Why I Won't Buy an iPad

Although iPhones and iPads are popular in my family, I've steadfastly refused to use them. I have an Android phone and tablet, and I'm happy with both. I recognize that there are good things about Apple's products, but the locked down nature of the Apple ecosytem doesn't appeal to me.

Ten years ago, Cory Doctorow wrote a post on BoingBoing called "Why I won't buy an iPad, and think you sholdn't either". It got quite a bit of attention and was even quoted in Steve Jobs' biography.

He's updated the post for the tenth anniversary of the iPad, and his opinion hasn't changed much.

Then there's the device itself: clearly there's a lot of thoughtfulness and smarts that went into the design. But there's also a palpable contempt for the owner. I believe -- really believe -- in the stirring words of the Maker Manifesto: if you can't open it, you don't own it. Screws not glue. The original Apple ][+ came with schematics for the circuit boards, and birthed a generation of hardware and software hackers who upended the world for the better. If you wanted your kid to grow up to be a confident, entrepreneurial, and firmly in the camp that believes that you should forever be rearranging the world to make it better, you bought her an Apple ][+.

But with the iPad, it seems like Apple's model customer is that same stupid stereotype of a technophobic, timid, scatterbrained mother as appears in a billion renditions of "that's too complicated for my mom" (listen to the pundits extol the virtues of the iPad and time how long it takes for them to explain that here, finally, is something that isn't too complicated for their poor old mothers).

My recent experience with my Twitter client shows the validity of the open development model; there are a plethora of Twitter clients available for Android, many more than for iOS, and many of them are free.

Cory was right ten years ago and he's still right today.