The State of iPad Satisfaction

Six thousand owners of Apple's tablet tell us what they think--and the news is good.

By  |  Wednesday, June 30, 2010 at 3:38 am

Long before anyone knew much of anything about the iPad, people were expressing strong opinions about it. But the opinions that matter most didn’t begin to get formed until April 3rd, the day Apple’s tablet finally went on sale. That’s when teeming masses of consumers spent their own money on iPads, took them home, and put them to an array of utterly real-world tests.

We gave those folks a few weeks to explore their new gadgets. And then we fielded a survey earlier this month to gauge the satisfaction level of  some of the first iPad owners. More than six thousand people responded, the largest response to a Technologizer survey to date.

Executive summary in case you don’t feel like reading the rest of this article: They like it. A lot. Ninety-eight percent say they’re satisfied with their iPads overall; ninety-six percent think it’s a good value. In category after category–3G service, most of the individual bundled apps, battery life, speed, the absence of Flash–a majority of respondents are pleased.

In only one major area did unhappy campers dominate: A majority aren’t pleased with Apple’s App Store approval process. More than half also wish Apple had given the tablet printing capabilities, a memory-card slot, and a front-facing camera.

The extremely warm response for the iPad isn’t astonishing. (Come to think of it, it’s reminiscent of the raves we heard about Windows 7 in our survey about that operating system.) Early adopters, pretty much by definition, are people who are extremely excited about a new product; unless it abjectly fails to deliver on its promises, it makes sense that they’d be inclined to be upbeat. (Here’s a story idea for somebody–maybe us–for another time: Conduct a survey of people who bought iPads and then returned them.)

Still, there are plenty of interesting tidbits in our data. And the cumulative experiences of six thousand iPad owners serve as a useful reality check on the device’s pros and cons as reported in reviews.

As usual with our surveys, a disclaimer is in order. We aren’t trying to capture a demographically representative sample of all iPad owners and we didn’t normalize the results. The opinions you’re about to read reflect only the experiences of the folks who took our survey–readers of Technologizer and other sites (such as Daring Fireball) that linked to it. Which is fine by us: We were dying to learn what you thought.

Before we solicited opinions, we started by collecting some basic background information. Sixty-two percent of respondents have the Wi-Fi-only model–not surprising given that it’s cheaper and has been available longer–but owners of the 3G model are well represented, too.

Seventy-one percent live in the U.S., the first country to get the iPad.

A third of respondents are the earliest of early adopters: They bought their iPads on April 3rd, the day the tablets hit the Apple Store. Sixty-one percent have been iPad owners for a month or more, making them old hands–relatively speaking–who have had time to form considered opinions.

Everybody assumes that people who already own and like Apple products have a high propensity to buy iPads. And in the cast of our survey respondents, at least, everybody is right. A whopping 82 percent use the iPad with a Mac; ten percent use both a Mac and a Windows PC; just eight percent use only Windows.

Actually, respondents are nearly as likely to own an iPhone as they are a Mac. Kindles, BlackBerries, Android phones, and other devices trail way behind.

Among respondents who have 3G iPads, most are happy with the wireless service. Fifty-nine percent are totally or very satisfied; fifteen percent are somewhat satisfied. Twenty-two percent are neutral, and only four percent are dissatisfied. The figures below are for all respondents with 3G iPads, in both the U.S. and other countries. But those who live in the states–who are presumably using AT&T–reported results that were largely similar to those in other countries.

Thirty-six percent of 3G iPhone owners who took the survey are somewhat or very satisfied with the value of their data plans; another 27 percent are somewhat satisfied. Twenty-two percent say they have no opinion on the matter; eleven percent are somewhat or very dissatisfied. Three percent say they’re totally dissatisfied. As with the previous question, the responses from U.S. iPad owners and those in other countries didn’t differ much. (We conducted the survey at the very tail end of AT&T’s unlimited data plan offering; it would be interesting to ask again now that new buyers must choose a plan that gives them a fixed amount of data each month.)

In the chart about iPad’s bundled apps and Apple’s iWork ones below, orange represents extreme happiness, blue shows happiness, purple indicates mild-favorability-bordering-on-neutrality, and red means unhappiness. (Only ratings from people who have tried each app are shown.) Enthusiasm runs high for almost everything–especially Safari and Maps. Notes is the only built-in app that inspires noticeably less excitement: Around half of the people who have tried it think it’s fair or poor. And the iWork apps get decent numbers overall, but fewer people think they’re excellent than with most of the standard programs.

