At today’s Facebook event about mobile, Mark Zuckerberg answered a question about an app for Apple’s tablet with “the iPad’s not mobile,” the insinuation being that it’s a fatty that you can’t really move around with. Maybe “portable” is a better term. You can see where he’s coming from though – even if the iPad is related to iPhone by way of iOS, and it’s able to make use of Facebook Places by way of GPS, and access wireless data over 3G, the sheer size of the iPad limits (and in other ways expands) its practicality in certain situations.
When it first came out, I was (and still am) dubious about covering it here at IntoMobile precisely because it was a distinctly different use case than mobile phones. Stuff like the Dell Streak straddles the tablet/smartphone line much more closely, and even devices like the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the BlackBerry PlayBook are very much still within the mobile sphere. The iPad, however, continues to exist in its own little Apple-created universe.
So let’s pitch the question to you guys: does the iPad fall into what you consider to be “mobile”? Has the iPad reinvented what “mobile” means for you? Where do smartphones end and tablets begin? As more and more tablets hit the market, this is going to be a question that concerns the mobile industry, especially when it comes to smartphones, and I’m curious to hear where you guys stand.