Why I'm Not Getting An iPad

[chrix]

Hey,

after playing around with an iPad at several Apple stores across the US, I've decided not to get one, for the following reasons:

1. price

taking the limitations that follow below into account, I find a price of $500 for the cheapest version a bit steep. If I wanted an e-reader, I can get a Kindle DX for that, or even a cheap laptop (I know that's not what the iPad is about, but I'm just saying).

2. Flash

As far as I understand the debate Apple's refusal to support Flash is technically plausible, but it's also a fact that most video streaming sites do use Flash, especially Chinese ones. And one of the strengths of the iPad is its big screen that enables you to watch videos comfortably, so it would be a huge loss if you couldn't watch videos from sina.com, youku.com etc. and so forth, or even pplive (please tell me if there is a way around it that doesn't include downloading videos and using the AirVideo app).

3. Traditional characters support

Imagine my surprise when I wanted to type some Chinese on the iPad on display and it would only give me simplified Chinese. WTH? Apple says that traditional character input will be added at some later date, but at this point this was just the straw that broke the camel's neck for me (also, it doesn't have Korean character input. It seems like that Apple doesn't want business from South Korea, Hong Kong and Taiwan, and it's really weird because the iPod touch and iPhone do have it)...

Oh, and for the record I have an iPod Touch, and I love it, and the many Chinese-specific apps you can use with it. Are there any iPad users out there that want to chime in about their experience and how these apps work on the iPad?

[eatfastnoodle]

I have one and I don't use it that much after the initial excitement, I'd say if you're a gamer, iPad could be a decent portable game console. As for other tasks, my macbook pro works way better.

[jbradfor]

1) Because it's such a closed system. I don't like Apple limiting me so much as to what I can and can not do with MY computer.

2) Because I have no need for one. I'm either at my desk at work in front of my computer, at home where I can use my laptop or desktop, shopping where I have no need for one, driving when I can't use one, or sleeping (when I'm dreaming of one ;) ).

[tooironic]

Remember this is all part of the Apple strategy - release a really limited product first off, then over the next few years release better ones one after the other.

Mostly I don't want to get one because I find technology rules my life enough as it is and I don't need a massive, tablet-sized distraction to make it worse. (Not even my phone has Internet.)

[xianhua]

If Apple released an iFork - a clever little device that allows you to take food from a plate and put it into your mouth - it would probably sell a few thousand (providing it was white and said iFork on it).

[mikelove]

I think we'll see traditional-character input support on iPad sooner rather than later - the iPad is supposed to launch in Hong Kong (and Singapore, though they're pretty deep into 简体字 there now) in July, so there's no way they won't have it working by then. Possibly in a bug-fix update announced the week after next at WWDC. (though at the risk of turning into a bona fide shill, I might point out that the iPad version of Pleco already supports traditional character handwriting input)

If you read some of the early reviews of Flash on Android it sounds like Apple may have made a good decision in skipping it for now - the general feeling seems to be that even if you do have Flash support you're probably going to want to turn it off to avoid massive slowdowns / depressingly-short battery life when viewing flash-enabled web pages. The situation may improve in another year or two as the post-Snapdragon generation of mobile processors start to appear (they should be dual-core, among other things), but don't underestimate Apple's capacity for sudden about-faces; they went from talking about how much faster the PowerPC G5 was than Intel chips one year to talking about how much faster Intel chips were than the PowerPC G5 the next. But for 2010 at least, if you want Flash on a tablet you're probably going to want that tablet to be running Windows 7.

There's a growing consensus among developers that the iPad shipped with too little RAM, though - no more than the iPhone 3GS, in spite of the fact that the 3GS has approximately 1/5 as many pixels to manage - so if you're not the sort of person who buys a new laptop / cell phone / etc every year, it might be worth waiting until next spring for the iPad 2 (well no, Apple will probably just name it the iPad again and we'll have to call it the "iPad (early 2011)"), which may enable a lot of new types of app that aren't really possible on the first-generation iPad.

But personally I love mine - don't use it for reading books much (I really prefer e-ink displays like the Kindle's for that) but as a couch-top web browsing system it's absolutely fantastic.

[Glenn]

...I have an iPod Touch, and I love it, and the many Chinese-specific apps you can use with it...

What kinds of apps are you talking about? I only have the ones that came with mine and Tumblr and Facebook (had Words With Friends, but deleted it). It's also an 8-gig iPod Touch, and it's fairly full of podcasts, so I suppose if I were to get more apps they'd have to be fairly small, but I assume they don't run more than a few megs anyway, right?

[gato]

Glenn, search for the iPhone thread where many apps are listed.

Apple, Google and MS have all advocated HTML 5 over Adobe Flash, so I suspect Flash doesn't have a bright future ahead. But the Chinese sites probably won't be converting soon, just as most of them don't even support Firefox or Mac browsers yet.

There are going to be lots of cheaper Android-based tablets coming on to the market soon. Maybe you'll find one to entice you there. But there's certainly an argument to be made for going on a technology diet, too.

[Glenn]

Oh, alright. Thanks.

But the Chinese sites probably won't be converting soon, just as most of them don't even support Firefox or Mac browsers yet.

Well, at least the ones I use do: 土豆, 百度, and 优酷, mostly. Actually, I can't recall having a problem with any site because I was on a Mac, but that may just be because I haven't compared with a PC, really.

