The Apple iPad vs the Notebook

If you own an iPad and you’re looking for iPad insurance, you’ve presumably already more or less made your mind up about the great nature of this still relatively new box.

If so, then perhaps the great debate about the iPad vs the Notebook won’t interest you much – but it may do in future!

Almost since day-1 of its arrival, some zealots have been predicting that the iPad spells doom for Notebooks.  This may just be a tad premature because the situation is very complicated.

Few people claim that the iPad offers the full power and functionality of a conventional PC or Notebook – yet!  The absence of a hard keyboard, limitations in processing power and storage, issues with complex connectivity, these are all areas where many would argue that the conventional Notebook is still ahead.

If fact, if you go around many business offices, you’ll still see a vast number of desktops, laptops and notebooks, but you may struggle to find too many iPads even if some of the staff working there may have one at home.

So, while you’re looking for iPad insurance, what you’re really doing is insuring a new category of Information Technology or computing device.

You can’t really call it a Notebook, it’s certainly not a desktop or laptop, and you’d need a very strange view of life to start thinking about it as an iPhone.  It is simply a device that sits in its own category that Apple has created (and into which many other manufacturers are desperately trying to dive).

What can you call such a device? Perhaps a recreational tablet PC, though that risks offending many iPad fans that rightly point out that this device is so much more than just that.

Recently, many statistics have appeared seemingly indicating a near catastrophic decline in Notebook sales taking place against a corresponding huge increase in iPad sales. Are the two related?

Opinion seems divided. Some are saying the decline merely represents corporate and professional buyers holding off during hard economic times. Others are saying it clearly represents people deciding to buy iPads instead of Notebooks.

The iPad is still a relatively new device to the market so time will tell.

In the meantime, don’t lose sight of the fact that whatever your iPad means for the Notebook, it typically means a big financial commitment for you. Keep that iPad insurance in mind!