Will You Use the iPad As a Stand-Alone Device

[Evan]

Are you going to buy the iPad to replace a computer? Perhaps you were in the market for something new, because your old laptop is just getting too old, and then suddenly you see the iPad. You hear the talk about it, and you think to yourself, Hey, that sounds great for me!. And while Everything iPad would agree wholeheartedly with you, a big question should be asked: is this going to be your only device?

While some would wager that it shouldn't necessarily be said that the iPad is "computer like", the simple fact is: that's exactly what it's like. Sure, you can't multi-task, at least not third-party applications, but you sure can use iWork products, along with a plethora of other applications developed for the App Store. Want to type a paper for your History class? Done. Need a spreadsheet for an assignment? Done. All of this can be done, along with slideshows and more, right from the iPad. So if someone out there is wondering about selling their beloved, but no longer needed laptop, maybe they're not entirely in the wrong.

Personally, features like printing are still questionable. Will the iPad support it at all? There will be ways to connect a USB cable to the iPad through a 30-pin accessory, so that makes it possible to physically connect a printer, but what about printing over Bluetooth? Maybe you don't want to connect stuff to your iPad -- keep it wireless.

If the iPad can do all these things (and more), what's wrong with selling your other computers, and just keeping it in the tablet realm of things? It's the way of the future, right?

With all that in mind, on a personal note, I don't think I'm going to be selling my other means of Internet connection, or word processing tasks. I don't mind iWork, and I believe the iWork suite of apps for the iPad are fantastic, but I'm still using Microsoft Word (as so many others around the world are), and I don't think I'm going to stop any time soon. However, I do plan on maneuvering things I may type up on the iPad, over to my computer, and do what I need to there. I think there's a perfect balance to be found, and the iPad is going to make that equilibrium complete.

[caps]

depending on a few small features like printing and a few others i can easily see it as my stand-alone device

[Evan]

What else would you be looking for, besides printing?

[caps]

wirelessly streaming music

[Evan]

Very good feature.

[vincent]

I don't think it's possible Evan. If you has a "regular" phone - then yeah you can.

[Evan]

What do you mean by a regular phone? Like, a dumbphone or feature phone?

And I agree that a feature phone and an iPad would be a great combination, I wasn't meaning to use the iPad as a standalone device in that sense. I just meant as a unit without the necessary "assistance" or presence of a computer. So, getting rid of your Macbook, or Macbook Pro, because you have the iPad.

Basically, do some people see the iPad not so much as a third segment in their mobile tech, but more as a replacement?

[csummers1968]

There is a few items that holds this from replacing my ibook and netbook , the lack of a power port and usb . These would be so easy to put in a dock or build it into the iPad but one thing that would have to change is the fact it still has to have a mothership per say to dock to for sync and updates . Because of these simple fixes it is still a parasite to a mac or pc instead of a stand alone mac . I still want one and daydream about all the fun I will have when I get one soon but if I could use it to sync my iphone to and it be the mothership then all would right with the world . lol

[Evan]

Hey CSummers, welcome to Everything iPad!

I love your analogy. I'd love to think of the iPad as the mothership, where I can take it along with me everywhere I go, and everything I need is right there. You're absolutely right about the USB, though. The fact that I need an accessory to access a USB port is somewhat archaic, and even now I'm unsure of this. But as it stands, the iPad is still the best tablet available on the market, even if it does mean I need to start purchasing more and more accessories.

Thanks for the post! Keep it up!

[niuniu]

Great article Paras. Unfortunately for us the idea of landing pages have not worked out so great. We're in the Real Estate business and our goal is to attract owner leads. Only when we used landing pages (we've tried all sorts of landing pages, even had a design/marketing guy help us out) not only it didn't convert as well but we saw a significant bounce rate increase from low 20s to over 60% (this number went down as we stating adding links back to the homepage), also the majority of our keywords quality score dropped below 5. We know we have the right leads by looking at the keywords people are searching for, so is it possible that people want to find out more about you before telling you who they are? Or perhaps different market requires different marketing strategies?