Mary-Jo Foley, Microsoft lover, buys an iPad, blood rains down on the Holy Land

You might or might not have heard of Mary-Jo Foley but she’s covers Microsoft. Like totally covers Microsoft. She’s as much as a Microsoft nerd as we are Apple nerds. That’s how serious she is.

Well, she bought an iPad. I know! WTF!

Anyway, Mary-Jo bought the iPad because she couldn’t find a Windows device that did what the iPad does, mainly exist in a plane that’s neither PC nor smartphone yet offer one of the best of both. She explains it thus:

So why did I succumb to the charms of the iPad? Without difficulty, I haven’t been ready to find a PC that offered what an iPad does. Windows laptops are powerful, versatile and relatively inexpensive compared to Apple\’s counter-offerings. You may get portable netbooks (with so-so performance), great big-screen gaming rigs and thin-and-light models (like the Asus UL30A it’s my current workhorse). But none of these has the superb battery life, fast on/off, ultra-handy form factor, a made-for-touch interface (in preference to touch bolted on to a keyboard/mouse-centric interface) or a built-in app store.

She basically admits that Windows, no less than today, isn’t very an excellent tablet platform. Putting aside the indisputable fact that the industry has been saying that since the first tablets rolled out in 2001, she’s very brave. Once I read her headline, I was concerned she’d be trolled mercilessly. Thankfully, the commenters were quite kind. The worst was stuff like this dude, who channels Freedom Fighter Che Guevara:

As a consumption device, it truly is probably really good. I understand MJ’s rationale and thinking – it makes perfect sense.

However, i’ll never give Apple any of my $$ given their business philosophy. I therefore think MJ jumped the gun. I will be able to look ahead to Android/Chrome slates. Judging by the Android phones, they’ll be kind of on par with the iPad, can be rather more open and quickly come down in price.

Anyway, it’s an even read.