The tech writers I run with can be a nasty bunch. The folks who comment on our sites are even worse. When Apple unveiled their iPad two months ago, the tech blogosphere lit up with all sorts of naysaying ranging from, "It's a giant iPod Touch. Who cares?" to "They couldn't even put an SD card slot in the thing? Seriously?" That was to be expected.
What I didn't anticipate was the email from my mom not two hours after the event finished up. "Just reviewed your iPad coverage on the site. I think this should be my new toy." That was followed up by three more messages from other of my "elders," shall we say, wanting to know about iPad -- Did I go to the event? Did I try it? When would it be out? Should they get one?
Now my mom following my career is no surprise. She's my mom, and she's awesome, and yes she even has an interest in the latest tech (a few months back she called me up to ask if she should get a BlackBerry after someone at a cocktail party used his to look up the answer to a trivia question). But three other friends, all aged 55 or over, hitting me up for iPad advice within hours of the launch? That was noteworthy.
Apple knows how to capture consumer imagination, and they know how to make technology simple. For all the high-end geeks crying foul over what iPad can't do -- no multitasking, no user installation of apps beyond the Apple-controlled store, no Flash content in the Web browser, and so on -- millions of average consumers are much more interested in what this thing can do.
And what's that? What can the iPad do? In a word, it can simplify computing.
iPads aren't going to replace laptops and high-end desktop machines for folks who need to develop software, edit video, or wrangle complicated financial data on a daily basis. But most consumers don't need to do that stuff. Most consumers, when they're away from their workplace and work tasks, use their computers to surf the Web, read emails, and enjoy photos, music, and video. Netbooks became popular because they offered a lightweight, low-cost solution for handling those core tasks, but their appeal is still relegated to students and other tech enthusiasts willing to put up with a shrunken laptop experience. Running a full-fledged computer OS like Windows Vista on a tiny computer with a tiny keyboard, tiny trackpad, and tiny processor isn't for everyone. It's certainly not for my mom (though my dad loves his netbook).
What Apple's doing isn't about specs and features; it's about the experience. They did it with the original iPod and they did it again with the iPhone -- both products read as underpowered oddballs based on their spec sheets alone. Pundits (like me) scoffed at the first iPod's high price and relatively low storage space, and we again scoffed at the first iPhone's lack of bleeding edge tech like 3G connectivity and support for video capture and MMS messaging. And yet both products went on to upend their respective markets while raking in absurd amounts of revenue for Apple, Inc.
iPad is another product out of that same mold, aiming to create and dominate a category that didn't really exist before it. Personally I think Apple misstepped a bit during the iPad launch, positioning the device as something between a smartphone and laptop, offering the best Web experience possible. I'd rather have seen them hype the tablet computer's unique combination of power and ease of use, offering dead-simple -- and fun! -- access to those core features that most people use most computers for most of the time. Web? Email? Photos? Just touch the thing! Grab and swipe and pinch-to-zoom objects on the screen and manipulate them to do what you want: Rotate a photo with a snap of the wrist! Move events in your calendar by actually moving them! Delete old emails by flicking them off the screen!
Steve Jobs is so excited about iPad's potential because it's his company's next big step towards the ultimate goal of every consumer tech company on Earth: To remove the technology layer from the product, leaving the user with the purest experience possible. Directory structures and preference panels and file extensions and even the keyboard and mouse themselves only get in the way of the user experience of consuming and manipulating information. A multitouch display backed by a dead simple user interface removes as much of that annoying technology stuff as possible from the experience. Or it should, anyway.
Beyond the simplicity is iPad's other great genius. It's a blank slate for software developers, and it's powered by perhaps the best one-two punch of product and marketing in the world. A cursory glance around the tech blogosphere today shows those same early naysayers getting excited about forthcoming iPad apps in all sorts of categories ranging from games to DJ tools to digital painting software suitable for use with fingertip or stylus. The iPhone App Store has been a runaway success, so why wouldn't an iPad app store follow suit? Consumers love simplicity, ease of access, and choice, all of which Apple serves up in spades.
And oh yeah, then there's that whole bit about Apple aiming to take out Amazon's Kindle with iPad's e-reader app, and causing everyone from CBS to The New York Times to redo their websites to serve iPad-friendly streaming video. And those network TV deals Apple's supposedly in 11th hour negotiations to get done before iPads reach consumers on Saturday? iPads will already be able to download plenty of TV and movies via iTunes, but a subscription-TV service would be a nice boon, no?
