iPad Wifi Vs. iPad 3G (Round 1)

2 more days before I can order for my iPad (online). I still have not made up my mind between wifi version against 3G version. So question that often annoyed my friends (who are buying iPad) is which one they would buy.

I had a morning coffee with my friend who is a property developer this morning and this same conversation came up.

"It's definitely the 3G", my friend said.

My friend is a very active property developer. He inspects property at least 5-8 properties each week. He complained a lot about how the other days he was driving around inspecting properties and had to switch around between checking Google map, street-view, emails, search properties online and reading legal documents.

"I was in my car, then I had to turn on my macbook, plugged in the 3G dongle, and yada yada, It was so inconvenient". He swore swore swore and continued, "After checking the street view, I called up the realestate agent to send in section 32. I had tight space in my car so I had to turn off my mac. It took freakin' long time before my mac is safe to toss around. Then my phone beeped that I had an email, so I had to turn my mac back on to read an email, and then plugging in this 3G dongle thingy thing again. yada yada yada,"

I didn't care to listen to all of it but I could picture his frustration. I can see already that the iPad 3G will be perfect for my friend (and myself?), big screen to see the map/street view, no annoying extra USB 3G dongle, quick start/sleep time, and almost always online (where ever there is coverage).

His argument aside, for me, I am a nerdy programmer, I love my macbook. I need a full size QWERTY keyboard. If I were to buy iPad, a wi-fi one should be just fine for me. I can always share network access from my macbook. Plus it is AUD$ 130 cheaper and I don't think my personal financial officer will approve another mobile phone contract.

In the end, for this fight:

iPad 3G: +1 point
iPad Wifi: +1 point

A tie for this match and I was back to square one again. I still have 2 more days to think about this.