Survey finds 16GB iPad 3G most popular, not viewed as PC replacement - Page 2

Someone with a PC might consider the iPad an inexpensive way to enter the Apple world and see what it is all about, as the iPod before it.

As far as your troll comment, these are issues that matter to normal people.

I totally agree with you which is why I would like to have the option to have Flash on my iPad.

Also for Windows users which still dominate the market at least when it comes to marketshare, Flash is a non issue. As long as it remains a non issue for Windows users it will be around a long time.

Without the coming release of 10.1 its going to be even less of an issue due to hardware acceleration.

Maybe they refer to people with a Desktop Mac and a MacBook currently finding one of them superfluous. In my case I find a use for all three ...

The price jumps for the higher capacity iPads are not worth the money in my books. 16GB is plenty for what is essentially a home and/or satellite device. And it's not like an iPod where you might want to carry your entire music library with you... because it's not something you will carry every day (for most people). And it's also not my main computer... so I wouldn't care to store my entire video collection on it. I see it being used at home mostly (where you can stream from your desktop) or outside the home for meetings, travel, notes, email, games... etc... none of which require much space. If I'm going on a trip... I would just load up two or three movies and some tunes and I'm good to go. Everything else (meeting notes, presentations, photos, apps, ebooks etc.) doesn't take any space

I could not disagree more. IE6 is as good as dead today. And every single browser EXCEPT IE supports most of HTML5 and CSS3. 2010 will be the year of HTML5/CSS3. It's happening. And as someone who owns an iPad... I can tell you that 9 times out of 10... I have no problem playing video on the web. The majority of mainstream websites seem to have updated already.

And lose the opportunity to sell another iPad to the same customer again when they run out of storage?

Eventually, the 16GB model will be replaced by the 32GB model.

I've read that a new iPhone/iPad web browser called Skyfire will be submitted for approval. Skyfire will allow you to watch Flash movies on your iPhone/iPad. The way it works is when you access a website with Flash movie the Skyfire peoples server convert it to HTML5 on the fly. How well it is going to work? I have no idea.

Mazda-

The iPad is much better than the iPhone for movies, and those take up a lot of space.

You might want to go for 32 G, just so you could rent a bunch of movies prior to going off on a trip, and watch them one by one before you get back.

Thompson

i think it's possible for the ipad to replace a second computer. i don't quite see it being a total replacement for your only computer.

also - since the ipad does not allow for multiple user accounts, i think it's likely that apple counts on multiple purchases within a family, therefore offsetting any cannibalization of macbook purchases. time will tell.

hardware acceleration only works on a very limited number of graphic cards. adobe (and apple in this case) still have a long way to go. i wouldn't hold my breath. and i'm not.

i don't think the windows market share is the deciding factor in content providers switching away from flash. apple's customer represent a very tasty slice of the demographic they're after. in the end they're going to go where the money is.

Yeah I believe the 16GB model is going to be short lived just like the 4gb iPhone. Skyfire sounds interesting I will have to check it out.

i seem to recall everybody expecting the ipad starting at a thousand bucks. i think the unexpected low entry point is going to present a challenge to other manufacturers to come up with a viable alternative. they still want to make money on them, right?

I know. it was 75 people and yet it is being touted around like it is anything close to a truth.

same with the 50 stores. Plus there's no numbers of how many units there were to start with. Sold out when you started with 500 units is impressive. Sold out when you started with 50, not really

On the Windows side it works with most GPU's. Which is why Adobe is really pushing it in 10.1.

I tend to disagree when it comes to marketshare in this case. If most users don't have an issue with Flash on the Windows side its just going to take that much longer for it to go away. Apple is really the only one fighting the Flash issue. Even other mobile devices are going to start taking advantage differnent version of Flash.

In the end really all I care about is that I can access the content I like on the net from my iPad. As an example I use a service called EpixHD. I get it through Charter but you can also stream your videos via the web like Netflix. They are working on an iPad version but dont know how long that is going to take and of course it already works with Flash.

The entire Flash situation is just an annoying issue because Adobe really did ignore Apple for so long when it came to Flash.

You are correct there were rumors that there was going to be an OLED version that was going to start at 1000.00 and the LCD version of the iPad was going to be about 700.00.

