Everyone's iPad Envy

"Humorous astonishment" is how I describe co-worker and passer-by envy at my not-so-new-to-me Apple toy.

"Which model is that?" "Do you like it?" "Tell me that work pays for that!"

All are comments that haven't left my memory yet. My answers respectively:

The cheapest one with 3G.

It's okay, but the lack of Flash support is extremely irritating.

Nope.

Everyone should make their own decisions, but I firmly believe these toys not to be worth the money. I like it, but the price is ridiciulous, and the lack of a camera is disappointing. Apple will probably get it right on the next go-round. AT&T probably won't provide a data plan that would make me more comfortable using Netflix as desired without using up my limited 2GB of data plan.

A review that I agree with: http://michaelhyatt.com/the-ipad-an-elegant-solution-in-search-of-a-problem.html

Up until last week, I did not have a data phone which was driving me nuts. With a company-provided phone, I didn't wish to carry two devices just to have one with data. It made sense, especially since I can cancel the data plan at my leisure with no contracts.

Now that I tote a Blackberry (droids and iphones are not offered), I am finding I don't use the iPad as much. For me, it was all about email and other types of short communication. The iPad is shining as an eBook reader for my ITIL study guide and still offers a more usable google reader, but I find myself sticking with the quickly accessible Cell phone.

How to infer this experience....guess I can't. Every user is different, and perception is never consistent between people. Mine is that Apple makes good UI's, but their lack of adaptability to mesh with the PC world is often a hinderance from a business user perspective.

As learned from the movie "Inception", ideas can get out of hand, especially when accompanied by great expectation.