Goodbye iPads?

Lately I haven’t used my iPad that much.

For the past few months my iPad 3 Retina has been sitting on my bed stand. In fact, the only time I actually use it is when lying in bed.

I am not sure how it all started. It definitely began before getting my Retina MacBook Pro, so I can’t even use that common excuse of fancying the new toy over the old one. Slowly and unconsciously I found myself reaching for either my iPhone or my Mac rather than the iPad.

I’ve owned an iPad for more than two and a half years. After the initial infatuation, when I tried to unsuccessfully use the iPad for tasks that the it was not designed for, I settled for a few tasks that are within iPad territory:

  • Surfing the web
  • Reading articles saved on Instapaper
  • Reading RSS feeds
  • Editing articles for this blog
  • Reviewing slides for my presentations
  • Making it the exclusive device to use on a plane

As you can see, all these activities don’t involve much writing, and are limited to specific apps. They also don’t involve multiple document interactions.

At the beginning of this year, I still had ambitious ideas to use the iPad to post articles for this blog when travelling. I even bought an Apple wireless keyboard to make it easier to type longer articles. After the initial excitement, I left the keyboard in a drawer and never touched it again. Nowadays, when I’m on the road, I still find it easier to post articles using my iPhone (in case you are wondering what the heck I’m talking about, tell me whether you type faster on the iPhone or iPad keyboard).

I am not the only one that is using the iPad less and less. Matt Gemmel :

I haven’t given up traditional computers, lest you think this is an “iPad is my office” testament. The truth is, my wife and I don’t really use iPads at all anymore, except as a recipe book in the kitchen. It’s been a year since we used one anywhere else in the house. We never, ever travel with them. We have no plans to acquire any more in future.

The bottom line is that I use my electronic devices in four different ways:

  1. While out and about, likely standing or walking
  2. Sitting at a desk
  3. Sitting on a couch
  4. Lying in bed

and only in a few cases does the iPad make sense. At least to me.

Obviously, when walking around I use my iPhone.

When sitting on a desk, a laptop is unbeatable. All your documents, your working life is in the computer in front of you. This setup is perfect and tested through the years across million of users.

When sitting on a couch, you can use a laptop, an iPhone or an iPad. If you want to write, a laptop sitting on your lap is still the best choice. If you want to read or edit some documents, all three devices can do it, but admittedly the iPhone has a screen too small to make reading for longer periods very comfortable. You’re left with either the laptop or the iPad. In this case the iPad has a definite advantage.

When lying in bed you could either use the iPhone or the iPad. Again, the iPhone has a small screen (I wonder if my perception is going to change once my iPhone 6 gets delivered), so the iPad is more comfortable. It’s more comfortable for your eyes only though. My iPad 3 Retina is heavy and needs to be held with two hands.

This is where the new iPhone 6 becomes interesting. Talking about the iPhone 6 Plus, Om Malik has some ideas on how the this device could cannibalize iPad sales:

iPhone 6+ is truly magical. The size, the weight and the display are enough for me to say goodbye to the iPad Mini. I think it will cannibalize the iPad Mini sales. Say hello to even bigger-larger iPad Airs.

By using only two devices, life becomes easier too. In this particular period of my life having only a laptop and a phone is more than enough. Techpinions has similar ideas about this:

I believe this instinct of trying to get back down to two computers for personal use is a powerful one, both for complexity and budgetary reasons. Many people and businesses struggle to justify three separate device purchases to accomplish essentially the same tasks. Though some resolve this tension by opting for a tablet over a laptop, others will resolve it the other way, falling back on the more powerful laptop and slowly abandoning their tablets. I see the last few years as a period of experimentation among many users as they test whether the tablet fits into their lives as a primary device, a secondary device, or not at all.

Talking with friends and family, I’ve received similar feedback. Yes a tablet is great, but if I had to choose two devices to keep, I’d go for a good smartphone and a laptop.

Time will tell if bigger iPhones are going to eat into the tablet market. More interesting is to observe whether Apple is going to empower the iPad with more advanced features or even larger screens.

10 thoughts on “Goodbye iPads?”

  1. I’ve been going through the same for the past year or so, limiting my iPad use to bedtime reading, but recently I traded in my old iPad 2 for a new iPad Mini with Retina and have found the new photo editing features in iOS 8 a great enhancement to my workflow; being able to download pictures to my camera and do a first pass edit on my ipad is extremely convenient. The high resolution of the screen also helps. With the advent of the new Photos app, I might find myself using the iPad even more as a photo editing tool.

    Reply

  2. I am also a regular user of my now a bit old iPad 2. I have a lot of medical apps that I use (or should use more often) and iPad is my preferred method of reading NY Times and the Enonomist, the two newspapers I subscribe. Plus I intend to replace my Kindle with an iPAd mini retina (today’s Apple event pending..) for bedtime reading.

    The center of my desktop workflow remains a recent Macbook Air which truly is the best and most convenient laptop I ever had. But I still remember the last time I was between iPads (for a about a week) and something was missing.. For data consuming and certain creative tasks, ipad is the most suitable device to have around.

    For business use, an ipad over a laptop makes even more sense, as a more controllable, safer and low maintenance device to distribute employees. Some research on business adoption of ipads (or tablets in general) would be enlightening..

    Reply

    2. Sorry for not replying earlier, work is crazy these days. I totally agree with you on the first two paragraphs, but not necessarily agree with the third one :-)

      For business use, an ipad over a laptop makes even more sense, as a more controllable, safer and low maintenance device to distribute employees. Some research on business adoption of ipads (or tablets in general) would be enlightening..

      In my experience, I remember that two-three years ago many executives and sales reps used to show up in meetings with their iPads. In the past year not so much. Laptops (ultrabooks mainly, lots of MacBook Air too) and even Moleskine notepads are back in most of the meetings I attend.

      For IT, managing a normal Windows laptop is not harder than an iPad. Talking about business use, for weeks I’ve wondered about Apple’s partnership with IBM. The answer I have come up with, is that unless you have “vertical apps” an iPad doesn’t help with productivity. Because it’s not easy to switch apps, create workflows, and type on a touchscreen, you are forced to create closely integrated verticals to make the iPad useful. Your experience with medical apps confirms my suspicion. I’m inclined to say that you get all the info you need in those apps, without switching away from it (total vertical integration for a specific task in a specific context).

      Reply

      1. Moleskine? Really? I hope they’re at least those special Evernote editions! I didn’t expect official meeting notes to be so casually taken ;)

        This Apple-IBM partnership you mentioned is a good example. I do agree that vertical and company built apps are the best way to use iPads as business tools. If you think about windows laptops, their downside is that they must be so tightly locked by IT people, to avoid security exploits, that eventually these laptops are no better than tablets and usually without touch input abilities. Despite what people say, I keep seeing tablets appearing all around me in very different settings (restaurant and business catalogs, database input on field, kids learning and playing things), where a traditional pc would be rather cumbersome. I agree that the trend for one person to have a 4,7 or bigger smartphone, a 7 or 8inch tablet and a 13-15inch laptop is going south, but the new continuity features of yosemite make it easier to keep updated multiple devices. Families also will go on buying tablets, since it is an easy way to keep their kids busy and a good introduction to computing nonetheless.

        Reply

        1. I always love discussing technology with you! Thanks for your counter-reply.

          iPads/tablets are here to stay, no question about it. This format is relatively unexplored in IT, and we’ll see some great things in the next few years.

          Reply

          1. I also forgot to mention that my ipad has become a fundamental kid-entertaining tool at outings of all sorts.

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