Apple Jan. 27 launch event... what will it be?

[TripletDaddy]

tooblue, those are general sales forecasts. nobody is doubting that people will buy iPads.

I'm talking specifically about the fanboy fantasy of freshman everywhere and colleges and universities converting over to ipads en masse. I believe that was your prediction, unless i was mistaken....that freshmen everywhere would be using them.

So I am interested in that demographic, as it pertains to a critical mass of educational institutions adopting the iPad. Maybe this isn't what you were predicting. Can you elaborate on your previous statement so that I can understand. Perhaps we are already in agreement and I just don't realize it.

If your general contention is simply that apple will sell 5-7M iPads over the next few years, I have no problem with that.

[Moliere]

Yes, it won't be long before freshmen everywhere have one or an iPhone/touch. If your idea for an iPhone/iPad app is for profit then contact me privately. I may be able to help.

It sure would have been nice to have all my text books on my iPad back in the day. It would sure beat having to carry a laptop around with my textbooks. I'd have to arrive 5 minutes early to class just to get my laptop to boot up and to make sure I sat by a plug since the battery only lasted two hours at best.

I'm sticking by my prediction that this tablet is a game changer. I'm not saying everything will change all at once with teh first generation iPad but I'd expect it to catch on much more in teh coming years. I already want one but will most likely wait until the next version.

[tooblue]

I think a huge market for the IPAD is hospitals and doctors' offices. I took my daughter to the doctor a couple of months ago and the doctor was carrying around this huge laptop. Itouch seemed a little too small but I bet an Ipad would be perfect.

You should get one with all of your travel ... I'm considering asking you to buy one for me before you come up to visit next week.

[Mormon Red Death]

You should get one with all of your travel ... I'm considering asking you to buy me one for me before you come up to visit next week.

My work gives me a laptop with wireless internet.

[Uncle Ted]

It would be a nice for one of our resident fanboys to give us a target date and an estimated proliferation. Say, by 2014, 50% of all incoming freshmen will be issued an iPad, or something along those lines.

It would be nice to have some established metrics to laugh at once the prediction doesn't come true.

I say by 2014 36% of all incoming freshmen at BYU will be issued required to buy something like iPad for their classes. Also, by 2014 I say that 0% of all incoming freshmen at California state schools will be issued iPads and 52% will still be protesting the increase in their tuition rather than going to class or transferring to an out-of-state college.

[tooblue]

tooblue, those are general sales forecasts. nobody is doubting that people will buy iPads.

I'm talking specifically about the fanboy fantasy of freshman everywhere and colleges and universities converting over to ipads en masse. I believe that was your prediction, unless i was mistaken....that freshmen everywhere would be using them.

So I am interested in that demographic, as it pertains to a critical mass of educational institutions adopting the iPad. Maybe this isn't what you were predicting. Can you elaborate on your previous statement so that I can understand. Perhaps we are already in agreement and I just don't realize it.

If your general contention is simply that apple will sell 5-7M iPads over the next few years, I have no problem with that.

There are already a number of pilot programs I am aware of where students are given ipod touches or iphones, especially in nursing and other medical related programs as a tool directly related to their curriculum. In my school we are already addressing the issue in our curriculum meetings this spring for the coming fall semester. If we are talking about it every other school out there is talking about it.

Have you played with an ipad yet?

[Surfah]

http://mashable.com/2009/09/09/apple-portable-gaming/

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/articl...ense_of_psp_ds

http://blog.flurry.com/bid/31566/App...e-Market-Share

There are a lot of Apple products owners. I am one. But don't confuse gaming with downloading Sudoku to play on your iPhone as gaming. Those reports are misleading. Of course Apple has increased revenue over the last couple of years. There are 30,000+ games to download. 29,950+ (That's being generous) of them are complete crap. Apple and gamer are not synonymous. Look at the comments in those articles and blogs if you don't believe me.

[tooblue]

There are a lot of Apple products owners. I am one. But don't confuse gaming with downloading Sudoku to play on your iPhone as gaming. Those reports are misleading. Of course Apple has increased revenue over the last couple of years. There are 30,000+ games to download. 29,950+ (That's being generous) of them are complete crap. Apple and gamer are not synonymous. Look at the comments in those articles and blogs if you don't believe me.

We are talking about hand held games and not platform games. Nonetheless, consider what is already being proposed for the touch -- now enlarge it!

http://unity3d.com/

[TripletDaddy]

There are already a number of pilot programs I am aware of where students are given ipod touches or iphones, especially in nursing and other medical related programs as a tool directly related to their curriculum. In my school we are already addressing the issue in our curriculum meetings this spring for the coming fall semester. If we are talking about it every other school out there is talking about it.

Have you played with an ipad yet?

Yes, I have. They are really cool. i think we discussed earlier in this very thread, but I am waiting for the 2Gen version. Never buy first gen apple products. I will definitely wind up getting one.

However, I like them as a toy, not as a work tool. I think the iPad has been correctly dubbed a Super Smart Phone or a Dumb Laptop. It just doesn't work for someone like me as anything more than a toy (a fun toy, to be sure). One of my main beefs with both the iPad and the iPhone is the touch keyboard. I just don't like it. My thumbs are too fat, I guess.

I think the more tempered predictions that some schools may have pilot programs to try to incorporate iPads are much more palatable than fanboy drivel such as "freshman everywhere will have them," etc. I don't disagree that people will love them and that people will buy them. I doubt highly that they will become the default technology vehicle in higher education simply because not everyone wants to pinch their screen and type all day on a flat pane of glass. Also, they are expensive to replace and not as durable. However, most important, in 5 - 7 years, who knows what other new technology will be out there?