So coming in at 499.00 was well below some of the rumors.

you have to coinnect it to a computer to start it up. which they will do at the Apple stores. You'll need a computer to get updated OS, some content and certainly to back everything up. but for the actual day to day use, no it won't be connected to a computer

which fits with the fact that it was never pushed by Apple as a replacement to a computer. to a laptop if those are the only functions you use perhaps. but the idea was always to have some kind of computer in the system.

I bought the 64GB Wifi+3G iPad this past Saturday and found the device to be a lot better at home than the "messing around" at the store.

As much as I love the device for checking blogs and reading newspaper articles, I have to say it is still missing the "chill" factor. I find that it is a bit heavier than I had originally anticipated, so I can't just relax and use the device. It feels slippery in my hands and typing is still a bit of chore as I am not used to it yet. I must say, I don't miss the flash content much, but it would be nice to watch videos people post on Facebook.

I'm also having issues with how it works like an iPhone on some websites, but acts like a regular browser for other website.

The missing camera doesn't let me do the video conferencing with family, so I'm still attached to my laptop for that. The direct access to storage plays another factor in the replacement issue.

I'm hoping iPad OS 4.0 will fix a lot of the organization issues I have with this thing.

Fortunately, you're not designing things for Apple.

64 GB is already getting pretty full on mine. I have 32 GB of music, 5 GB of photos, and 15 GB of video already. It's getting close to the point where I'll have to start carrying limited selections. I really like the idea of having my entire collection with me.


That's one of the really sad things about this entire affair. If Adobe had just chosen to use the hardware acceleration APIs provided by Apple (OpenCL, OpenGL, CoreVideo, etc), they would already be taking advantage of hardware acceleration on any card supported by Apple. Any time Apple added a new card, Flash would automatically benefit. Instead, Adobe insisted on having direct access to the hardware - so now we're limited to hardware acceleration on 3 video cards. BFD.

Of course, it doesn't matter to me because I almost never have to watch Flash video. When I'm on YouTube, I use the html 5 version.


Yes, you're missing something. You're assuming that all iPad users are like you.

Granted, there are some who want to do all those things - and they'll almost certainly already have a computer which can do those tasks and transfer the info to the iPad.

OTOH, there are plenty of other users who simply want an email/web/Netflix device and don't care about ripping DVDs or anything like that. If they even have a computer, they're the type of people who are still running Mac OS X 10.3 because that's what came with the computer. Contrary to popular belief, there's no law that you must constantly update the OS in your device.

Not to mention that if there's a good reason why they MUST update their iPad OS, they can probably find a friend to do it or get the AppleStore to do it for them.

I currently only have 1 movie on my 32GB iPhone 3GS, and that's The Hangover. It only weighs in at 1.44GB. And the only reason why I even have the Hangover is because it was a free Digital Copy with the Blu-ray. I've never bought/rented a movie from iTunes and don't plan on doing it in the future either.

Even if I did want to watch more movies, iPad 16GB Wi-Fi + Jailbroken iPhone 3GS + MyWi Wi-Fi tethering + Netflix for iPad = GOLD

There certainly seems to be a new category opening up with the iPad. It looks like many older people and others not really into computing are finding this to be an fairly ideal device for their limited needs. Maybe with v4.0 Apple will allow OTA updates and all this to be a stand-alone device, but I doubt it.

Exactly. I went for 64 G. My excuse was that I have kids of different ages, who all need different music and videos (did I just say "need"?) for our frequent inter-continental flights. Dora the Explorer, Imagination Movers, Anpanman and Astroboy, Indiana Jones, Avatar... I'll run out of my 64 GB in no time.

Plus, I have a mysterious ability to fill in any space I have.

I stayed WiFi only, as I really want to control my monthly spending. Switzerland is tiny; every trip is "abroad" with massive data roaming fees.

Well, unlike the 4GB iPhone the 16GB iPad is popular. My point was Apple will replace the 16GB iPad with the next update like they always did with the iPhone and iPod Touch.

I can see it as a gateway device. After using it, they may wish to try other Apple products. However I don't think many people will purchase it to get a cheap mac. If you ask the average person on the street what an iPad is, they will probably say it's like a big iPhone or iPod Touch, and they will generally say that in a positive manner. So their expectations are not the same as what you are assuming.

