What are you Waiting for, it’s Time to Get an iPad, or...um...a tablet...

Hopefully, you haven’t been waiting around, you already have an iPad and you also understand why everyone else should have one, but there are some who were scared away by the naysayers calling it an overgrown iPod Touch, that they couldn’t work on it, that it wasn’t a real computer, or that it’s just a gimmick, so they haven’t come back yet. They’re missing out!

*Disclaimer – I use iPad like I use the word Kleenex, meaning I don’t say, “Can you hand me a Puffs or tissue?” So go ahead and substitute the word tablet for iPad if you like.

**Disclaimer 2 – I’ve been using an iPad for over a year, I’m on my second iPhone, and I’ve had iPods since the early 2000’s. It’s safe to say that I’ve got a mild case of Apple Fanboy, and therefore highly recommend an iPad over other tablets. More specifically, I would wait until the next iPad is released...maybe March, and get that.

The iPad is definitely not a gimmick. It has been around for almost 2 years, shows no sign of slowing down, and everyone else out there is trying to get into the market. Looking at the graph below shows how the iPad might even be a possible cause for decreasing computing market shares among the PC companies.

Before I had an iPad, I had a netbook. After the initial new gadget coolness wore off, so did the frequency with which I turned it on. The netbook became exactly what it is, a smaller, worse performing laptop. Sure, it was more portable and easier to maneuver on the train, but it had the same software and operating system as my laptop and I almost always wished that I just had my laptop, instead. I know that the iPad isn’t going to replace my laptop, well, not yet, anyway, so I use it to complement my laptop and I’ll reach for either for different things. Accept that fact, that the iPad is not a laptop replacement, and you’ll be very happy with it. To overly simplify, I reach for my laptop for work or when I’ll be doing a lot of typing, and I grab my iPad for just about everything else. I use my iPad multiple times a day, still.

I’m also always looking for ways to incorporate the iPad into my work more often, which I expect to be easier to do in the coming months and years as more and more businesses continue or start to enable their workforces to go mobile and to better use these tools at work. Gartner’s Top Predictions for 2012 and Beyond specifically predicts two items that would make working with an iPad a reality, and a good one at that:

1) By 2016, at least 50 percent of enterprise email users will rely primarily on a browser, tablet or mobile client instead of a desktop client
2) By 2015, mobile application development projects targeting smartphones and tablets will outnumber native PC projects by a ratio of 4-to-1

If you’re on the fence about whether to splurge on a new iPad, or have never been convinced that owning one will help you out at all, think about how far it has come in just under two years and how much further it could go in the next 2!

UPDATE: Just saw these and thought they add more fuel to the fire: Apple to sell at least 48 million iPads this year - analyst and Apple's iOS, BlackBerry tops among Business Users