Here's how Apple wants us to buy computers.
Typical consumer family:
1 iMac for everyone, 1 MacBook for travel, 1 iPad for the couch and 2 iPhones
Professional user family:
1 Mac Pro for home/office, 1 Macbook Pro for the road, 1 iPad for the couch and/or clients and 2 iPhones
And when they're better, an AppleTV in every room.
My friend Adam, and others I'm sure, are concerned about this being a peripheral. While you clearly need a computer to sync the devlice, but I don't think there's reason for concern. If it's not true already, most homes will have one computer that acts as home base. You'll keep your music, movies, contacts, etc. stored there and everything else will sync with it. If you already have a laptop and a desktop, the laptop is as much a peripheral as an iPad would be.
Sure, the iPad is more geared towards consumption, but so what? As I've read a few times lately, the vast majority of time that most users spend on a computer is consumption, so it only makes sense to optimize towards that. If you don't want a consumption device, there are plenty of other options at your disposal.
Sidenote: I tried to keep this short, since I've already complained about the amount of interesting content being produced. My apologies if I added to your pile.
01/29/10 4:22 PM
I'd like to see the iPad take off with people who have either never owned a computer, or have always owned crappy (secondhand, malware-infested, underpowered, unmaintained) computers. In that case, the best package looks like:
Digital newcomer family
1 or 2 iPads, 1 or 2 iPhones
Of course, Apple wants to sell that family a Mac. But I'd like to see my Mom able to sync all of her music and apps between her iPad and her iPhone with no Mac intervening. I agree, she doesn't need a C compiler!
01/29/10 5:09 PM
Yeah, I see your point and I think we'll get there. Baby steps, Adam, baby steps.