First of all, I am a big fan of apple, but I don't support something just because apple made it (some people do that for some reason).
Neither do I. But until I have some facts to work with, I tend to give Apple the benefit of the doubt due to their track record.
And of course I don't have any facts, the whole point of this thread is to post your own opinion.
But opinions (well,
worthwhile opinions) need something factual to be based on. There ARE plenty of facts about the iPad out there, your post simply chose to ignore them and speculate based on nothing at all.
If you want to disagree thats fine, but you don't have to attack me with a page long, sarcasm-laden post.
I wasn't attacking you, I was attacking the ideas of "knowing" the size of the iPad market and whether or not it will sell prior to it having sold even one unit. The main declarations in your post (it will fail because it is "the wrong size," and because eBook readers won't pay $500 for it) are just assumptions (the latter of which is just flatly incorrect), not bolstered by any evidence. It's one thing to say "I don't think I'll buy one" and quite another to say "based on the fact that I probably won't buy one, nobody else will either." Its akin to saying that because one cannot see past the horizon, that must be the furthest point one could go.
My point(s) were that we -- any of us -- can't actually say that the iPad is a flop. Or a hit. We simply don't have the data needed to make a judgement on that at this point. Check back again in six months or so and we'll have a
somewhat better idea of whether it turned out to be a hit, a flop or something in-between those two extremes. (As a side note, the iPod actually took about two years to really take off).
The other point was that its rather foolish to pronounce that the device won't sell, given Apple's recent history. I was not just addressing your post, but all such posts in this thread. The sarcasm was, again, aimed at the absurd notion that we (all of us, not just those who diss the iPad) know more about selling and marketing than Apple does, not you personally.
I obviously don't have sales facts, but I do, however, know that most standard pockets are not 10" long and 7.5" wide.
By this rationale, nobody would have ever bought a laptop, since it also does not fit in one's pocket. "Pocket-sized" is, pretty obviously, not a criteria for all portable devices. In Apple's own history there was a device called the Newton -- too large for a pocket (unless you were wearing a lab coat), and (literally) years ahead of its time, but incredibly popular in its day. The iPad is, in many ways, a direct descendant.
People these days tend to carry larger storage with them -- given your preference for a 17" laptop, you must already know this. From purses to backpacks, from briefcases to satchels -- even cargo pants now have larger pockets in them than they used to. The iPad is more than small enough to fit comfortably in all sorts of non-pocket spaces. It's certainly MORE convenient to carry than even the smallest netbook, and does most of what normal people use a netbook (or laptop, for that matter) to do when they are away from home.
And I would rather look at a 17" laptop screen compared to holding a 10" screen.
Well, you might change your mind about that when you hold one, but even if you don't, that's fine. But just because Product X isn't right for your own personal needs, doesn't automatically make it a flop. In intelligently assessing whether a given product may or may not do well, one has to weigh in factors outside one's own personal experience.
Another important consideration, particularly when its too early to know if a product will catch on, is to look at the track record and general judgement of the company producing it. Are they idiots who have a history of producing items the public hates, or are they generally successful with most of their ideas? This is the part that you (and a lot of iPad dismissers) have left out of their thinking, and doing so will probably come back to bite them if the past (particularly the recent past) is any indication.
p.s. sorry about the 'to' and 'too' mix up, I didn't catch it. I also didn't know the kindle was so expensive, so shoot me
That's "Grimace."
And yes, all the decent-sized ebook readers are pretty expensive; some are priced much HIGHER than the base price of the iPad. The ones that are less expensive (like the "original" Kindle or Barnes & Noble's "Nook" reader) are dramatically smaller than the iPad (the Nook is actually smaller than a paperback book, but still a little too big to fit comfortably in a pocket).
I should have made it more clear that I was addressing the views of more than just your post, but those of all similar such posts. Sorry.