Official iPad Thread

[rayxi]

Originally Posted by AlexK

I'm sure Steve Jobs REALLY cares that 2 people in some random company won't be able to use it because it's "not approved"

He may care soon according to this article: Android Tablet Market Share Surged In Q4; iPad Under Attack

"Apple’s volumes will continue to go up, but market share will inevitably go down," Mawston said in an interview. "Even at $500 retail, based on some of the research we've done, that’s probably two or three times more than what most mass market consumers are expecting to pay...If you were to ask me in two years time, will Apple have less than 50 percent of the global tablet market, I think that’s a certainty."

The iPad has already lost close to 20% of the market share in the last 3 months. It's just a matter of time as more people base their buying decisions on 1st hand experience rather than Internet debates and media hype.

My daughter's school purchased 20 iPads when it fist came out hoping to give the students that "magical" experience Steve Jobs promised. The idea was to have a mobile computing cart that they would wheel into classrooms so that the students could use them on projects. The first time they tried using it was a massive failure. The research they were assigned for their project couldn't be done because the web sites they needed to use were based on Flash. They wasted an entire class trying to get it to work before they realized the problem. Now they have a cart of 30 Toshiba laptops instead, spending less money than the original 20 iPads.

I have no doubt the iPad 2 will be a success. There will always be a core group of loyal Apple customers that buy based on subjective reasons.