This is about my personal reasons for buying an iPad. I think they are going to sell a gazillion of them, but for many different reasons. I’m not covering all the reasons I think the iPad’s time has come. I’m only covering why its time has come for me.

This is my current computing environment:

• a desktop (Ubuntu Linux on an AMD-powered HP Pavilion with a 20-inch screen).
• a Lenovo ThinkPad T500 (Windows 7/Ubuntu dual boot from my employer)
• a 3G 16GB iPhone

My favorite environment to work in is Linux (in spite of how poorly it handles Flash video at times).

Each has its pros and cons.

The desktop is a great work environment for coding, word processing, home server functionality, media storage, etc, etc, etc. However, to use it I have to go to the room it’s in, sit down at a desk and stay there until I’m done.

The laptop is OK for coding, casual surfing, email, word processing, etc. Its plus is portability, but it is not always on nor is it really all that portable, nor is it comfortable to use, nor is it big enough to put coding and output windows up simultaneously. In other words, it does about everything I need (except server functions), but does them poorly. Because of that, I mostly use it at work as a second system when I need to do testing and debugging.

My iPhone is great when I’m on the go. Connection anywhere! I use it a lot at home as well because it can always be near me, doesn’t have to be put to sleep to conserve power, and is therefore great for looking up a quick fact or checking for an important message. However, for anything substantial (even reading articles at the Times or Wikipedia), the tiny screen and dinky keyboard are not sufficient.

Then comes the iPad. It’s small enough to be wherever I am in the house, but big enough to use comfortably for reading articles, checking email, social networking, reading eBooks, etc. In fact, it’s big enough to do light duty as a word processor, blogging tool, and even for Remote Desktop to the office or Secure Shell into a server. For pulling up schematics when I’m working on a project it’s big enough to see clearly, small enough to stay out of my way. It also sports a plethora of casual (and some not-so-casual) games for a few minutes of downtime. In other words, I expect my iPad to become my primary computing device for non-work activities and an important secondary device for work activities.

What’s the big loser as I see it? The ThinkPad. Many people see the iPad as a fourth class of device and are asking “Why?” because we already have smartphones, laptops and desktops. The trick for me is to imagine having two devices: a smartphone and a desktop. If someone was to introduce a third device, would you rather have an iPad or a laptop? There are PLENTY of people that will say “laptop” or “netbook” or the like, but for ME, that third device would be a Star Trek-like pad that does all the casual things I want to do and does them well. For big jobs I’d have my desktop. For extreme portability, my phone. I can’t imagine (personally) choosing a laptop over an iPad as the sweet spot between desktop and smartphone.