[Gleaves]

Looks like the iBooks 香港 store is already open, so I'm guessing traditional support is imminent.

[chrix]

Thanks for your responses, especially mikelove for the insider's perspective!

I totally understand jbradfor's reservations, I happen to share them, but a closed system has its pluses too, like in usability and design...

Gleaves, it's not about displaying traditional, the iPad does that just fine, it's about typing in stuff in traditional...

[blue]

Hi all,

Would like to know how well these iPads would sell in China Beijing if I was to bring a load over with me in sept? Yes I have a shipment container...

Thanks for any feedback

[Prodigal Son]

snip

The choice is yours to make, but I disagree with the first two points. $500 for such a device is extremely inexpensive. The reason why there are no iPad competitors on the market is because they had to go back to the drawing board after discovering that the iPad is far less expensive than they thought. Bottom line is that the market has decided that $500 is a fair price since iPad's are flying off the shelves at an incredible rate.

Also, Flash sucks. I'm a web developer and Apple is right about it being a slow and obtrusive pain in the ass that scales terribly. The greatest thing Flash has going for it are online games, and the App Store has tens of thousands of those - if you can't find what you're looking for there, I don't even know what to say.

I have an iPad and use it everyday. A lot of the tasks I'd normally do with my desktop or Macbook Pro I find I'm doing with my iPad. My netbook is useless now. The iPad is just a far superior experience and in the end, it's fun to use.

[roddy]

Would like to know how well these iPads would sell in China Beijing if I was to bring a load over with me in sept? Yes I have a shipment container...

I can see that getting slapped with a hefty customs bill. One for personal use fine, any more is pushing it.

[gato]

Over 2 million smuggled in gray market iPhone have been sold in China, even though they are priced higher than in the West at US$700-800 each. You could go to jail for smuggling, though, so be too greedy.

The China Unicom official iPhones do not have WiFi and have been selling very poorly.

[Flying Pigeon]

It's also an 8-gig iPod Touch, and it's fairly full of podcasts, so I suppose if I were to get more apps they'd have to be fairly small, but I assume they don't run more than a few megs anyway, right?

Glenn,

I have an 8 gig iPod Touch as well. Have you tried making Smart Playlists to manage your podcasts/music? John Biesnecker explains how to manage foreign language listening material using Smart Playlists in iTunes; the same concept can be applied to managing music as well.

Thanks to his article I've been able to maintain a balance between uploading new music/podcasts and offloading material that I've already listened to. Lack of space on my iPod is no longer an issue. I have about 1.5 gigs worth of apps and a "revolving" half a gig of music/podcasts on my iPod now.

Hope this helps.

[Glenn]

It looks cool, but I'll have to study it a bit more before I try it out, I think. He also has how to rip audio and segment it, which is something I've been wondering how to do for a while now. Thanks for the link!

[Guoke]

The reason I'm not getting an iPad is much simpler - I can't afford it.

[Gleaves]

I think the iPad (and other tablet PCs and e-readers) have some awesome Chinese study potential. I'm tempted to get one just to read comics/manga. The current iPad and competitors are a bit lacking for my taste. I want a ton of storage and the freedom to install any software I want. Basically, I'd like everything a laptop does, with a fully functional OS, and a fun UI in the tablet form factor.

+1 for smart playlists. They are awesome. I use them all the time for audio and music. (I keep a Chinese Pop smart playlist that combines any of the Chinese music I add - which requires a whole bunch of rules/exceptions. I then set it to not include any songs rated one or two stars. That way, unrated music is included, but as soon as I rate it, it will only include music I rate three or more stars. As new songs come up, I rate them. The result is a playlist of Chinese music I really like that I can shuffle)

That's really strange the not being able to type in traditional thing on the iPad. I'm guessing that is simply a mistake by someone in the bowels of Apple.

[Prodigal Son]

I think the iPad (and other tablet PCs and e-readers) have some awesome Chinese study potential. I'm tempted to get one just to read comics/manga. The current iPad and competitors are a bit lacking for my taste. I want a ton of storage and the freedom to install any software I want. Basically, I'd like everything a laptop does, with a fully functional OS, and a fun UI in the tablet form factor.

+1 for smart playlists. They are awesome. I use them all the time for audio and music. (I keep a Chinese Pop smart playlist that combines any of the Chinese music I add - which requires a whole bunch of rules/exceptions. I then set it to not include any songs rated one or two stars. That way, unrated music is included, but as soon as I rate it, it will only include music I rate three or more stars. As new songs come up, I rate them. The result is a playlist of Chinese music I really like that I can shuffle)

That's really strange the not being able to type in traditional thing on the iPad. I'm guessing that is simply a mistake by someone in the bowels of Apple.

I agree about the Chinese potential, it's what struck me first about the iPad when it was announced: http://www.chengduliving.com/using-the-ipad-to-study-chinese

About installing software and having a "regular OS", one of the major realizations that Apple made which lent huge success to iPad is that tablets aren't ordinary computers. You can't take a desktop OS, make it touch enabled, and have it work well on a tablet. You've been able to buy Windows tablets for years but few did because they're terrible to use. The tablet format requires a system made for it, and since people don't use it in the same way as say, a laptop, it's not built with the same objectives. I'm writing this post from a 16gb iPad and I haven't used half the space on it because there isn't much of a need to download anything but apps since it's always internet connected.

I noticed you're in Arlington - I lived in Ballston and Rosslyn when I was in VA!