Ask that same person what they think about tethering and they will probably ask you what that is. It does matter to me, but I plan on unlocking my iPhone to get it. The people that care about it are the ones who can also get around it and most have never heard of it. Glare? It's a tablet, not a laptop, readjust its position. The glossy iPhone screen is incredibly easy to see in daylight when positioned properly and the vast majority of customers have already shown that they don't mind glossy screened laptops. Why would it suddenly become a major hindrance in the sales of the iPad? AT&T may be your most valid point, but it wouldn't be a problem if more US cell providers used the most common worldwide standard. When the iPad comes to Canada, I'll have 4 national carriers to choose from.

You may be "normal", but don't confuse "normal" with "average" or "typical". It is those demographics that drive sales, not the needs of the technically inclined minority.

Tethering would be a nice feature, but is it critical to the iPads success? No. The same goes for a matte option or a version compatible with more US networks.

I've expended too much time on these topics. They are troll topics. They've been shown time and time again to not have a major impact on sales. They'd be great features, but they are not make or break features to most people. That fact wont change regardless of how many times people bring them up on these boards.

don't be so sure about that. having major sites like youtube and major companies like Microsoft jump in the HTML5 bandwagon could be just the thing to push adoption ahead



You really think missing out on several million viewers doesn't matter to content sources



of course it will. prices on the memory are going down. Next round they will have 32, 64 and whatever at the same prices.


Facebook is already converting to HTML5 so that issue won't last long

i'm not with you on the market share issue. this isn't a case of 'we hit most users', but it's a case of 'we're missing out on users we really want'. the fact that many sites are ditching flash already may be an indication that apple has bigger pull than market share would suggest.

i agree with you that it would be nice to have the option, but with adobe's history of delivering a decent implementation for non-windows users, i don't think they can pull it off for mobiles. i'd be happy to be proven wrong, but i do think that adobe has missed the boat. by the time they get around to actually releasing a usable version (that will likely not work on mobile devices on the market now) it'll be too late.

the desktop is a different question. i wish they'd put some resources behind their mac development, but frankly don't see that happen either. for adobe it's just a checkmark on a feature list: mac version - check! they don't care how bad it is, as long as they can claim it exists.

in the end the decision to use flash is up to the people that are after our eyeballs.

Um thinks only a penny per 100k units? That is a 14% margin... where is he coming up with this stuff. Worst-case, each 100k should give $0.02 per share earnings surprise, and that is on an ASP of $630.

Assuming a strong international launch this month, Apple should be able to sell 3MM iPads. With a bit of luck (and maybe a June launch of the new iPhone), they should easily hit $3.25 EPS

Reports say that Techstud was seen among them

Interesting to read. The take I get from this is that as long as there is some ocassional access to another computer (desktop, laptop) for initial sync and possibly for updates if they don't do OTA, you can really do a lot of the things you need to do.

I was interested to read about printing from and found some of the printing apps like Air Sharing HD for example. To me this is essential functionality even though it's a bit expensive. I was interested in whether anyone been able to print to a Airport Express connected printer from this or one of the other printing apps?

Try the "Air Sharing" app for storage and printing. It can start up other apps to open files that it stores (this is a general feature of OS 3.2). It can also store files for other apps. For example, if you download a zip file in Safari, it opens up and stores in Air Sharing.

There doesn't seem to be any way to update or restore the iPad without connecting it to a computer, but that's a pretty rare event and you can probably handle that for your mother in law.

When asking people who have yet to use it, I think it makes sense too that the number is high. But after people use it, I'm thinking this number will decrease.

And if the survey asks, "has iPad COMPLETELY replaced your notebook?", then the answer will be lower. But I'm thinking that the question will be more like "has iPad replaced your notebook?", in which cases most people will think it has replaced it for most tasks, and reply yes.

Most people prefer paying for the WiFi model...very few want it to replace their standard laptop or MacBook. Exactly the results Apple wants to hear, I think. This is viewed as another media device, not replacing the MacBook or iPhone. In college I bring my MacBook to a lot of my classes, but once I'm in the workforce with a work computer, dragging an iPad around to take notes, etc with non government internet? Seems like a pretty good option.

