IPad vs iPod Touch
OK, thanks...
Maybe screen size will encourage her to use some apps. I guess size really does matter.
I bought my wife an iPod touch 32 GB 2G when they came out. She would use it occasionally (weekly, or a couple times a week?). There were a couple of apps that she would, but not so much. It was a lot of money for very little use.
When the IPad came out, I had to have it, but knew that buying it for me wouldn't fly at 978$ for the 64GB 3G model. so i did the next best thing. I bought it for her for an anniversary present. Best case, she loves it and uses it, worst case, she doesn't like it/want it/use it and then I get it.
Well, she has found uses for it. Before, she would use my laptop for Facebook/email/light surfing (even though these are all available on the touch, I find them to be extremely cumbersome. and not an enjoyable experience and only use them for quick one offs). Now, she's on the IPad. She rarely uses the laptop and only goes upstairs to the desktop computer when she is creating content (documents and stuff), video conferencing with her sister and parents or printing stuff off.
Her primary iPad uses are: web browsing, email, contacts, face-booking, book reader, her Bible, weather, recipe book, photo library, shopping list, navigational tool (when I'm driving), movie/video watching, checking out new movies in the theater, note taking in meetings, sleep app, and the odd game or three. We haven't even come close to discovering everything that we can use it for yet (OK, slight drawback, wading through piles and piles of apps to find the gems).
I have some additional uses. I have the vpn config'd to connect to work and have an SSH client, rdp client and SAP client (all of which allow me to do most of the basic functionality of my job).
All in all, it has been much more useful than I even imagined and I see even more value and functionality potentially in the future. That is not to say that it doesn't have it's short comings (printing, connectivity, local file system? camera, cost to name a few).
All that being said, I am pretty sure that we will be buying the 2G model. The only question that is outstanding is whether I get the new one or if she gets the new one and I get the hand me down (now that I have said it out loud, I'm also pretty sure that there won't be any question as to who will get the new iPad - now where are my damn pants!)
So back to your question, will your wife use it? If she is anything like my wife, she will find uses for it. And if not, then maybe you will!
tg
One last note, since the IPad came home 4 months ago, she's used her iPod touch about twice.