Apple’s new iPad tablet computer has been officially announced (though unavailable till March), and the question is this: Will it replace the iPhone? I don’t think so.
For one thing, at 1.5 pounds, the iPad is too heavy to carry around all the time. And at 9.7 inches diagonal screen size, it is way too big to put in your pocket—unless you are a kangaroo.
I’m wondering if Apple has, for once, misjudged the market. If you still need a pocket-size phone as well as the iPad, and you already love the iPhone, what are you supposed to do?
Apple iPad tablet computer.
In my experience, cell phone companies will not allow two devices to be connected to the same phone number. And, in fact, the iPhone (AT&T) and the iPad (T-Mobile) use different cell service providers anyway.
You would have to pay hefty monthly charges to use both iPhone and iPad-–and have two contracts. That is out of the question for many—perhaps most—of us.
So if I do not want to take a tablet computer everywhere, do I have to get a family plan at T-Mobile and use a separate, non-Apple, non-iPhone cell phone the rest of the time? Or both at the same time? Does that sound like fun to you? It doesn’t to me.
Oh, don’t get me wrong, I do want an iPad, but I don’t want it to be just a toy. And I think to succeed on the scale Apple would be happy with, it will have to work as a practical solution for daily life.
So I’m in wait-and-see mode till we find out a whole lot more about how the T-Mobile deal is going to work. All I can say for sure now is, “Viva la iPhone!”
What do you think?
![Reblog this post [with Zemanta]](http://img.zemanta.com/reblog_e.png?x-id=1d2435f7-1159-4027-ade3-7864d201dcb9)