A few million is nothing. Even more so when Windows users are not effected in fact most have no idea about the difference between Flash and HTML5. Also many Apple users simply use Firefox.

With something like this there is always a risk this could backfire on Apple. Who says users won't get tired of the lack of Flash and stop buying the iPad. A spike in sales at launch is typical doesn't mean its going to go up it could drop off.

I have used the iPad for a while now and while I like it for some things it lacks a good bit of options. Some will be resolved with 4.0 but some won't.

The same thing was said about the iPhone (and iPod Touch )and yet Apple is the most profitable handset maker in the world. A similar thing was also stated about the iPod not having things like an FM receiver like other MP3 players that technically look better on spec sheets and yet the iPod still managed to become a natural monopoly. So far, it looks like the iPad has sold more units in a month than the tablet computing market did for the entirety of 2009. Wanting Flash to play Netflix or ABC.com when a native app s faster, looks nicer, and is less resource hungry is much more appealing to customers at large than a Flash 10.1 plug in that is wonky in execution on a touchscreen, prone to crash and heavy on battery use.

Well seeing I never said anything about the iPod or Touch I can't comment on what others have said.

However because this is an Apple forum everyone thinks Apple is going to come out on top on this issue, they might but there is always the risk they may not. That was my only point.

I don't "want" Flash to play anything the reality is Flash still dominates the internet and as long as that is the case the end user will be limited by the iPad. That is a simple fact. When I have to wait for an HTML5 option to come around I might be willing to do something like that but many less technical end users are not. They simply want it to work they could care less about the Flash/HTML5 war/issue whatever you want to tag it.

We both know Flash is not going away anytime soon and my only point is while I enjoy the iPad its a pain at times because of the lack of Flash support. When I have to put down my iPad and go to my notebook to view something on the net that doesn't make my life easier or more enjoyable. Which is the goal of technology.

You do realize that your "Reward Zone" coupons expire shortly after they are issued. So if you don't redeem them shortly after they are issued after a purchase, you lose them. You can't keep them built up for over two years. You might want to log into your Reward Zone account and make sure.

Ha ha ha. That may be so... but I'm a web designer / developer with a 27" iMac + a 27" external monitor. I run my own LAMP stack and have a collection of virtual machines for browser testing. I code PHP, Ruby and JS.. I'm a huge WordPress geek and have been known to spend hours on the Codex researching functions. I love CSS/HTML. A List Apart is the first link in my collection of feeds. And design. I really love graphic design... both print and web. I lose track of time when I'm working on a new website design in Photoshop. And yes... I have an iPad. And I LOVE it!!!! It's perfect for my "limited needs". LOL. I don't disagree with you... I'm just saying that the iPad is not just for luddites.

+1.

Of course 14% of the people are really crazy and spent $829 for the 64GB iPad. And they also are willing to pay top dollar and buy it at the Apple Store! After they pay sales tax on their Apple Store purchase, they could have purchased a much more useful and powerful MacBook from Amazon for less than $100 more. I guess Apple really can sell refrigerators to eskimos! This is the first Apple device that I have absolutely no reason to buy. Even my 8 year old PowerBook G4 can do more than an iPad. But I guess if you have money to burn and want to look like Captain Picard with his tablet device, than knock yourself out. But don't cry foul when Apple slashes the prices on these things. One thing that isn't being told is how many of them are being returned. I guess the refurb section of the Apple Store will answer that question shortly.

What!? I never said that Apple shouldn't have made a 64GB model. Obviously there will be people who want that extra storage and can use it. I'm simply saying that I think for MOST people... 16GB will be plenty. And this article bears that out. Most people (most... not all) probably look at the iPad as a satellite device... not something you would store your entire media collection on and carry with you everywhere.

What did you base this on? Did you stand in line and count how many old people there were? If they aren't really into computing, than they would have no interest in an iPad either. Apple won't allow over the air network upgrades when the OS is a full release at 250+ MB. For the past three years, they have never released a "patch" style update. So you will need a computer with iTunes to be able to apply updates.

According to one comment, 6% of the buyers are dumb enough to actually think it can replace a computer.