When we asked about key iPad features, orange (“Totally Satisfied”) and blue (“Very Satisfied”) again dominated. A whopping 79 percent of respondents are totally satisfied with the device’s battery life; 66 percent are totally satisfied with its speed; 60 percent are totally satisfied with its user interface. Weight and size weren’t received with the same level of bliss, but 75 percent of respondents still said they were totally or very satisfied. And while there have been widespread reports of trouble with iPad Wi-Fi, only eight percent of respondents said they were somewhat, very, or totally dissatisfied with their Wi-Fi experience.

We also asked about features which Apple could have included in the iPad but didn’t–and here the respondents were more critical. In the chart below, lots of purple and red indicates missing features which many people want: Printing was number one on their wish list, followed by a front-facing camera and a built-in slot for memory cards. The iPad’s sealed battery turns out not to be particularly controversial–more than three quarters of respondents are okay with it, and sixty-one percent say the fixed one is better.

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75 Comments For This Post

  1. bob Says:

    Unfortunately as the first figures state, nearly ALL the people responding are die hard mac fans.
    They're going to check all best options without any objectivity.
    For example, it's been widely known the ipad weight is a problem. Also the app rejection.

    Those have only very very minor "down votes".

    All the review is therefore showing, is that choosing the right public can get you the right results even hover a large amount of people. Kudos for putting the figures proving this tho, many would just omit them on purpose.

  2. Wayne Says:

    "In only one major area did unhappy campers dominate: A majority aren’t pleased with Apple’s App Store approval process."

    The approval process isn't an end-user issue unless you're after porn apps or have a friend who wrote an app that Apple rejected. There's a LOT of hype about it from hyper-geeks, and its apparently gained mind-share, but in reality there are 250,000 apps in the store to choose from and I have yet to find an area where existing apps suck and a non-approved app doesn't. (To be honest, I have no way of knowing what apps have not been approved, and neither do any of those you polled. It's perception, not reality.)

  3. Jim Says:

    Untrue. We know from experience that Apple is avoiding the concept of "plug ins" and specifically browser based support for this technology. For example, Silverlight and Flash support is missing not only from Safari but also all alternate browsers available for the iPad. That makes it a bit limited fit for leveraging existing IT apps in the business sector which are based on these technologies. If it weren't for this limitation, I'd literaly be able to retire my working PC and use my iPad exclusively.

  4. Objective View Says:

    "I have yet to find an area where existing apps suck and a non-approved app doesn't."

    Now that's a broken comparison, of course you haven't found one; you can't use or even view the non-approved app.

    It's not hype, its concern from people in the market (ie they build apps) about Apples closed approval system and the damage it does. Lack of meaningful support is the main complaint, if your app is pulled/rejected the reasons given are vague at best and non-existent at times.

    How would you like your place of work (these guys earn a living from the apps) to fire you without reason or due cause, just on the bosses whim. That would be a good grounds for wrongful dismissal and a lawsuit, but when Apple do similar its ok?

  5. Vulpine Says:

    You've never tried to publish a book, have you? Before you say anything, the concept and the end result is effectively identical. The developer may be the author, but Apple is the publisher. A publisher doesn't have to tell you why they rejected your manuscript.

  6. Taonas Says:

    I agree, plus there is the benefit that the apps coming from the App Store are more likely to work as intended and not secretly give away your information about you, that's why the approval process is there. It's nice having and knowing that the apps you download were checked out first to do what they are suppose to do and not be malicious.

  7. Giorgos Says:

    So, if Apple gets to see everyone else's code, who gets to see Apple's code? Can you be sure it's not working against you in some way? I mean, it's already potentially working against you, with the DRM code it contains. But can you at least be certain that it doesn't give away any of your information?

  8. Taonas Says:

    I'm not saying it's perfect but it's well darn safer environment. Also I'm a windows software engineer doing iPhone/iPad apps as a side project, what does DRM have to do with personal information (contacts, photos, emails)? There are a lot of restrictions placed in their API's to prevent you from doing malicious code but of course it can't be 100% safe. The *risk* is just *smaller*.

