Apple iPad - Legit BSchool Tool?

I guessed it had a reasonable discount for students, much like Matlab. Turned out that it is $1500 for a student, rather than $2500 standard. The reduced versions are nearer $50, which would make some sense.

I am rather obsessed with Statistical or data visualization software.

I think for business school you need two things: a fast and light laptop (pc) and a smartphone.

Maybe a kindle to read on (for pleaseure), but that's not necessary. I say that because I already have one

Saw a guy using one in a Strategy and Competitive Advantage class at Wharton. The class had a no laptop policy and he was being sly about it.

I'm in bschool now and I have to say net books are by far the most popular option. It's the first time in my life I see so many people using net books, but they seem happy with them. I've only seen a couple of people with iPads. Mostly reading news and such.

Some textbooks are available on the Kindle, which is nice considering how heavy those books are. But then again they're also available for download on regular laptops.

The iPad sure is shiny though!

So you're an addicted early adopter, huh? So, why wait for the I-hype?

Archos had had superior tablet PCs for years now. I've owned mine for over 2 years. Wifi, pdfs, everything I've needed. Also, IT ALLOWS FLASH! and is much cheaper.

buuut...

you won't find it in Worst Buy, so most people don't hear about it. You're going to have to go to their website or even Amazondotcom to check it out


Sorry, but in every class I have someone decides to do a presentation on "the innovation of Apple", and I'm sick of it. Apple is really great at taking something that others made and using a huge marketing campaign to make everyone believe they came up with it. What's next? I-bike?

I received an iPad for christmas and this has been a pleasant surprise. I've been buying apps and accessories (case, stand, dock, wireless keyboard, screen protector, etc) in the last few days and I definitely think this will be useful for bschool.

Couple of apps that I bought and feel it may be useful in the Spring semester:

1) Goodreader - allows me to carry all type of documents and files on iPad.

2) Pages/Numbers - Word processing and spreadsheets (lite)

3) SkyFire Browser - converts flash to HTML5 so you can view flash on iPad

I am simply amazed how fast this thing is. Also, viewing NYTimes and browing internet is simply entertaining and joyful (can't even compare to surfing the web on my laptop) I have a mobile Thinkpad laptop but I think this will be a great companion. I think I will use this more to replace my smartphone (for checking emails, calendar, etc on the go) rather than to replace my laptop. iPad is sort of like a Gucci bag. You don't need it for business school but for one reason or another, you just have to have it.

I was also pleasantly surprised when I got my iPad (won it here on GC!!!). I'm using it far more around the house than I thought. My main issue with it for being useful at bschool is the touchscreen keyboard. I know, you can sync a wireless keyboard to it, but to me it's a hassle to carry that around and I would probably just go with a netbook instead. However, I recently saw this: https://www.zagg.com/accessories/zaggmate.php

I'm sure there are other similar cases out there with an integrated keyboard, but I hadn't seen that before. But with this case I think it would suit most bschool requirements (note I'm not in bschool yet). There probably are some statistical packages one uses from time to time for assignments, but based on what I've read it seems like the iPad would generally suffice. I was also surprised by how quick it is.

As for the Apple fanboy vs Apple hater debate, I really have no interest in wading in but I do think it's clear that Apple has an extremely successful business and the turnaround from 1997 to now is pretty remarkable.

Ohhhh....so getting this!!!

(Packing my wireless keyboard, dock, and stand so I can return them to Amazon.com..........)

After playing around with a friend's iPad I have to say I was sold on it. Beyond the pure entertainment value (Angry Birds in HD, Netflix, web browsing, etc.), I think it is a useful tool that, while it doesn't replace a laptop, does a lot of great things that make it useful to have in school - assuming you can afford the price. The best way I heard it described is that the iPad is a content delivery device - allowing you to view content such as the web, email, or documents (especially with apps like Dropbox and the various Office clones), with limited editing capability, while a laptop gives you full content editing and creation ability with the tradeoff of greater size and weight.

I finally broke down and bought one and have been very happy with it. I use it primarily to read the WSJ, NY Times and Economist (the WSJ and Economist apps especially are by far better than their web experience), read cases and other class materials (which we have access to electronically), view documents from my laptop when I don't have it with me (I keep most of my documents in a Dropbox folder), as an e-reader (although i still prefer my Kindle to the iPad for this), and for entertainment. Of course there's still plenty of times I need my laptop in class (spreadsheet modeling, Stata, etc.), but there have been more than a few times where I've been able to use the iPad instead.

Would I have been able to survive school without it? Absolutely, but it has been a convenience to have it.

Sorry to digress, but nink, I think it's hilarious that somehow a ton of your posts seem to end with a reference to a bag of some sort...my mental image of you is now that of Joey from Friends when he gets the unisex bag...if you haven't seen it, you should.

You know I am concerned for myself as well.



jeez, content delivery device.....spoken like a true Kellogg MBA (god help me the day I incorporate those textbook words into everyday life....)

They weren't my words, I was just relaying how it was described by someone else (also a Kellogg MBA so I guess the criticism still stands)

That someone else also happened to intern as a product manager for certain company in Cupertino, CA, but that's another story.

That sounds more like Microsoft to me!

Looks like Wharton is giving away iPads to incoming EMBA students:

https://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/c9844f52-35fd ... z1EPe55mh7

Not sure it'll ever completely replace a laptop (kinda hard to run Stata on an iPad), but for day-to-day use I think tablets will be more and more common at bschool.

I find the Ipad to be a media viewing device. Inputting in any form is not really convenient or intuitive, sure you can fire off an email and update your status, but taking notes by typing or doing a penultimate app/stylus combo does not really work well... at least for me. IMHO it is meant to read or watch off of, not input or have too much interaction with. Id just go with a 3 lbs or less notebook and a desktop...

In 2 years, come back to this forum and reread it.
I'm sure in some way or another, it will be hilariously quaint.

Ha, you're exactly right.

So I return the question, is it now worth having an iPad (or a Surface or a Note or whatever) for B-school?