I was pretty negative about the iPad the other day. I’ve been thinking about it more and I do think it would make an ideal second computer for some people. For instance my wife rarely does anything that demands more than what the iPad offers, and she’d love the form factor.
I think thought that what bothers most people is just that the iPad didn’t push forward the industry at all. There’s nothing I can point to and say, “that’s innovative.” Further I don’t think Jobs did a good job of explaining why this middle ground between the iPhone and MacBook is necessary.
Don’t get me wrong, as I can see it being nice for certain niches. I think the Kindle in particular will see stress. I can also see potentially getting one for my wife who rarely does anything but email and Facebook with the occasional short letter. She’d love that to use in bed, for instance. But how many families are there that want a second computer but don’t want the power of a laptop? I suspect there’s a lot fewer than Apple needs.
The problem is that I think it’s still clearly a device which, like the iPhone, requires a dedicated computer. Given that why get an iPad at all over a laptop? It doesn’t make much sense unless it could be much more stand alone. Put an other way I can’t see replacing my aging original 17″ iMac with this.
I think there were things Apple could have done better. I think a higher resolution screen, for instance. I think some new way of thinking about how we work. I agree that there is no way the item could have lived up to all the hype. Apple’s still bound by the realities of price and the current state of computing. However I don’t think they really produced anything but a large iPod Touch. Whereas I think they could have done a lot more.
The big pluses to all this though are probably that it forced Apple to think a lot about what to put in the new iPhone with the 4.0 OS. I think we can say for sure we’ll get the same chip putting the new iPhone above the Nexus (without the big Java hit the Nexus gets let alone the problem with the Pre’s development languages). I think that, despite the current handwringing, we’ll get multiprocessing for 3rd party apps. I also think we’ll get Apple offering either a sync API or something equivalent. (Rumors I’m hearing are that there’s some shared folder between the iPad and the Mac – probably we’ll get something similar for the iPhone and Touch)
I think though it’s clear that this was an underwhelming event that disappointed a lot of people. I think things people were expecting such as more media agreements just couldn’t get made. This bodes ill for other aspects of Apple’s line. (Compare what’s available on say an XBox for media versus Apple)
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#1 by Alex on 2010/01/30 - 12:21 am
The iPhone doesn’t actually need a computer. You can just sync all the pertinent details with MobileMe over your WiFi or 3G network, buy your songs direct from the iTMS, etc. Sure, if you want to manage a playlist that is somewhat smaller than the memory of the iPhone/iPad, you’ll need a PC for now.
I see a lot of the current iTunes-on-Desktop functionality being pushed up to MobileMe, so you’ll be able to manage your playlists on MobileMe, then decide which playlists to load onto the iPhone/iPad.
Same deal for your shared folder, via special-purpose sites such as iWork.com.
This wasn’t just about a supersized iPod Touch. They reworked their iWork products to work nicely on the iPad. They produced a new system-on-a-chip, the “A4″ – it’s not billed as a “iPad Core 2 Duo”, it’s not billed as a “A4 iPad”, it’s just “iPad”.
Apple is telling the world, “here, forget about what’s inside the computer, focus on what you can do with it.”
Most of what I got out of the presentation what what wasn’t said, or the *how* of what was actually said.
What was clear to me from this presentation was almost completely an aside to the obvious tablet announcement. Steve Jobs starting to wind down as Captain of Apple, repositioning Apple as a mobile computing company (not a computer company, not a mobile phone company, but a mobile computing company), and most importantly showing how to do productivity applications properly (on any platform).
How many times do you see the crew of Star Trek having problems loading printer drivers on their LCARS datapads? How often do you see the crew of Star Trek talking to each other about the wonderful features of their datapads?
that’s right, never. They’re using iPads, not Windows 7 tablets ;)
#2 by clark on 2010/01/30 - 12:48 am
Any OS update requires iTunes for the iPhone. Will that be the same for the iPad?
While you can download music directly to the iPhone to get your own music on it you have to use iTunes. There also isn’t really a way to get anything on the iPhone without iTunes. Contrast this to say getting music on an iMac. And, as you note, Apple really assumes you’ll do all your organization on your Mac with iTunes.
There’s just a very different function for the iPhone/Touch. They are explicitly designed to be second devices. And it appears that the iPad is going that route as well. However as a second device rather than a primary device it tends to fail. If you have a desktop then it might make sense. But the question remains, why not just get a laptop?
As I said if you have a computer and someone in your family simply wants something halfway between a laptop and Touch then it’s great. The question is how many are in that situation. As a second device it really only makes remotely any sense for those with a lot of disposable income.
I predict it’ll do better than the Air, but will be overall a failure for Apple. (Unless the 4.0 OS offers some very compelling features) However perhaps the revision B of the iPad will be more compelling. It reminds me of the initial iPhone (which had tons of limitations) but without the revolutionary UI that the original iPhone brought. Apple often releases initial offerings that are revolutionary but missing important features. Typically the second edition makes the product quite useful (the AppleTV being the exception to this rule, and perhaps the Air as well although I expect a revision of the Air).
#3 by clark on 2010/01/30 - 12:51 am
To add, the real competition for the iPad isn’t Windows7. It’s Android.
#4 by John Harrison on 2010/02/04 - 5:45 pm
Clark,
We’ll look back at the iPad in 5 or 10 years and see it as an innovation as important as web apps. The UI concepts and massive simplification of what the user needs to know and understand in order to operate the device are going to be huge leaps forward. It is hard to see right now because you already have the knowledge needed to be a sophisticated user of current systems. But it took you years to develop that expertise and a lot of people will never invest even a fraction of that time. This gives consumers (rather than producers) of digital media a very low friction way of participating in the information age.
#5 by Clark on 2010/02/04 - 9:03 pm
I agree – I just think it’ll be the iPhone and not the iPad that is seen as revolutionary. I think the iPad is just the logical extension of the iPhone much as the Mac II was of the original 128K Mac or even the Lisa.
#6 by John Harrison on 2010/02/05 - 11:53 am
I really think that the iPad is what they’ve been working toward this whole time and that the iPhone is sort of the iPad-lite. But who knows. Either way user interfaces will never be the same and there is a whole new category of multipurpose devices with relatively simply user interfaces when compared to current desktop apps.
#7 by Clark on 2010/02/05 - 10:38 pm
That may well be. And unarguably the iPad is more useful for many people. (Although I can’t imagine living without my iPhone anymore — I use it a lot) I just think that the problem is the iPad lacks the size utility of the iPhone but doesn’t offer more than a laptop other than greater simplicity.
#8 by John Harrison on 2010/02/08 - 5:24 pm
I’ve finally taken the time to write up my iPad thoughts here:
http://blog.insightvr.com/?p=224
Time will tell if I am right. Even if the iPad itself is a flop I think it will be hugely influential, but I think it will be another hit.