10 Reasons Not to Buy an iPad for Students

By Stacy Curtin | Daily Ticker – sun, Jul 31, 2011 1:44 PM EDT

The summer season is almost over. If you're a parent that means back-to-school shopping is right around the corner.

And there's one product — one fairly expensive product -- likely to be in high demand for college-bound students in particular: The Apple iPad!

But as dealnews' media editor Jeff Somogyi says there are 10 reasons why you should NOT buy your kids an iPad — especially in place of a more traditional laptop.

"It is a great product [and] I have the utmost respect for Apple," Somogyi tells tells The Daily Ticker's Aaron Task in the accompanying interview. "But in this instance I think that the cost per benefit is a little too high especially when it comes to students."

The tablet device starts at $499 for the most basic model with 16GB of storage with Wi-Fi connectivity.  Meanwhile, the higher-end 64GB models with 3G connectivity start at $829 and expect to pay an extra monthly fee if the wireless Internet plan is enacted.

"You can get a very nice laptop for that price," he says. "You can get a laptop that does everything that your student needs it to do for less than the low end iPad."

Not only can you save money, a laptop will enable students to do all the things they need to do — like write 500-word papers -- easier and more conveniently.

Which brings us to Somogyi's top reasons to not buy your student and iPad for back to school: It's expensive and it's not the best solution for note-taking or editing documents.

If these two reasons alone are not enough to convince your child that the iPad is not the right choice for them, here is Somogyi's full top ten list of reasons why you should not cave and buy your child the iPad:

#1 It's Expensive

#2 It's Not the Best Solution for Note-Taking or Editing Documents

#3 It's Too Distracting

#4 It's Ultra-Portable and Ultra-Droppable

#5 What Makes it Desirable to your Kid is What Makes it Desirable to Criminals

#6 It's Meant for the Enjoyment of One Person, Which Means Social Seclusion

#7 Digital Text Books are a Marvel, but There's No Secondary Market

#8 It's a Status Symbol, Plain and Simple

#9 It'll Already be Old Technology by the Time You Buy It

#10 They'll Also Want a Laptop, Too

Watch the interview and visit dealnews for more information (or ammo).