  9. Harry McCracken Says:

    Well, we know about some specific apps Apple hasn't approved, such as Google Voice. We also know about whole classes it won't, such tethering apps, etc, and about strange situations like its initial refusal to approve an app by a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist. I suspect that you're right that this isn't a big issue for garden-variety consumers–and a sizable majority of the survey respondents weren't fazed. And as I've said before, the App Store has better aps in larger quantities by far than less tightly-controlled stores. But I think people who have been following things have another information to come to their own informed opinions here.

    –Harry

  10. Steven Fisher Says:

    Here's what we actually know regarding Google Voice:
    * Google Voice wasn't approved for iPhone OS 3.1.
    * Apple said they were investigating because they were dissatisfied with the experience.
    * iOS 4.0 fixes the things about the OS that Apple found made Google Voice poor.

    At this point, we don't even know if Google resubmitted after adapting the new iOS 4 APIs.

    Either way, it's irrelevant to the iPad.

  11. ron Says:

    What really bothers me from the chart is that there are more Macs then PC's on the list, seems odd to me considering a vast majority of people own PC's and not Macs.

  12. Jocca Says:

    I am not a developer and I could care less if a few developers are bad mouthing Apple on the subject of the approval process of the app store. All I want is that the apps I buy from the store does not cause any undesirable hit on my iPhone or iPad.

  13. crosswordbob Says:

    The missing feature I would have liked is tethering. This device is made for collaborating with its little brother iPhone (incidentally, anyone but me surprised how fast you go from "iPad's a big iPhone" to "iPhone's a small iPad"?). I went wi-fi only because I couldn't justify the cost for another 3G device/plan; the absence of tethering smacks of trying to wring as many 3G sales as possible out of us.

  14. Mike Says:

    no, it's not about that… it's about the cellular network not being unable to support heavy data loads. people need to understand the CELL network is NOT the internet… it was built for voice, not data!

  15. crosswordbob Says:

    Sorry? They implement PC tethering on the iPhone, and build a 3G version of the iPad because they're trying to stop me using the cellular network for data?

  16. McFeely Smackup Says:

    That's a nonsense response, false at face value. The cell network hasn't been around for over 10 years, the current digital wireless networks were most certainly built with voice AND data in mind. Regardless of that fact, it makes little sense to say they're unable to support the data usage, and then say "but we'll sell you ANOTHER" data plan.

  17. Ron Says:

    If thats so why do we have commercials from the celluar companies practically begging you to download music, Apps, and video?

    Even if what you're saying is true then shame of AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon for not keeping their equipment up to date then charging customers preimum prices for shoddy networks.

  18. Alex Says:

    Does this come as any surprise? Do you expect people that buy Apple products to actually denounce them in any meaningful way? And even if they did buy one and hate it, how many would actually admit it? Their Apple friends would eviscerate them for being disloyal and their non-Apple friends would belittle them till the end of time.

  19. eyrieowl Says:

    I bet the stats for Apple TV would be a little less rosy. It's certainly not a measure of whether a device is great or not…you're already limiting yourself to people who have self-selected as wanting it…but it's not meaningless to see if people are satisfied with their purchase.

  20. crosswordbob Says:

    While I can't fault the point re. early adopters, the article itself covers that; as well as stating that a survey of returners would be worth pursuing.

    As for whether early adopters would ever dare speak out about unmet expectations of an Apple product, might I suggest you Google (or Bing, if you prefer 😉 ) for "iPhone antenna"?

    I own an iPad and iPhone (3G), but these are the only Apple products I own, or have ever owned. The world doesn't split into fanboys and haters; there are those of us who assess devices on their suitability for specific purposes. And for what it's worth, this is not to suggest that there aren't suitable (or even better) alternatives to the iPhone; nor that there aren't (or won't be) similar alternatives to the iPad; I bought my phone when it _was_ the best in the market, and I have stuck with a product-type I know, and a whole bunch of apps I don't want to have to buy again. If I were entering the market today, I might well have chosen differently, but my choice would still be based on suitability rather than some petty Us vs. Them nonsense.

  21. Eric Says:

    Yes, Apple product users are used to products that work well. When something doesn't, you hear it lound and clear. Unless, of course, you have your fingers in your ears so you can't hear them.

