So if your iPad 3 spends most of its time in your laptop bag why on earth would you order an iPad 4? Explain to me how that six month newer iPad is going to make your life better and more productive. Look, I am all for being as productive as possible but just don't understand buying all the devices and then trying to figure out how you are going to be productive with them. Polling a group for their input is one thing but what you have done is buy ALL of them and then try and figure out how you want to use them.
I just addressed this "iPad spends most of it's time in the bag" statement in an earlier post. And I don't approach any hardware decision (my home built dual xeon system, gaming computer, gaming consoles, apple hardware) based on how it will make my life "better". They serve a functional or entertainment purpose.
You are entitled to "not understand" on how I buy "everything" and figure out how to use it all, but to be fair, most people did this with the first and subsequent iPads. In fact, I would imagine most people have a basic idea of how they may use a device, but don't realize fully how a device(s) will be fully useful to them until after they've had some real hands on time with them. I don't believe there is anything wrong or inefficient with my approach. The most likely outcome of my purchase is that I will gift the iPad mini's to a member of my family and keep the iPad "4" to myself the more I think about it. It is better to pre-order what I may end up using, and then later return or gift it to someone who may be able to use this more.
Some people sell their old hardware and buy the latest sometimes just to offset the cost of newer hardware. It is a never ending cycle, but I fall into this group with iPhones, iPads, and Video Cards. If this is your hobby and you can cost justify it without breaking the bank, then so be it. Some people are hardware junkies and that's what we do.
It sounds however that you are complaining that I have too much money for my own good, or I'm somehow letting good hardware go to waste. If so fine, but I would imagine a decent group of people don't see it that way.
This post was mainly for my own curiosity if people were going to roll with both a regular sized iPad and an iPad mini. I'd like to hear more opinions on the subject. People who fly regularly? People who have a mobile office or are always on the run?