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Comment by EnderMB | Hacker News Reader

> The iPad has replaced a laptop or desktop for all casual browsing (I typed this comment on mine) and a lot of media consumption. It's great for technical books. And I play games on it.

I live in a large city in the UK, and throughout the past year I've only seen two iPad's. I wouldn't even remotely say that the iPad has "replaced the laptop" in any way, shape or form. When the iPhone was released it was near impossible to not see it outside, whereas the average iPad user will keep theirs at home.

Even if the figures are good I really cannot see the casual user deciding to ditch their laptop for the iPad, and I'd go as far as to say that the iPad has been a huge disappointment.

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Which city? I've seen a whole bunch of people in London standing on street corners using their iPads.

Granted they do look pretty silly...

But I would certainly not say that the iPad has been a 'huge disappointment'; not for Apple, and not for the consumer. Or did you mean for you personally?

Less silly than someone standing on a corner using a laptop though.

That's no small feat for new tech. Imagine a world in which people riding segways looked less silly than cyclists.

Bristol, although I do travel to Birmingham and Manchester quite a bit. I've not seen a single iPad in any of those places (except at the Apple Stores).

I think the iPad was always going to struggle because when compared to the iPhone it is less likely for someone to be seen using a tablet than a mobile phone.

As I said, the figures may be impressive, but I'd lump this in with Apple TV as being a good idea that will struggle to find a long-term market outside of the typical Apple users.

No point debating if the iPad is a hit or not. Just see their annual report and you'd know that its a big hit. It doesn't matter if you see them on the streets or not. AAPL sells them and its makes them money which means that it is a hit.

In an unrelated note, why do some people refer to companies by their stock name? I mean, you're only saving one letter, and you have to keep shift pressed down all the time. Plus, fewer people will understand what you mean. What's the appeal?

Actually there is a minor point that I am trying to make here by using the stock name. As techies we often forget the end goals of a business, by using the stock names I try to remind myself and hopefully others that no matter how cool is sounds from a purely technical point of view, if its not a good business, it will not survive long.

I see, thanks for the clarification.

In my experience, seeing something brandished ostentatiously on certain street corners in london, but nowhere else (which is my experience,) is evidence in favor of it being a fad of little relevance.

I think the grandparent was talking about home use.

Most of the time, anyone you see with a laptop in public is writing, coding, or some other type of "work" -- text-entry heavy activities that a device with a real keyboard will always be better for.

When I'm out, my phone is good enough for casual browsing, reading a few pages of my Kindle book while I'm waiting for something, or watching a YouTube video someone linked from Twitter. At home, picking up the tablet for a few minutes is much less hassle than going to my desk or opening up my laptop. Instead of buying a laptop for casual leisure computing, I imagine a lot of people opting for a tablet, with a cheap desktop relegated to the study for paying bills and catching up on work.

I just got back from the year's largest conference of orthopedic surgeons, and the number of iPads was mind-numbing. And they were all for casual use.

I live in Vancouver, BC and I've seen tons of people using them. If you hit a few Starbucks in a day (as I tend to do) chances are that you'll see at least one or two people using them there. Saw one girl yesterday that seemed to be reading a book; another one today was writing something.

They're not ubiquitous, but I get the sense that a lot of people buy them and use them at home instead of dragging them around town. I've bought one for my mother, and I know several other people who have as well. My landlord bought one for her boyfriend, other friends have them for using around the house.

They're selling very well, but unlike iPhones, it's rare that their owners take them everywhere, so seeing them on the street just isn't a good measure of their popularity.

(Also, they're ridiculously expensive in the UK compared to the US or Canada.)

I go to Starbucks at least twice a week, and I've yet to see one there. The only places I've seen them is at a graduation party and a few days ago at Wagamama (asian restaurant). In contrast I see a Kindle nearly every single day on the bus or in Starbucks.

I can imagine them selling quite well now, but I can't help but feel that people are buying them because they're a shiny, new Apple product, rather than because they're the future. I'd love for the iPad to do well because it would push innovation in an area of computing that greatly interests me, but I cannot help but feel that the current experience the iPad offers will only corner it into being a novelty product that won't last. I'm also willing to accept that the reason they don't seem as popular in the UK is because they're far too expensive.

Until the iPad can offer a day-to-day experience that offers something a laptop cannot I really cannot see it keeping its success going for more than three or four years.

The day-to-day experience gain of a tablet should be that it's way more available. I'm not convinced the iPad form factor fully achieves that, but it's at least a great proof of concept.

It's pretty much moot to ask a tablet to do something functional that a laptop can't. Anything a tablet can do today, a laptop can either already do or can do tomorrow.

Similarly, there's nothing a laptop can do that a desktop can't. I used to have a desktop that had carry handles and a keyboard that clipped to the base unit. But somehow, that concept no longer appeals. Not that I've ditched desktops, but I figure luggability wasn't as good as designed-in portability.

I live in a large city in Asia, and I've seen a ton of ipads (and some knockoff chinese tablets).

I live in Los Angeles, and I've seen several people using iPads on public transit or in cafes.

I live in a forsaken backwater, and I've seen several people using iPads in cafes.

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