  22. otto Says:

    That's not his ear he has his finger in…

  23. Dennis Says:

    What stand out to me is that of the 6000 in survey, by far the vast majority are mac/iphone users.
    In the actual world the vast majority of people are not mac users, so this survey is not exactly a true representation, for instance the lack of USB ports and Flash is obviously not as big an issue to those who have got used to not having them already. The question this survey does not address is why so few of the majority (non mac users) are buying iPads, (and please don't start a brand war),

    If Apple is not attracting those buyers, then one has to as why? I think the iPad is a great design etc, but without flash (the usb port issue I can get around with an adapter) it for me is not complete, and until Apple stops this arrogance of telling me what I can do., I'll wait and see if a suitable win tablet arrives, which I suspect a lot of people are doing

    And just for the record, for those Apple only people who probably don't know this, for a lot of people, iTunes causes as much or more problems then flash does, so Apple is just a guilty as Adobe.
    *No I'm not trolling, itunes is getting a bad reputation, try researching it,- I just mention it to give a more open view of the actual situation from a non mac point of view.

    If Steve releases an IPad with usb and allows me to install what I want (such as flash) I'd buy one tomorrow, but its not likely and I won't to bullied into giving up what I like, fair enough?

  24. Orbit Says:

    This device puts an interesting spin on mobile computing. I think technology is great…
    until you travel with it. …
    The ergonomics of having a wad of plastic larger than a human fist stuck in your pocket never appealed to me. What will stop this iPad from being chucked into a ravine somewhere in indo-china once Apple upgrades to the latest and greatest hardware?

    Software hands down the best in the world.
    Hardware… I hope you can hire someone to make larger pockets for my pants.

    Signed,

    Orbitofrontal cortex

  25. progr Says:

    "Hardware… I hope you can hire someone to make larger pockets for my pants. "

    Does a netbook or a notebook fit in your pocket?

  26. Walter Jeffries Says:

    Hot product. I like how Apple has kept it simple. We do have the physical keyboard and the stylus. Memory is available since it does connect to our network. It is part of a system of tools – a portal. I love the iPad and see Apple making it better. The fact that the iPod Touch and iPhone are essentially micro-versions of the iPad is good. A size for everyone.

  27. Davy Schmeits Says:

    I partly agree with the person above. Obviously, if you look at the audience who are reflected in this survey, the majority are already either Mac or iPhone owner. In that respect, are questions about the user interface a bit not-done. From a more 'scientific' point of view, it may a bit to soon to actually conduct any of these surveys, simply because you are looking at early adopters of technology, who will have been waiting for the launch of this project for a long time, etc. They are overexcited and will never admit defeat over their new purchase (it is still a staggering +/- $500!). Also, there are a number of intended audiences for whom the iPad has been made, so I suppose over time your pie charts will start chaning. For instance I can see the iPad (concept, so maybe 2nd or 3rd generation) becoming a replacement for people who invested in a macbook in the past. People who only require basic functionality, but for whom a touch screen was as far fetched as the lack of a right click used to be (although Apple have come back on that, ha!).

  28. Davy Schmeits Says:

    There are currently some limitations on the OS, but imagine iOS and Mac OS X merging, then you may have a very nice platform to run any type of application on. Another thing with any sort of new device, even with any new phone (and I know this form a large number of discussions), is that it is never perfect for the individual. So it would be far more interesting to measure satisfaction with let us say the marketing strategy or intended use. Would you really use the iPad as a picture frame, after having used it for a day? Mine gets all greasy :-). Anyway, good survey, but let us way and see what really happens. An Apple Fanboy.

  29. not a fan boy Says:

    well if you merged ios & os x i'd be swapping to unbuntu or similar as fast as possible, i personally dont want my software chosen for me by mr jobs, i like to make my own decisions.

  30. Skeptic Says:

    That's 6000 responses out of how many total that you tried to survey? People who have already lost enthusiasm about the product are far less likely to respond to your survey about the product. The respondent numbers really don't say much unless you also know how many didn't respond.

  31. g3user1usa48 Says:

    Holy crap. If you stood out in the pouring rain, you'd be more concerned about the drops that missed hitting you. Why not ask about how many more people that loved the iPad didn't bother to respond because they were too busy using it? The iPad has already crushed the competition and haggling about it isn't going to change a damn thing. iPad 4,000,000 sold, competition 0. How's that for a poll. Go poll the Android tablet users and see what they think of their tablets. D'uh.

  32. Guy Says:

    Maybe those people are not too busy using it but instead they were spending all there time trying to make it work!

  33. Tyrk Says:

    Conditional results such as "of those polled who use their iPad with a Mac, X % ____, while of those polled who use their iPad with a Windows PC, Y% ____" would have been very interesting, and could have told a broader story than the given information.

