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0 pointsSlartie6y ago0 comments

That is not what I would consider "general computing device", more like "media consumption device", and yes, it is fairly good at that.

I would require a device to be regularly used for content creation as well in order for it to qualify as "general computing device". But pretty much the only "content creation" that I see happening on iPads in normal peoples' households is writing emails. By that account, our smartphones are certainly more qualified for the "general computing device" tag, because those are regularly used to create photos and videos in addition to mails and instant messages.

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gehsty6y ago· 1 in thread

If by computer programming or media creation (videos etc) then I would say what you want is a specialist computing device - most people do not use their computers to do this, nor need them to be able to.

With an iPad you can write all the emails you want, edit and share photos, create word docs and basic spreadsheets, which is enough for the vast majority of people. I agree that phones are also general purpose computers, most people can get away with just having a phone now.

Maybe we dont agree on ‘general’ as a term, I mean what most people need or want, I think you maybe mean can do lots of different things?

SlartieOP6y ago

Yeah, that must be it. I mean "versatile", which is a feature not everyone needs, not even a majority, but a large enough proportion of the market as to be relevant (especially since the remaining share of the market depends on those that need this versatility, because without content creators - a prime group requiring versatile computing devices - there's no content for those that don't need this versatility because they mostly consume).

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