Will the iPad Change Anything?
Just before I was giving my presentation at Sales Kick Off yesterday, Apple began unveiling their new iPad. A few people in the audience were looking at the emerging details on their iPhones. I took a quick scan of my Twitter stream later on. It was a topic of discussion throughout the day. I eventually read a small amount of the coverage.
The general complaints I saw on Twitter were related to the lack of a camera or the fact that it had data service only through AT&T. What I see is the biggest failing of the device, quite honestly, is the same downside as for the iPhone: the fact that the device is tied to iTunes.
The iTunes app itself is a bloated, monolithic application that does far too many things. Aside from that, it means you cannot manage content on the device from more than one Mac or PC. I suspect this “limitation” has something to do with how Apple implements DRM, but even Apple has to realize that people own (or use) more than one computer these days and should figure out a way to handle this more gracefully–at least with non-DRMed content.
With this in mind, Apple has clearly created a device that is not a replacement for your primary computer. It’s a big iPod Touch. That’s great for consuming certain kinds of content, but given the limitations of iPhone OS, it won’t be replacing my laptop in my bag anytime soon.
Perhaps the next iPhone OS will remove some of them. Maybe it will add Bluetooth keyboard support, multitasking, and the ability to manage content from more than one computer. Maybe it will do a better job managing battery life or remove the stupid limitations about downloading larger than 10mb files over 3G.
Will the iPad change the world? We don’t have the whole story yet. The rest of it will come when they announce the next iPhone OS, presumably before the iPad actually ships. Then we’ll know the true capabilities of the iPad and just how game changing things will be.
Meanwhile, Apple has ramped up the hype machine by announcing the iPad prior to shipping. The fanboys will continue to drool over the hardware. The rumors will continue to spread until the iPad ships.
Me? I’m happy with my iPhone. It’s already changed my world. Will the iPad change my world? Maybe, but I’m happy to wait and let the true story unfold.
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Comment by Lonnie
“I’m happy to wait and let the true story unfold. ” Sage advice.
Comment by Marc Abrams
I don’t entirely agree with iTunes = 1 PC or 1 Mac. In my house, we setup Home Sharing and it works amazingly well. My son has a Windows 7 netbook and my wife has a Windows Vista laptop, and I have a MacBook Pro and we easily share music and movies between them. I could see the iPad docking with my MacBook Pro and pulling my son’s Thelonious Monk songs from his netbook.
I’ve been thinking about the role the iPad plays with a corporate user. I make a LOT of presentations and use the current version of Keynote. I want to try the iPad version before making a decision, but if it works the way it looks like in the videos, and saves me time in making and editing all these presentations, that will be my killer app for the iPad.
marc.
Comment by kenvernon
For the millions of iPhone and iTouch users, the iPad UX will allow a seamless user transition to a middle road device that allows them to consume content quickly and easily. Where Apple takes the iPad from here is the really interesting question. With a major OS upgrade, the iPad could easily become a laptop replacement for many and a valuable tool for content consumption for others.
As you, I am happy to wait and see.
Comment by Philippine Outsourcing
My first impressions of the device are largely positive. Apple has once again built a product that looks good and feels great in the hand, and the familiar user interface, borrowed from the iPhone and iPod touch, is perfectly suited to the bigger screen. The iPad whizzes along, opening applications, re-sizing web pages, and zooming in and out of maps almost instantaneously. It’s a great, fun gaming platform, and it’s lovely to view full-size web pages while browsing the internet. Developers, no doubt, are already rubbing their hands with glee about the apps and services they could tailor specifically for this device. – Jaime
Comment by Mike Rogers
I think the iPad changes things quite a bit. It continues the shift from multi-purpose PCs/Macs which are advanced content creation tools. The very first PDA, the palm was so successful because it was focused on 4 tasks, Address Book, Calendar, To-Dos and Notes.
The iPad represents the next step in that. Simple, purpose built machines.
Comment by Faith | Postcard Printing
Same way here, IPhone had a huge change in my life. Almost everything is a click away from me and it is a big thing for any online marketer like me. I’m not that interested with the new Apple product, the IPad thing but I am waiting for its review to see what difference would it make to IPhones. We’ll see. LOL.