  34. Jim Says:

    When you have a closed OS, the approval process of applications is indeed an end user problem. Apple's strict rules are a throwback to the eighties, when Nintendo was banning games for having sexy characters, excessive blood, and even references to smoking or alcohol. It's an adult toy and deserves adult games (not that adult does NOT equal porn).

  35. George Murray Says:

    I agree with Skeptic, that we cannot use this to determine overall success or acceptance of the iPad by these results without the number who did not respond. However, I think it makes clear what is important to those who do like the device. And that's helpful in determining why it works in the way it does for consumers.

    These results correspond pretty well to some rough analysis I did in a blog post this week. Check it out if you're interested: http://idlemode.com/2010/06/28/why-ipad/

  36. David Says:

    Davy Schmeits ·
    500 is staggering? Hardly. Look most of the devices and gadgets available are not for the proverty-prone or the cheapies. The head of Starbucks last year said(and I paraphrasing) "that it is a shame that almost 10% of working adults are unemployed. But my business doesn't target them. It targets the 90% that has jobs."

    Targeting the sub-300 gives you poor quality, poor construction and a generally experience. The iPad has none of that. Solid build, fast, flexible and it just works.

    I say that as a PC owner(no Macs) with 6 PCs and a professional software developer. It is an awesome device, but not for the perpetually broke.

  37. Davy Schmeits Says:

    Maybe 'staggering' was not the right word. I suppose for what it is now, a large ipod with a lot of potential, the initial investment is quite big. Once the software has matured a bit and the hardware has proven its stability, that $500 does not weigh up against any netbook, etc.

    I agree with the Starbucks comparison, but I think to turn a market around to tablet computing, you need to aim for nearly 100%.

  38. MHB Says:

    I know it's off topic, but these first 4 pie charts. Really? Someone needs to read Tufte 🙂

  39. rod smith Says:

    Agreed. And the ordering in the bar charts is inconsistent with each other making quick comparisons very difficult. Very poor displays.

  40. @gmurray Says:

    I agree with Skeptic, that we cannot use this to determine overall success or acceptance of the iPad by these results without the number who did not respond. However, I think it makes clear what is important to those who do like the device. And that's helpful in determining why it works in the way it does for consumers.

    I've found that a lot of what people like in the iPad is related to ubiquitous computing and I wrote a blog post about it. Check it out: http://idlemode.com/2010/06/28/why-ipad/

  41. v8r Says:

    I can't grok a survey that rates "Very Satisfied" over "Totally Satisfied" and "Neither satisfied nor dissatisfied" over "Somewhat Satisfied" — clearly this is concocted by non-English speakers.

  42. crosswordbob Says:

    Not being funny, but I think the very > totally (and other) orderings are because the charts are sorted by number of responders for each answer, rather than by level of satisfaction (or whatever).

    Got to admit, though, it confused me for a bit!

  43. eric Says:

    Isn't it weird how in every graph (at least every bar graph of that type) the largest bar is always at the top (no matter what it says). I wonder how that happened?

    Which is to say – the graphs are sorted, in descending order, by the number of people that answered the response in a particular way.

  44. Harry McCracken Says:

    No conspiracies, and apologies to anyone who's flummoxed–the charts are organized with the most common responses at the top, and the least common ones at the bottom. Not a particularly unusual way to report survey results…

    –Harry

  45. spellman Says:

    While that order makes sense for questions like "what other items do you own," it doesn't make sense as a way to order responses based on a specific range of answers from very favorable to very unfavorable. Order them by the range and we can tell at a glance how many opinions fall at each point of the range.

    Still, very interesting survey and commentary; thanks for pulling it together.

  46. Zach Says:

    Enjoyed the survey results, but the presentation does merit a comment. The descending popularity organization method makes it hard to quickly discern the response distribution without reading all of the axis labels. Likewise, the shifting scale for the X axis makes also obscures the data somewhat.

  47. Tim Says:

    Inability to accept meeting invitations into the calendar (.ics files) is a pain and means, for me, regular use of the laptop each day. If the iPad could accept meeting requests it would make a major difference to my day to day use of it. It's transformational in many other ways – I can get at and exchange docs by MobileMe or Dropbox, access all the important types and tweak the ones I need to. But diary management is a material disappointment.

  48. Jeremy Says:

    Have you turned on “accept iCal notifications” under Preferences-Mail?

