This is the same story I've been hearing from most people I know who have an iPad, with the exception of my brothers kid who uses it to play games, but he doesn't have an alternative device to do that with.
I feel the same way about smart-phones. There are very few apps I use that are really game changers.
The smart-phone replaced an existing piece of hardware, so it isn't like you were going to leave it behind, but I'm not so sure about the tablets.
I've got a Kindle for reading, and have very little interest in a tablet. Still questioning what would I do with it??
I haven't left the smartphone behind, but I did happily downgrade recently.
I went from an iPhone 3G to a Motorola Droid to an LG Optimus V running on Virgin Mobile. Though the Optimus V is in virtually all ways a step down from the Motorola Droid, $150 for phone + $25 month for unlimited data & text and 300 talk minutes is such an enormously better value and the Optimus V still does everything I actually used my Droid for just fine.
YMMV if you care about running the latest 3D games (or Flash, since the Optimus V has no Flash support due to being ARMv6)), but I've been totally happy with my "downgrade".
I commute on a bus for 20-30 minutes each way every day. I've got my iPad out and I'm reading HN for most of my commute. Guilt free HN for an hour a day. :-)
I think if I had a bus commute with Internet access I'd do that, too. But I'm on the subway underground, rarely with a seat. iPhone is much more useful in that situation.
I also am in the camp of owning a tablet and using it very little if hardly ever. I also own smart phone and kindle. Mainly use the smart phone for browsing web,checking email, listening to music on the go, and keep it near me in the house for phone calls and a remote control for media pcs. The kindle I use next for reading before bed. Unfortunately I have to force myself to use the tablet in most occasions.
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[ 6.5 ms ] story [ 23.2 ms ] threadI feel the same way about smart-phones. There are very few apps I use that are really game changers.
The smart-phone replaced an existing piece of hardware, so it isn't like you were going to leave it behind, but I'm not so sure about the tablets.
I've got a Kindle for reading, and have very little interest in a tablet. Still questioning what would I do with it??
I went from an iPhone 3G to a Motorola Droid to an LG Optimus V running on Virgin Mobile. Though the Optimus V is in virtually all ways a step down from the Motorola Droid, $150 for phone + $25 month for unlimited data & text and 300 talk minutes is such an enormously better value and the Optimus V still does everything I actually used my Droid for just fine.
YMMV if you care about running the latest 3D games (or Flash, since the Optimus V has no Flash support due to being ARMv6)), but I've been totally happy with my "downgrade".
But I still use it 5-10x day and increasing.
If you don't use it as a book reader (Books, Kindle Reader, Stanza), and if you don't prefer it for web browsing then you missed, like, 80% of it.
If you don't read comics, and can't use a fine MIDI controller, you lost another 5%.
There are smaller niches, and to some fields it can be indispensable.
But, really, checking mail, browsing and reading are it's killer features. If you don't do any of those on the iPad, er, why did you got one?