Apple Launches The Highly Anticipated iPad.

Firestorm

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It's not clear from the cited links, but I wonder if it's because as the population is growing, the growth rate of nonreaders (by which I mean people who choose not to read, not those who can't) is higher than the readers.

So it's not that people are giving up reading (i.e. number of readers is decreasing), or that each person who dies is being replaced by a nonreader so eventually we'll have no readers. Each year still gives us more readers than are dying, but we're also getting a lot more nonreaders in addition, so the percentage drops even as the numbers increase.
Books have more to compete with than ever before. Books used to be the only form of entertainment media around. Then we got music players. Then we got radio. Then we got television. Then we got video games. Then we got the internet. It would be impossible for books to not decline in popularity.

Now, with the internet, we also have access to all of the above in a more convenient format. Books have been losing popularity because we only have so many hours to devote to leisure activities, but an increasing amount of items competing for those hours. I read a lot less these days than when I was younger. Much of it is because I have very little time and video games + television + internet usually eats up those hours. I don't even have time for film and I usually have to double task on the music while on the bus/train and play a handheld game.

Although I did just get a delivery of close to 40 volumes of One Piece which I went through in less than a month >.> Might pick up another book soon. I forgot how much I enjoyed reading.

Oh, by the way:
Sales for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows were record setting. The initial U.S. print run for Deathly Hallows was 12 million copies, and more than a million were pre-ordered through Amazon and Barnes & Noble.[55] On 12 April 2007, Barnes & Noble declared that Deathly Hallows had broken its pre-order record, with more than 500,000 copies pre-ordered through its site.[56] On opening day, a record 8.3 million copies were sold in the United States,[57][58] and 2.65 million copies in the United Kingdom.[59] At WH Smith, sales reportedly reached a rate of 15 books sold per second.[60] By June 2008, nearly a year after it was published, worldwide sales were reportedly around 44 million.[61]
 
This thing looks pretty pointless in my opinion... I really wouldn't want to carry a gigantic iPod touch around lol :(

Better luck next time Apple!
 
eBooks are a quickly increasing market, Books are still a huge market (4/57% of Americans is, funnily enough, one of the largest markets to appeal to ever) and the iPad is an excellent comic book / manga reader.

So how do you figuire this won't help add interest and value to it? As previously stated, with the push to make more textbooks eBooks and Apples' current popularity in University and College markets, I think its one of the most crucial selling points of the product.

Unlike the fact that it will only take computer file movies, people love buying their movies again just to play them on the iPad -.-
 

Zystral

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This seems like as good a topic of any.

So I'm not much of an iPad person or a tablet person at all, but I have to admit that this looks pretty cool.
Microsoft just took Apple's product, doubled it and made it better.
lol apple.
Now see, reading about it, despite the bad name, it looks like a better product. Sure, it's smaller, but that just makes it easier to carry around. Plus it's compatible with a stylus, making it a lot more efficient for on-the-go notes.
 
If I was to get one it would have to be the 3g version, no smaller than 32 Gig and a 16 Gig WiFi is too much as it is....

Simple as. I'll wait for the price to drop DRAMATICALLY, or for a 2nd gen one or something.

But they do look kinda appealing as I don't have an iPhone or iPod Touch.
 
According to what people have been implying, the iPad is aimed toward older people. A majority of adults do not read, thus, the ebooks will not be a dominating force for the iPad.
Hey Surgo get on topic!
It's just been shown to you like ten times that a majority of people DO read.

Really, the iPad is targeted at people who don't understand (or don't want to understand) any of the technology they use, so they don't know how to cross-check specs or even what they mean. They just want something that's trendy and can do some basic functions.

The same as Apple's audience has always been.
 
Prices will drop, and when they do it might be worth it. I tend to like watching media on my ipods so the idea of a 'pod with a gigantic screen (for an ipod) is kind of appealing. I also love reading all sorts of things but never like carrying around books. So if it drops to, oh say, 300$ for 16GB I might buy one. But unless i strike gold, never going to dish out 500$ for that.

Kind of think that this just proves Apple is incapable of creating a 500$ computer =\
 
Really, the iPad is targeted at people who don't understand (or don't want to understand) any of the technology they use, so they don't know how to cross-check specs or even what they mean. They just want something that's trendy and can do some basic functions.

The same as Apple's audience has always been.
Can't believe this picture hasn't been posted yet; it fits what you said perfectly.



Seriously, though, what doesn't have USB ports today? Why wouldn't you give it USB ports when even the iPod's connecting cord uses that?
 

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