*cough*I'm getting an iPad this month...as a birthday gift. I figure I may use it primarily as an eReader and video watching device, so I may not be carrying it everywhere.
I'm also buying an iPod Classic soon- I need the 160GB music storage capacity.
But I'm sticking with the dumb phone: for that task, I want my phone to be a phone first & foremost. For speed & ease of use, I've yet to see a smartphone that does "being a phone" faster or better.
As a business combo, DumbPhone + iPad would probably be pretty effective. It's easier to read/use than iPod Touch/iPhone. If you're always in Wifi range, you'll be able to save on not needing a dataplan.
Since Steve's passed, some folks have been asking me what Apple's going to do (any techie amidst non-techies get asked this kind of thing).
I don't expect much from the hardware side until some new technology comes out that enables something very different. Processors, memory, screens and cameras will always get faster and smaller. Form factors are just art.
While many of Apple's products have been acknowledged as Art, I suspect Steve didn't design them personally, so I hope Apple keeps up with having designers, not just engineers working on it.
That said, where Apple has always wowed us with a nice case, the key has always been software. As long as Apple keeps taking the best ideas and integrating them seemlessly into their system, they win.
Right now, I see opportunities for:
easier keyboarding, it's a PITA to type an email. Expect them to steal the best ideas from Android, which allows for swapping in keyboard apps.
Siri will probably continue to evolve, making voice control a useful alternative
identity management. right now, iPhones are single-user devices that are reluctantly shared with the kids so they'll play Angry Birds and shut-up. As my wife said to one annoying kid, "No, you can't play on my iPhone, you'll mess up my game save"
it took Windows a while to make "logging in" a standard and simple process for the family PC. iOS will need something akin to it.
This is where that front-facing camera will kick in. Facial recognition will see who's swiping the screen and open up that user's profile.
Assuming this pay by phone thing is going to take off, iMoney will integrate with all the banks, so Apple's native app will do the pay-by-phone thing. I'd rather trust a native app to load fast enough. Plus, consider that anything that Google or Amazon does is under consideration for Apple to directly do it themselves.
Just a few ideas of what Apple may add. I don't think any of those are ooh wow ideas, but practical stuff Apple will do as a matter of course.
To a certain extent, with the AppStore, a lot of the ooh wow ideas are done there, rather than at Apple.
