how soon will the ipad become obsolete?

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so now that the ipad 2 is out, lots of people are jumping on the cheaper price of the 1st gen ipad. right now the first gen is still a completely capable machine, but i'm wondering, how soon will it be before it begins to obsolete, or more so, before the first gen will not be able to run new apps and technology? more or less, how soon will it be that the original ipad just can't keep up?
 
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not for a long long time..

and even though some new apps may be geared towards the duel core processors of the later ipads..it will still run on a first gen,

i'm sure as long as you keepthe first gen updated..i don't see it ever being "obsolete"
 
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not for a long long time..

and even though some new apps may be geared towards the duel core processors of the later ipads..it will still run on a first gen,

i'm sure as long as you keepthe first gen updated..i don't see it ever being "obsolete"


Well of course, eventually it will be "obsolete" every tech product eventually becomes "obsolete" compared to other products. It may always stay "useful" as long as it runs properly, but it definitely cannot stay up with competing technology in a few years. Look at an iPod, for example, would you consider the first gen iPod (2001) "obsolete?"...I personally would. Although there is still a use for it (assuming it runs correctly), it is not as effective or practical as a modern iPod.

To answer the OP...I would say 3-4 more years, and the product will be so outmatched by the competition that it would be considered "obsolete" by many.

Again, the difficulty lies in conceptualizing what "obsolete" means to the average consumer.
 
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If we can use the iPhone as a guide, then the original iPad will become "obsolete" in about two years.

What I mean by this is that my original iPhone can't go any higher than 3.1.3, so I can't run iOS 4 on it. It took three years for that to happen. It has to be said that the vast majority of apps on the App Store for iPhone can still run on my iPhone, so I don't yet consider it "obsolete," just "no longer supported."

Being that most apps for the iPad don't require a fast processor etc., I don't think we'll see a lack of (original) iPad-compatible apps for quite a long time by computer standards.
 
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"obsolete" is a strong word..

and i know people who still use the first gen iphone and it does exactly what they need it to do..

i'm thinking 2 years is a little quick.
 
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This is the thread I was looking for. My wife and I have the money to buy a new iPad, but we're strongly considering getting a slightly used iPad 1 to save a couple hundred bucks.

As of now the plan is to use the iPad mostly for simple stuff (browsing, email, newspapers, movies, etc.), so I'm thinking the original will suffice. However, I'm pretty tech savvy and I know that once I own one I'll try to use it to its full capabilities and will eventually hit a wall with the iPad 1 as more and more apps come out geared towards the iPad 2.

Do y'all think we should go ahead and splurge on the new model (we're looking for the 32 GB model), or would we be good with the original?
 
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Do y'all think we should go ahead and splurge on the new model (we're looking for the 32 GB model), or would we be good with the original?

this is the million dollar question i think a lot of people are asking themselves who are on the fence about an ipad purchase..

ipad first gens are going fast! in fact wifi only models are very hard to find now..not to mention ipad 2's are almost impossible to get unless your at the right store at the right time..
 
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I 'jumped on' the reduced price ipad 1 and then decided (after realizing how close in price it is to ipad 2) to return it and swap it out for ipad 2. There are some ipad 2 -only apps, though. And the 9x graphics + gyro are the biggest draws for me, since gaming will be important. 2x speed, the cameras, and all the ipad 2 only-apps.
 

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