iPads- Gadgets for Kids

What can you do with an iPad?

Surf the internet, play games, listen to pirated music. Whoopee! You can do all of that on a PC. Don’t give me that convenience crap. You own an iPad because it’s cool. My eldest son owns both and iPad and a 13 inch laptop(work PC). I see very little difference in the size of the two. At this moment, he can do everything with his laptop except swipe.

So, if I give you a 12 inch laptop with Intel’s new Core i5 processor, 500mb storage, LED screen, hdmi port, usb port, front and rear camera, mic, and swipe for $100 more, how cool would an iPad be? Cool, too cool not to have, right? Yep, you qualify as an adolescent. My research indicates one can buy an ePad with all the goodies with an Android operating system for around my predicted price for $200. Now the current ePad is not that great, but it has 10 times more features than the $800 iPad. In 6-12 months the ePad will have their act together and still be $200.

Hewlett Packard was the first to turn printers into commodities. One can buy a computer and get an great printer for free. Printers have almost reached the commodities status of underwear. Plus, HP now has a computer with a device with almost iPad features linked to their top of the line printer. Based on the “eat your babys” philosophy of printer sales, we can expect HP to sell a tablet and linked printer for slightly more than you’d pay for a commodity tablet.

Another reason to dump Apple from your playlist– music. The apps such as Rhapsody are facing an increase in cost. So, either Rhapsody cuts its margin, goes out of business, or the music label cut their cost to continue playing on Apple’s iPhone. The proprietary age ended with the birth of Linux. No, Linux has not become the OS Du jour, but it changed people’s thinking from either/or Apple or MS.

Today, one can buy phones with many different OS’s. But, soon Google’s Android operating system will dominate the tablet/phone OS market and begin the end of MS and Apple’s reign. Most tech people will disagree with me. They might even hold up Nokia’s switch from “in house” to MS’s operating system for phones.

Nokia said it felt like giving up to join the Android phone OS ranks. MS may have felt a fresh wind at its back which has absent for most of a decade. But, Nokia’s move smells more like a death rot than smart decision. People want “Droids.” One must admit owning a “Droid” sounds cool. More importantly, Android’s OS has a zillion, maybe a zillion and one apps available without interference from the “Jobians.” Add to the free Android OS the use of ARM chips in tablets and the personal computer world changes.

By the time “back to school” hits the tablet market will be littered with offerings and by Christmas the price will be acceptable for just about everyone in the middle class. Junior and Missy will all be packing tablets come back to school January 2012. And, that is a good thing, they can start learning about the political process, because if the smell in the wind really is change, Fall 2012 will be ugly for the “political class.”

Meantime, think of the Jobians, and their gadgets as just another bunch of has-beens and save your cash for the real thing.