iPad or iPad Which One?

I did read your response; I'm afraid I just don't find it convincing. I've worked with Apple products for too long to change my opinion of them, I'm afraid. I do own an iPod, but would never have bought one if I hadn't been fortunate enough to get it for half price. Even on that, I avoid Apple's firmware; I use Rockbox (http://www.rockbox.org/)

I believe my response was something along the lines of "Either the product is good and 250 million people bought it because they recognised that, or the product is crap and 250 million people were tricked by marketing. Which do you believe?"

So which is it?

That would have to be the best marketing campaigns in the history of the world. Either that or laced with weapons-grade subliminal messages...

Now that's interesting, didn't knew that
Of course what is stopping them to bring it out also on other digital medium?

Indeed the numbers are larger but you can see it in a good and bad way.

Aaaah RockBox. Eschewing user-friendly front-ends and accessibility in the name of sticking it to the multinational corporations.

Well we can also change that a bit since most Apple products aren't crap so the situation you make now isn't true.

Can you say because 250 million people bought it that apple is the best product?
Since that is what we are saying, that apple often doesn't make the best product and that it most of the time cost more.

I gave for example that the Cowon S9 gives the best audio of any MP3 player so why are there so many more iPod sold?

You can't deny that marketing and hype has nothing to do with it.

This really has turned into the thread that will never die.

Sorry Stefan, but I can't help myself.

It wasn't 98%, it was 99.4%

Microsoft, Nokia and RIM (Blackberries) have had phones capable of running 3rd party apps for over 10 years now, and with the millions and millions of phones that they have sold between them in over a decade, you would think that they would have a massive head start, a very healthy lead in this market. But no. App store released in Jul 08, has exceeded over 3 billion downloads (that's 3,000 million or 3,000,000,000!) in 18 months with 99.4, yup, that's no typo, 99.4% of the market with over 140,000 apps available.

Here we go again:-

That's right, the potential market, for a phone that just came out versus an existing user base that's been there for many years, strangely enough, from what you've said, even you can see it! Amazing!

Because content is sold in the App Store, and people buy and use it!!!!!!

Are you implying here that the App Store is there because the phone didn't have enough apps to start with? Really? Like every other gadget around? Really? Like my PS3 didn't come with every game, or windows didn't come with every piece of software? Really? I refer to the above 'Find a negative, fixate at on it, berate the whole product, seems to be a popular mantra.'

True I suppose, iFart doesn't have that many uses, so it's a good job that there are over 140,000 to choose from. Tom Tom is useful, London tube map is useful (content?!), Shazam is useful, the ability to control presentations on your laptop from your phone is useful, especially when you can see the next slide! Sky TV was useful yesterday round the in-laws, watching Man Utd v Arsenal, facebook is useful, over 25,000 games are useful to while away spare time, Skype is useful, SKY + app (set your Sky box to record), Road Trip keeps a track of my car expenses, I can listen to 1,000 of radio stations, watch iPlayer, Rightmove & Flixster that are location aware, Poker tournament manager for when I run poker nights, translators, the complete works of Shakespeare, I could go on and on for a long time, but surely I'm making a point here?

Remember my 'as an example' from earlier? Rough translation from what I can see goes something like this 'iPhone doesn't even come with apps it should do, I installed a music player on my Windows Mobile phone'. Oh dear. Oh deary deary me.

As long as that someone is called Stefan, yeah, that's all you would need, but the idea of Excel on my phone makes me sick! Maybe something more useful like a music player.........

But if there is something that I need, I can just press the App Store icon on my phone, and download from the most expansive library of mobile apps in the world, anywhere in the world that I have a GSM or WIFI signal, and if it's a paid for app (tens of thousands are free BTW!), I just press buy and it comes from my account instantly as every iPhone user is set up to do it from the moment they activate their phone. Simple really.

Oh and choose from every tune, movie & podcast (podcasts are all free!) on the iTunes store, what's that, over 10 million items of content?!

Oh, and if we do buy an iPad, I will plug it into the Mac, and everything I have on my phone (apps, music, podcasts, digital copy of Star Trek that came free with the Blu Ray that I got for Xmas) will work on it straight away, out of the box, and my itunes account, and my e-mail, and my contacts, and my calendar, and all my bookmarks, photo albums etc. all by just pressing the 'Sync' button in iTunes. Along with 10s of millions of other people.

Stefan, of course marketing has something to do with it. If marketing didn't have any effect companies wouldn't spend any money on it. The point is that there has to be a good product to market.

About your Cowon S9 comments, I'm not even sure I know what to say. It seems pretty obvious to me that simply having the best audio quality isn't enough. To return to analogies again it's like buying the car that goes fastest and ignoring everything else. The Cowon needs all the other stuff the ipod has, e.g. good looks, a great UI, web and phone support, an itunes equivalent, user-friendly legal downloads, freely available gift cards, lots of retail outlets, brand trustworthiness, convenient repair avenues, and a reliable warranty, to name a few off the top of my head.

Or do you really think that marketing is the only reason the iPod outsells the Cowon S9?

Wow, I think I've aged 10 years reading this thread!!

Erm, I really don't know where to start without having a pack of dogs descend on me, oh well, here goes...

Firstly, I am an iPhone 3GS user, and would not be without it (after having used some hideous "wannabe's" through the years). I am more than impressed with the extensive range of Apps available to make my life easier, and I'm even more astounded by the growing number of fantastic FREE Apps.

