Its iPods and iPhones wooed the young and tech savvy. But with its iPad, Apple may reach a new demographic: the middle-aged.
The sleek, soon-to-launch multimedia tablet is expected to find traction among those looking for something light to carry and easy to operate. Consumers most likely to spend $499 to $829 for the iPad — at least in the beginning — are business executives weary from lugging around heavy laptops and parents in need of digital pacifiers to soothe fidgety children in restaurants and airplanes, experts say.
“I think it will change how I run my family,” said Robyn Albarran, a 36-year-old Dublin mother of two young children. She envisions using the iPad to occupy her young ones as they wait for swim lessons, or to quickly check a recipe online while cooking in her kitchen.
The half-inch-thick iPad, some models of which will be able to connect to a 3G cellular network, may not introduce major new technology, but it signals a potential sea change in how people engage with everything from newspapers to legal documents and video. The device brings together functions common to laptops and smartphones in a new — and fun — form that lets people navigate the Web, flip pages of a digital book and create business presentations by tapping the iPad’s screen.
Leave a Comment