Early Impressions of the iPad
A friend asked me my opinion of the iPad, and the answer got rather long, so I thought I'd post it here.
First: I haven't actually used one, so my opinion is based on reading others' thoughts and impressions.
My first take, like a lot of other people's, was that it's "just an oversized iPod touch." I've read a lot about it since then (and found similarities with other emerging devices) and come to agreement with a few observations, of which this post is largely a synthesis.
(Keep in mind, of course, that neither I nor most people who have written about it have actually held an iPad in their hands yet!)
- Size matters. It's not just more screen space; the increased quantity of screen/touch area means a qualitatively different experience. On the iPhone, drawing/painting apps are still pretty much toys; on a bigger screen, they become a whole new thing.
- It's a new category of device: it's not being marketed as a computer -- of course technically it is a computer at it's core, but so are your cell phone and the Wii; but you wouldn't call either of those things computers. This is a new category of device for people who are not technically savvy, don't want extensibility, but just want to get simple task done, like email, calendar, manage addresses, games, etc.
- Technical point of view. A lot of the criticisms aimed at the iPad so far are from technically oriented types who are used to being able to tweak every aspect of their systems, and bemoan the closed nature of the iPad/iPod/iPhone and the App Store, lack of memory expandability, no removable battery, etc, etc. But it's not geared toward them.
Something like the iPad would be the perfect er, "computer" for my father-in-law, who is overwhelmed by the high-maintenance nature of computers (and who can blame him?). Because it's not a computer in the traditional sense, he doesn't have to wrestle with the file system, or worry about how to install apps, or any of that stuff, in the same sense that we more knowledgeable computer users no longer think about replacing the vacuum tubes or feeding punch cards...
The iPad is one of a small number of new devices that are targeting a non-techie market, rethinking the experience from the ground up, and not bugging the user with details of the operating system. Others in this category include:
- The litl webbook, a small laptop-like device that functions as a sort of smart internet kiosk/television, stores all data in the cloud, and takes care of all OS/application updating while you sleep.
- Something along the same lines, though not quite as simplified, is the 10GUI concept, where you don't manage windows in X & Y dimensions; you manage them in the X & Z dimensions (efficient switching & zooming instead of tedious dragging and resizing).
- Machines running Google's ChromeOS (when it's released). Chrome OS seems to employ a similar X & Z window management idea as the 10GUI system. And all applications run on the web.
It's an exciting time right now: we are witnessing a schism in personal computing, where the "personal" part is going to get a lot less dreadful and a lot more fun, and the "computing" part will virtually disappear, but remain the platform of choice for developers, designers, and deep content creators.