But there are loads of alternatives to Apple products, if you want to live an Apple free life you can and it's easy... Trying to live a Windows free life is almost impossible... I have a windows machine here for a few bits of software/games... And most employers will force you to use a Windows machine... Apple's strong Market position is driven by consumer demand (Apple using clever marketing and clearly defined Market segments to make things easy for the average consumer).
Agreed. You could easily live without any Apple product in your life if you choose so. Avoiding Windows is practically impossible.
I love the way things *just work* on Apple products. I love the design of the hardware AND the software and the way they work together. I love the way that *thought* has gone into the actual use of the product instead of just throwing some hardware components together, slapping an OS on top of it and shoving it inside a box.
As far as the iPad specifically is concerned, I think it's a brilliant product. I use it for casual surfing on the couch, I use it for my daily fix of comic book reading before I go to sleep, I'll often watch the latest news broadcast while eating breakfast in the kitchen, or just stream it wirelessly to my TV with AirPlay. I also have access to my enormous Plex library when I'm away from home, which is nice. "But you can do that with a laptop too!! And you have way more codecs and freedom to.." Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz). Yes, I know. Of course you could do most of those things with a laptop, yes, or even a desktop for that matter, but that's missing the point! I don't *need* to carry around a laptop to do those things and I don't *want* to carry a laptop around. A laptop is too clunky to carry around in the way that I can carry an iPad. The iPad's battery just keeps going hours and hours longer than any laptop I've used. It's instantly on whenever I want to look something up quickly. And I've tried reading comic books on a laptop in bed. It sucked.
People need to realize that the iPad is not meant to be a replacement for a computer ("Ooh, if it doesn't have 8 USB ports, 4 SD slots, E-SATA, HDMI, Toslink and microUSB ports, then I don't want it"). That's why tablets failed miserably in the market place for almost 10 years before the iPad arrived. Tablet makers just saw them as another PC.
