What iPads did to one techie’s family

Apple has announced that the iPad will be on sale in the UK from May 28 and is enabling pre-ordering from next Monday (May 10). Already members of my family are eyeing me in a meaningful way. All of which makes this blog post by Chuck Hollis, Vice-President and Global Marketing CTO of EMC Corporation, such a sobering read. He relates how he bought an iPad and then left it at home for a week while he went away on a business trip.

I get home and there’s always a certain level of chaos at that time.

But there was a new theme this week.

“Who forgot to charge the iPad?”

“Hey, if you’re going to eat pizza and use the iPad, at least wipe it! How gross!”

“You already used the iPad this afternoon, it’s my turn!”.

“How do I print from this thing?” “Can we download some more games?”. “Check out this cool video”.

Tap, tap, tap.

All the PCs and laptops are basically not being used. All the Macs are not being used. All have been powered off.

Everyone in the family is waiting for their turn at the iPad.

My wife asserted her rightful place in the hierarchy later that evening, and took it upstairs to the bedroom to relax while watching TV. Tap, tap, tap. Occasionally, she showed me something interesting she found online. And smiling.

It All Flashed Through My Eyes

I don’t think I’ll be buying any more desktops going forward. I don’t think I’ll even be buying any more laptops going forward.

They’ve all been largely obsoleted (at least at my home) by a sleek $499 device that doesn’t really have any right to be called a ‘computer’ in the traditional sense.

Sure, there’s a handful of tasks that I still would prefer a real computer, but — amazingly — that list has now shrunk dramatically. In less than a week.

The members of my family immediately gravitated to the new shiny thing — no prompting, no encouragement, no migration, etc. They are drawn to it like a moth to flame.

I now have this strange love/hate relationship with Apple. And I think it won’t be long before I’m forced to make another trip back to the Apple store.

Hmmm…..