saeidw wroteI can't justify getting an iPad (or any tablet, I don't have a use for them yet) but this iteration seems to be more useful so I know it'll sell like crazy.
The web is going mobile. It's a fact. It was commonly known in the industry that the first iPad was a market tester for Apple. They wanted to position themselves as the first one on the market. But really, the shift is inevitable. And with the iPad 2 (and obviously HoneyComb) we're entering what will be known as the "first generation of full-fledged mobile devices". Honestly, I wouldn't recommend my dad got a laptop. I'd suggest he got a tablet. Definitely.
I saw a cool conference by the lead engineer of the Chrome project at Google. He said something very interesting:
With the smartphones, it's becoming very obvious that phones are turning more and more into computers. At the same time, the netbook craze has shown that computers are turning more and more into small hand-held devices.
Tablets are aiming to get the perfect balance.
Coupled with the hype around cloud computing (basically, cloud computing means your personal computer needs no power at all, all the processing power will be done remotely on a server. Think Google Docs), I am getting convinced that the PC as we know it (or "computer") is fading away and living its last years. Sure, it will still exist for very specific purposes, but the general mainstream wants to access the web faster and easier.
Intel is aware of that. x86 and x86_64 may be the most widespread architecture, but it's slowly dying. The future lies ahead for light technologies like Atom. And ARM is happy because they know they have a big opportunity to seize. Their time has come.
