okay so basically, i see no need to follow trends with gear. i have an ipad and an mpd.. on my ipad i have fl studio mobile, imaschine by NI and a couple other mpc-ish pad-style music making programs.
tbh i like the feel of my mpd and the creative process of playing with it and using it to cue samples and making fat garage drum loops on it etc.. its a bit of a gimmick to me though as i can do the same stuff on
my novation reMOTE (which has pads on it too). i like how it feels when you hit the pads etc... but to be honest, theres more applications that can be added to the pads via an ipad touch screen and software.
im really a bit of a fence sitter, the only downfall of the ipad is that it doesnt have great connectivity capabilities. i might be a complete noob, but as far as im aware, you cant connect an ipad to fl studio via a usb and use it as a midi controller. you have to make your stuff on your ipad, then export it to wav or mp3, and then download it from your ipad to the pc AND THEN import it to the playlist in FL.. which is a hassle and doesnt allow for much flexibility if you wanna change some of what you made on your ipad..
the mpc has better processing power, sometimes my ipad lags when im making a rather rich composition or theres a lot of layers..
i presonally hope the mpc stays. even so, hold onto em, cos if everyone sells/ditches their mpc's for ipads, its only gonna be a matter of time before they come crawling back, i know its not technically an mpc but as an owner of an
mpd18 and an ipad, as similar as they are, if i had to pick, id pick the mpd. just because i like to compose live in FL and you cant do that with an ipad (as far as i know)..