I came across this story today and had to comment :)

While the iPad is nice piece of tech, it does not have the speed or storage that home computing will need in the future. We are moving more and more towards all media being delivered via IP, hell, I haven't had cable in years and feel no lack. All my video comes over the net via Netflix and other services.

While it might be a nice accessory to have for certain things, I've a netbook that effectively does everything an iPad does and more. It multitasks, works great for ebooks (reading in bed at night, I don't have to hold it....it just sets on my chest at the right distance) and has an almost full size physical keyboard. Oh and it cost half what the cheapest Ipad costs. I may not have the touchscreen, but touch screens will come down in cost eventually to the point they are standard on any device.

There are more and more indications as well that the Net itself is moving towards a 3D virtual world model in the next 5-10 years and a tablet I don't think will ever have the horsepower to render that effectively.

I  also have a problem with Apple's software policies. If I buy a computing device, I should be able to run any damn thing I like on it....not just what Apple has decided is ok. I'm savvy enough to decide for myself what I want to run on my machines. I'm not a rabid Apple hater but a lot of their software is flipping insidious....cough...Itunes...cough..... While I consider myself in no way an IT "professional', I am the IT guy for the small company I work for. In over a year of doing that, I see far more performance problems with my users that have Itunes on their work machine to sync with their Ipod.  They complain that their pc is slow and sometimes hangs on things, basically due to the fact that you really can't shut down Itunes easily once it's installed. I don't get that complaint from people who are either running no music software at all or Zune users who use the Zune software. My company's policy allows this, so all I can really do is recommend that they not use Itunes on their work machine.

Apple does make some great products that have spurred innovation in both the smart phone and now the tablet market but honestly they are far too restrictive in terms of hardware and and software to be the "future" of computing. The real future of computing lies in expanding broadband access and cloud computing.

A great adjunct to your home pc, I can agree with.

The future of home computing? I think not.....


My 2cp....