So wait ... It's a half-pound computer with a simple interface that you control by touching and gesturing on the screen. It's a computer that handles email and Web and media, but also can be used for DJing and painting and handling basic office suite tasks. And it's also a computer that serves up books, magazines and TV shows on the go? For 500 bucks? Could be kinda catchy, no?
Follow Noah Kravitz on Twitter: www.twitter.com/Phonedog_Noah
I guess that's sorta like shooting a feature film on an iPhone...some people will actually try to do it.
The rest will continue to wonder why.
And none of it will happen until they allow a USB port on the damn thing anyway.
I understand the concern over Apple's 'closed system', but it's a trade off. Yes it's closed and therefore there's less room for heavy tweeking, but what you get for that concession is a system that does what it's designed to do very, very well. The closed system gives Apple the control to prevent a lot of the crap software and malware from mucking up the works. As I say, it's a trade off and just because you disagree doesn't make the device any less functional or appealing to the vast majority of users. Sure I'd like Flash, but I also understand why it's not there. I've seen an idle Flash game on my dual core iMac push both cores to over 80%, so I'm sure it would be a nightmare for battery efficiency. And there's a reason Adobe updates it constantly, the steady stream of security holes. So, again, it's a trade off. You may not aggee with it, but that doesn't invalidate the philosophy behind it.
Erik
eaprince.blogspot.com
Kravitz - you're a genius.
Yes, but it's a proprietary imagination captured in a box.
Apple’s new iPad adds a universe of new applications to those already in iPhones on a larger, more accessible touch screen that include books, games, business tools, newspapers, presentation managers, a word processor.
This tablet is a serious tool for serious people. Before bringing it home, every parent must think through its impact on the kids and family life because the iPad also puts unprecedented interactive media power into children’s hands. Mobile, tactile, responsive, and intensely user friendly, the large screen sparkles with sharp colorful images and text.
“The iPad is the magical stuff kids (and the kids in us all) dream of as beautiful images can be instantly enlarged, shrunk, moved or made to appear and disappear,” according to child psychiatrist and author Dr. Eitan Schwarz.
“It is a brilliant piece of engineering and testament to our human talent. But in the 10+ years of media explosion into the lives of younger and younger children, there has been little systematic effort to guide parents.
In his new book, "Kids, Parents, and Technology: An Instruction Guide for Young Families," (www.mydigitalfamily.org) Dr. Schwarz, gives parents tips to leverage their home-court advantage to make media a positive family life asset. “Parents should manage children’s media consumption as they do a meal plan.”
Schwarz believes there needs to be “an ongoing commitment to organizing kids’ media lives just as we manage nutrition.”
The iPad is a shiny toy meant to make one thing truly interactive, buying stuff you used to get for free.
Question every single review you get from a digital content provider, they're seeing dollar signs.
No Flash
No USB ports
No Firefox
No sale!
I'll buy an HP slate or an Notion adam and be able to all of those things I want to right now without the DRM.
Techies know better.
http://gizmodo.com/5471559/notion-ink-adam-tablet-caught-on-video-specs-finalized
Noah Kravitz nailed it with that sentence. He totally gets it. While this comment board is full of doubters and haters, they are exactly the techno-tifosi Mr. Kravitz described in his article. Each one of you ignored what what Mr. Kravitz said.
So let me cut to the chase: You're driving by looking in your rear-view mirror. That was then. This is now.
It's ironic that the early adopters of the iPad may likely be the very people who the techno-tifosi look down upon, people unworthy of their expertise and self-importance. But if the iPad succeeds, and I believe it will, the iPad will be embraced by people who have long wished for a device that would make connecting to the world a more simple experience. Some of you will detest that. You WANT life to be hard. You want to tinker. Viewed that way, you're missing the whole point.
The truth is that many of you don't want the iPad. But you will. You just don't realize it yet. It's funny that your folks do. Some day, you will realize that you should have always listened to your parents. And the iPad will be a good reason why.
Otherwise, you're right on the money...which is to say you're missing the forest for the trees. This is an awkward, gimped, insult that should be given out for free given its clearly hampered purpose, to give Apple even more money for their approved media. Flop...unless they drop it to a reasonable price of free (or 200 dollars...I suspect some people would pay 200 for a sofa/toilet internet appliance.