Help me convince my dad to choose the ipad over the surface?

Question

hi,
my dads work wants to get him a tablet. he can choose the microsoft surface or the ipad. he is leaning toward the surface. can you tell me some reasons you like/perfer the ipad over the surface?
Thanks,
Austin

Answer 1

Take your dad to best buy and test drive each device. Get the feel and idea of each one.
Honestly, each device has it's own plusses and minuses. the iPad is far more established. You can very certainly have an iTunes account without a credit card, Mine is. I use iTunes gift cards to load it to purchase things I want (largely apps)
If he's going to want a lot of online content and a well established library, then he'll want the iPad. iTunes has spent years building itself up. there are millions of apps (one could argue that a lot of them are junk, but that's a relative term so YMMV on that one)
The surface is new. It is largely untested. But, like Android, if he has the tech know how to tweak or fiddle, then it may be for him. The surface and android devices do have more 'freedom' to them, in that they seem to have less restrictions in what you can do. However that freedom can lead a person to doing something they may not really want to do. And yes, the surface is less than a year old and who knows if it'll be around in a year.
I think if you want a comfortable well established and more controlled environment, the iPad works for that. there will be extra expenses, such as cases and keyboards (my money is on your dad having issues iwth the onscreen keyboard, many older individuals do, so you'll likely need a bluetooth keyboard)
If he wants to get all his content from Apple, then he's fine.
If he wants something different, something more customizable or expandable (the surface can accomodate extending its memory via micro SD cards the iPad's memory cannot be expanded) then maybe he'll want to play with the surface.
You will find less apps with the surface. Obviously it's app store is only a few months old.
Windows 8 is very different. I have it on my laptop and there is a learning curve. Of course, if he's never worked with an apple device then there is a learning curve with the iPad too.
I would say, let him experiment with both and see which one works for him. The only 'right' answer is the one he likes the most and the one he wants to spend the next couple of years using.