to buy an iPad because I already had a lap top and a smart phone. Although a tablet device would be great for e-mail and web browsing, it was a lot of money for something I didn't need.
But then I saw how useful the iPad is for giving presentations. Apple's Keynote software is easy to use and will also play windows Powerpoint files. It's great to be able to stand and give a presentation holding an iPad as one might hold a book. Hold a finger to the screen and a red dot appears like a laser pointer, which can be moved about to draw elements on a slide. It's the future!
The only thing missing is a wireless link to the projector.
I bought the missus one for her birthday. She's at home with our newborn and isn't without it at any point in the day. There's a feeding reminder app, email that she can use when cuddling a niggly baby, handy recipe thing so she can make me nice food for when I come home, games to distract her, calendar for baby appointments...
For her it's perfect and she loves it. I think it's nice but wouldn't buy one for myself, but as it keeps her happy its worth every penny of the 400 quid.
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