    Do you mean getting iCal links in emails? I click on them and it runs iCal on my iPhone. If you want wireless syncing for iCal you’ll need MobileMe or another online iCal service

  49. Student Says:

    Nice survey! I really appreciate someone taking time to make surveys like these available. However I also do feel that the bars should be sorted in order of satisfaction, not number of responds. That way you can really see the distribution, for instance as it seems in this case more towards the positive side. For the Apple fanboys, perhaps also it would also be good to add an option strongly approving Apple's decision to omit Flash compatibility. (On a side note, the real reason has probably very little to do with performance issues and more with driving people away from Flash games to the commercial App store games.)

  50. Jeremy Says:

    Count me as another hands up for the number of respondents who thought no flash was a plus.

    As for “it’s a control issue, Jobs wants everything on the AppStore”. Adobe has only just released a beta version, the full version of Flash for mobile devices won’t be out till later in the year. . Even with the latest and fastest devices it’s hardly impressing people. Flashlite doesn’t count, doesn’t support the latest video or swf’s. You expected Apple to wait 3 years for Adobe?

  51. Scott Ellsworth Says:

    I took something very different away from your app store question's graph. Best as I can read it, under 20% of the respondents thought it a substantive problem. This is being reported on other sources, though, as claiming that the majority of owners found this a disappointment. Perhaps it is just me, but were I given that question, I would have characterized the approval process as "a minor problem", and meant it as roughly equivalent to "satisfied". I would have meant "not a problem at all" as "completely satisfied".

    You might want to watch how this portrayed by the people linking to you.

    Scott

  52. Chris Says:

    Those who expected the iPad to be a laptop replacement are largely disappointed. Those who expected the iPad to be a larger iPhone or Ipod Touch are largely thrilled. Most are largely thrilled. Not surprised that most complaints are about features that can be implemented via a software update.

    BTW- Thrilled with mine. Use it all the time at home but not at work.

  53. Roscoe Charles Says:

    It's a large ipod touch. I love my touch, but I use a laptop hours a day and use my touch mostly for music and checking my stocks while I eat lunch.
    Real work gets done with laptops and desktops and anything lacking a keyboard or a better input device is nothing more than a toy with some functions slightly ahead of my mp3 player.
    I just hope my company has enough sense to wait to approve these devices till they see some "real" slates which can serve as a true meeting, notes, ideas,… The ipad isn't that machine.

  54. Hamranhansenhansen Says:

    I don't see the response to the App Store approvals question as being a negative at all. Less than 20% say it is more than a minor problem. That's a small price to pay for being the only computing platform with zero malware. Even Mac OS has 3 Trojans. Most iOS users don't know what malware is and shouldn't have to. That is a key feature of iOS. Imagine if there were iPad botnets right now. It would be a much bigger problem than App Store approvals.

    I work in Web development and am a huge advocate of standards-based audio video, but even I am stunned by how fast the Web has changed over from Flash to standards-based. You still have to use an iPad to see it, but it's so much better that I turned off plug-ins in Safari on my Mac and set its default user agent string to the iPad's user agent string.

  55. Dai Says:

    “it’s been widely known the ipad weight is a problem”

    What? Widely known how, apart from asking actual users if they find it a problem? This survey does ask users that question, and gets a clear response. That it doesn’t correspond to your prejudice doesn’t make your opinion a ‘widely known’ fact

  56. T. Clark Says:

    I like the article, interesting read.
    I'm an iPad owner, and fall into a rare category it seems; I'm a PC-only user and the only other Apple product I've ever had is an iPod touch I got for Christmas and almost never use. As someone mentioned, the always-on capability is one of its strongest points; it's so fast to just look something up, or check email, etc. that it's a time convenience outstripping even the best netbook. The lack of flash capability is an egregious error, however, and it surprises me that people defend it; it really keeps the iPad from being an outright replacement for a netbook and saddles it as an expensive handheld entertainment device when combined with a lack of a file system for productivity.

  57. ATurnbull Says:

    Cool. Makes sense that many would own an iPhone too (or iPod touch) as its kind of a demo for what the iPad is capable of.

  58. ViNo Says:

    Our family is just about to leave on a 4 day road trip. Guess what we are packing – not the PC or the Mac – or even my work laptop. Just the iPad – I know I can access my e-mail when I need, my son can read or play games when he is bored and my wife and I can share the same iPad. This is where the iPad shines – you can throw it in your luggage without thinking.
    ViNo

  59. Pete Says:

    Hmmm.

