Apple’s iPad was the first post-PC device that people took
seriously. Microsoft, Nokia and countless manufacturers have tried to
find the right balance between a tablet and a computer for the last 10
years, but the iPad was the first device to get it right and now Apple
owns the space.
The iPad 2 takes Apple’s seemingly insurmountable lead and pushes it
even further. The combination of beautiful and powerful hardware with
gorgeous and thoughtful software that responds to your touch almost
before you act delivers the best tablet experience on the planet. There
are many competitors and there will be many more, yet in my mind, the
iPad 2 is the slate device that 95% of the world wants and will buy.
Sure, some people might prefer an Android 3.0 tablet so they can tweak
it all they want, use it to view Flash content online, and have some
more flexibility in terms of what they can install on their devices. I
believe that those people, however, are very few and far between.
The iPad 2 isn’t a radical change from the original iPad. It’s not. But
the original iPad is still the only game in town — even being a year old
— and the improvements and advancements in the iPad 2 only emphasize
how far along Apple is while its competitors keep playing in the sandbox
with their shovels and pails.
Apple hasn’t just basically created the entire mobile tablet category,
and Apple hasn’t just been leading the entire post-PC category. Apple is winning, and it’s winning by a long shot as far as the average consumer is concerned
