232 Digital Wars manufacturing companies that seemed to be doing nothing but turning out iPad-compatible products. One company even had a profitable line in dummy iPads for displays; they were everywhere. Always on The iPad, and the tablet idea, wasn't important only for Apple. Along with the smartphone, it has profound implications for how computing might look in the future. Even a casual study of how people used iPads showed that they used them in places and at times where they wouldn't dream of using a laptop: in brief snatched moments between meetings, on short rides between locations, pulled quickly from a bag to check on something. Key to this use was the iPad's ability to be `instant on' (more precisely `never off, always asleep') because the machine state could be preserved for days, just as with a phone, and it had a long battery life ­ around 10 hours if used for computing. The 3G versions were in effect constantly connected computers, but with the advantages of portability. For people