    I've owned one for a month – a 64Gb 3G – but you know, its nice, but for me, not compelling – it's fun to play some games, surf the web, email, but I find myself wondering if I have an expansive gadget I dont really need.

    Whenever I really want to do stuff, I grab my laptop and I'm happy.

    Don't get me wrong, its a beautiful device, that for the most part works well, but I'm using it less and less as the days go by.

    Just my thoughts.

  60. Random Says:

    In other news, a poll among people that only ever used rocks to hunt found that 99% of them consider a rock to be the most efficient hunting tool, better than such things as "rifles" or even "bows", wich appears to be only cheap knockoff from the original rock with lots of useless and inefficient gizmo added in a laughable effort to compete.

  61. Al olby Says:

    Despite being a huge Mac fan I won’t be buying an iPad. Why? I lost the end of a middle finger many years ago and when typing on the iPad it never registers the key stroke, making typing a huge chore. I can type faster on an iPhone with my thumbs than using the iPad keyboard. I guess there’s a clue in the name: you need pads to get the best out of an iPad…

  62. Andy Says:

    App rejections and inclusions:

    http://apprejections.com/

    I think they’re developer submitted but there’s still plenty to read.
    Check out the photo album app that Apple rejected because its swipe-to-zoom competed directly with Apple’s killer feature on its own photo album.

    If developers are afraid to put time and resources into making iPhone apps (because the regulations for rejection are vague or unposted) then how could that be good for the end user?

  63. Jack Says:

    I'm one of those in the minority – other than an iPod or two, we haven't owned any Apple products. While we are overall happy with the iPad, the lack of tethering is a huge downside. It would have been nice to be able to get rid of our wireless card.

  64. John Kuczmarski Says:

    The 4th pie chart explains it all. It's the Cult of Mac selling the ipad, not the ipad itself. over 80% of ipad purchases were made by "devout macusers".

  65. Ex2bot Says:

    People pointing out that most of the 6,000 are Mac owners are forgetting (or don't know) that the ipads are selling like hotcakes. There's also evidence that they're using their iPads to access the Internet like crazy. At last count it was 3 million sold in three months. Clearly people are liking their iPads and they're not all Mac users.

    I suspect we'll find that the ratio of Mac using iPad owners to non-Mac using owners is approaching 50:50, similar to the iPhone / iPod touch / iPod owners. It's as if people are saying that the iPad is amazingly popular, but it doesn't tell us much because only iPad fans are buying iPads. Um, yeah, that's how it works.

    Incidentally, I love mine. Use it for reading, Internet, audiobooks, and calendar mainly. I'd watch movies and TV if my rural internet was any good. And I own only Macs. So I don't count. 😉

  66. Greg Baumgartner Says:

    I am totally sold on the ipad and think it will change the way we compute.

  67. RA7 Says:

    While I find it to be an excellent device one of the biggest issues I have with it is it's inability to be viewed outdoors. This device would be MUCH more useful to me if I could use it out in normal daylight. Even under an umbrella one has to seriously strain to see the screen.

    Others have already commented on the weak wifi ability of the device. When it is in range of a strong signal it rocks. When you get into a weaker coverage situation the signal drops quickly and frequently while other devices still work properly.
    RA

  68. kyto Says:

    Those are some interesting results…i can say maybe expected
    Ipad is definitely the ultimate device for consuming media content with lot of functions, that could replace lattops/PCs at some point..
    It works great as a gaming, reading tool as well..It definitely comes in handy for the one on the go.
    There are some amazing apps out there that can extend the functionalities of the iPad (here are some useful suggestions for essential ipad apps to have http://ipadappsplus.com/ipad-apps/best-ipad-apps-… )
    iPad is the future of portable devices

  69. Jon Sterling Says:

    I have been fighting the urge to buy the current iPad, as I usually like other consumers to be the testers, and wait for version 2.x – to let them improve, and get any kinks worked out by user feedback.

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  71. MikeJR Says:

    I've had first and second generation iPads and have to say the progression made to the second gen version is impressive. Looking forward to the release of iPad 3…my name will be on the waiting list!

  72. Houston Attorney Says:

    I would rather choose laptop compare to ipad because many things you can do in laptop that ipad can't do.

  73. PeteStrom Says:

    I have an iPad 2 with 3 G and an iPhone 4 and have never had a problem with either of them. The service is great and I would recommend them to anyone.

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  74. Pete Strom Says:

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