Further Thoughts on the iPad

As the release date of the iPad draws near, a revelation has occurred to me: I really want one. This, after I changed my mind about my initial thoughts on it.

But you see, that's just it. It's a want. I think of the iPad as I did the MacBook Air. It's a curiosity. It's cool. It's hip and people will stop and ask me about it when I'm out in public with it. But I don't need it.

I need a Mac. A Mac is built for creating. It's got power and style and it's easy to use. And with design, video and photography projects, that's what I need. But an iPad isn't built to create. It's built to consume. It's built to view photos, not manipulate them. It's built to watch video, not edit it. It's built to read books, not write them. It's built to view web sites, not create it. At the very heart of what I do every day, I'm a creator. I create things. I manipulate things. And I need something more flexible.

That's not to say that an iPad in the house wouldn't be put to good use. It would be perfect for Kristi's daily work on the web. It would be great for the kids on car trips. And it would be a nice machine to watch TV on in bed. But it's none of those things are things that we can't live without. And unlike the iPhone, we won't be first-day adopters.

The iPhone was, and is, very much a need. Kristi commutes to Houston sometimes, and often needs internet, mail and map capabilities in addition to the need to make phone calls. At the time that the iPhone was released, about the only option for those things was on a Blackberry. But the difference between a Blackberry and an iPhone is night and day. Now granted, she can have all those things with a 3G-equipped iPad. But why would we spend an additional amount every month to duplicate the same things she has in her pocket, only in a larger form factor? It'd be a waste of money.

So I'm sure that I'll make the trek to the Austin Apple store on Saturday to at least touch and hold an iPad. I'm really, really curious. But I don't plan on coming home with one. Not yet, at least.