I like the sound of the iPad, and I also understand how some people cannot see how it would fit into their lives (no doubt, people with a smartphone/desktop/laptop set-up to cover all locations and eventualities). I am not one of these people, as I do not own a laptop, and can see where I would like it to sit in my life.

I currently use my iPhone for web browsing, it's fast and convenient - I take it out of my pocket, open Safari and bang! I'm browsing the net. Yes, I know, I'm also lazy - seeing as I have a Mac Pro with a 30 inch screen in my kitchen, and access to a Mac Book Pro. But I find it easier to browse the net with my iPhone whilst keeping one eye on the telly, lying on my back on the sofa.

So.. a bigger screen to view websites on would be good for me.

I also have Yoga and Pilates video Apps on my iPhone, which are fairly easy to follow, but again, watching them on a larger screen will make my life easier.

The TV Guide would be nice to view on an iPad on the coffee table, and I'm not sure, but if the Remote Control App worked on it, I could scroll through the TV Guide picking what I want to watch now and next, and use the Remote Control App to set it up on my TV.

I reckon racing games would be pretty cool on the iPad and changing direction would be just like turning a steering wheel!

I also have a Theory Driving Test App. It would be better to see the Hazard Perception section on a bigger screen, but complete it with a score of 100% whilst sitting on the loo! (just an idea!)

Using my Money App (which was FREE and feature rich - does just what I need it to do) to track my expenses and my account balance whilst watching the shopping channel and ringing QVC on my iPhone to order something pointless (in my case NOT the iPad).

Ahh, I could lie on the sofa, sipping a sweet, spicy Shiraz, whilst reading Sense and Sensibility for the hundredth time (it's my favourite book), without tearing any pages or ending up with a dog-eared book. I already read books on my iPhone with ease, so I know this'll be good.

These are just a few examples of what I would use an iPad for... I could go on (maybe with fewer examples with me sitting on a toilet). What I'm trying to say is, I think it would fill a little "gadgeet gap" that I have, but it might not be what others are looking for.

Go on, release the hounds...

Fiona

And if you wait a little bit we have this in the pipeline for later this year.

The Photomonk

Yes, marketing is part of it, iTunes is another, wifi is another, the App store is another, over 25,000 games available is another, ease of use, availability.

Quotes from magazines like T3 when comparing the iPod touch against the S9 like:-

The new iPod Touch and Nano, despite barely moving forward technologically from the previous generation, are so much better than their rivals that it makes you wonder why anyone else bothers.

Cowon S9 - 4 stars v iPod touch - 5 Stars. That'll have something to do with it as well, I'm sure.

You know what else does it for me? £200 for a 16GB Cowon seems very poor value to my 16GB equivalent ipod touch, because mine was free. The wife has one too, hers was free as well. 10s of millions of others have free ones too.

They came built in to our iPhones!! Gotta be better that downloading a music app for a phone surely?

We're looking forward to getting our iPhones very soon - it looks very useful for a variety of things.

My Architect son Michael tries to persuade me to go for an iMac next time. Macs are very highly thought of in Imaging and Architectural circles. However, I would have to re-invest a lot in Mac versions of programs, so I'll probably stay a PC.

Even though I didn't invent Windows 7!

Danny I think the iPhone has so many apps is because of the group that people that use them, most of them are students properly just with the iPod.
If you see what that 99.4% makes out, i believe they said that games was the greatest market, so that says something about the people and how they use the device.

About the apps you named usefully, most of the really useful ones are also on other devices and things like facebook you can just look it up on the browser right?
Also watching video, that goes over 3g and that can be done on many other phones as well so not really any content that makes it different from the rest.

Indeed but the standard player on windows does support a lot but not loseless audio which the player I've now does... what does the iPod/phone support of loseless?

And well if you want to record video on your iPhone you need an app for that, silly enough.


But a music player is already standard on it and a phone is a phone why does it need to have for example the complete collection of Shakespeare on it?

If I can open the most standard text files then I'm basicly covert.
And excel is handy since I did quite some calculation in that for school and I could quickly look at them if needed, of course really making something in it was a pain but small edits and such was no problem same is true for word.

Is that so special?
Out of the box it's normal that a smartphone sync e-mail, contacts, calender and notes, besides that I've the option to say it should sync my music folder or any other folder.

About bookmarks I go a step further with that the one of my phone and computer are sync but even if I open the browser on another computer... my neighbours computer for example I can sync it online if I log in.

I believe google android also throws everything it syncs on the web so if you lose your phone and get a new one from the shop you can sync it instantly and have all your data back.

About the startrek video, you can just convert that to a format your phone can handle and you can just watch it...
Also you can get MP3 of the net so I don't see how apple has more content...

No but the "must have it factor" is big with the iPod of course, the same as with nikon and canon for example.

Here is pretty fair comparison I could find, of course apple does offer more in form of apps since it's basicly a pocketpc but we just talked about music player here so more an iPod classic.
http://www.pocketables.net/2009/03/apple-ipod-touch-2g-vs-cowon-s9-vs-samsung-p3.html

That's the iPod thouch don't think the other iPods can do much of what you said.

Yeah that's weak, my HTC is a music player as well and my computer is a stereo tower and even doubles as TV....

About the review, just google and see what others have to say.