I look at the iPod and in its first 10 years of commercial production, the standalone iPod is now in the first phases of obsolescence. More and more people are storing their music directly on their phones. The Itouch made it possible to watch movies and view the web. Carrying around a standard iPod now is pointless. It took less than 10 years for Apple to make irrelevant the very thing it developed to change the world (and the iPod definitely was a game changer).

[tooblue]

It sure would have been nice to have all my text books on my iPad back in the day. It would sure beat having to carry a laptop around with my textbooks. I'd have to arrive 5 minutes early to class just to get my laptop to boot up and to make sure I sat by a plug since the battery only lasted two hours at best.

I'm sticking by my prediction that this tablet is a game changer. I'm not saying everything will change all at once with teh first generation iPad but I'd expect it to catch on much more in teh coming years. I already want one but will most likely wait until the next version.

I have been teaching in a laptop program school for 7 years. Every student enrolled, as a part of their tuition are given a fully loaded Mac Book Pro. I haven't had students buy a required text in 5 years because the students best resource is the Internet.

[Surfah]

We are talking about hand held games and not platform games. Nonetheless, consider what is already being proposed for the touch -- now enlarge it!

http://unity3d.com/

You're right. However, the initial article you linked used the term gamers. Something reserved for platforms. That's where I said it lost credibility. If the research analyst making those projections don't understand that difference then I quesion the validitiy of their report.

[tooblue]

Yes, I have. They are really cool. i think we discussed earlier in this very thread, but I am waiting for the 2Gen version. Never buy first gen apple products. I will definitely wind up getting one.

However, I like them as a toy, not as a work tool. I think the iPad has been correctly dubbed a Super Smart Phone or a Dumb Laptop. It just doesn't work for someone like me as anything more than a toy (a fun toy, to be sure). One of my main beefs with both the iPad and the iPhone is the touch keyboard. I just don't like it. My thumbs are too fat, I guess.

I think the more tempered predictions that some schools may have pilot programs to try to incorporate iPads are much more palatable than fanboy drivel such as "freshman everywhere will have them," etc. I don't disagree that people will love them and that people will buy them. I doubt highly that they will become the default technology vehicle in higher education simply because not everyone wants to pinch their screen and type all day on a flat pane of glass. Also, they are expensive to replace and not as durable. However, most important, in 5 - 7 years, who knows what other new technology will be out there?

I look at the iPod and in its first 10 years of commercial production, the standalone iPod is now in the first phases of obsolescence. More and more people are storing their music directly on their phones. The Itouch made it possible to watch movies and view the web. Carrying around a standard iPod now is pointless. It took less than 10 years for Apple to make irrelevant the very thing it developed to change the world (and the iPod definitely was a game changer).

Your arguments are the same one's used 8 years ago when we started our laptop program. Here's my post from a few minutes ago to Eddie Jones:

I have been teaching in a laptop program school for 7 years. Every student enrolled, as a part of their tuition are given a fully loaded Mac Book Pro. I haven't had students buy a required text in 5 years because the students best resource is the Internet.

You realize the ipad is Nearly 100% recyclable don't you? It's designed to be replaceable. Yes, new technology will be introduced but that does not change the fact that it's not a reach based upon my experience of the past 7 years to say every incoming freshman will have one.

The ipad will not replace your desktop machine or even a laptop for work -- at least not for a long time. My plan also is to wait, though I'm hedging.

[Surfah]

I have been teaching in a laptop program school for 7 years. Every student enrolled, as a part of their tuition are given a fully loaded Mac Book Pro. I haven't had students buy a required text in 5 years because the students best resource is the Internet.

But aren't you an art teacher? That makes sense. Everyone in BYU's art program uses Macs too. FTR, I wished I had an iPad or some tablet where I could have all of my textbooks with me. You know how many freaking books an English major has to lug around daily?

My biggest gripes about the iPad aside from the fanboy fanaticism that DDD has pointed out are the DRM and Flash issues. Personally, I'll wait and see what the HTC Android Tablet looks like.

[Surfah]

Your arguments are the same one's used 8 years ago when we started our laptop program. Here's my post from a few minutes ago to Eddie Jones:

You realize the ipad is Nearly 100% recyclable don't you? It's designed to be replaceable. Yes, new technology will be introduced but that does not change the fact that it's not a reach based upon my experience of the past 7 years to say every incoming freshman will have one.

The ipad will not replace your desktop machine or even a laptop for work -- at least not for a long time. My plan also is to wait, though I'm hedging.

The aforementioned George Fox University has given their students a new computer since 1991. They started giving MacBooks a few years ago and now the iPad. Again, this speaks to a marketing tool to draw in prospective students and not world wide proliferation.

[TripletDaddy]

Your arguments are the same one's used 8 years ago when we started our laptop program. Here's my post from a few minutes ago to Eddie Jones:

You realize the ipad is Nearly 100% recyclable don't you? It's designed to be replaceable. Yes, new technology will be introduced but that does not change the fact that it's not a reach based upon my experience of the past 7 years to say every incoming freshman will have one.

The ipad will not replace your desktop machine or even a laptop for work -- at least not for a long time. My plan also is to wait, though I'm hedging.

this is what puzzles me. If it doesn't replace laptops, why would freshman everywhere use one, other than as a fun toy?

Your pilot program...is it for all freshman or simply those in design/art? I can't see business/finance/accounting students doing coursework on an iPad. Can you even run excel on an iPad? I couldn't imagine typing a case note in law school on an iPad glass screen. Sounds horrible to me.

What does sound fun is taking the iPad to a boring lecture and surfing the web, for example.