The iPad: Just wait
February 5, 2010 by Simon Goudie
I was going to write an interesting post on the iPad and what changes it will bring to the industry, but it seems that stevenf has pretty much covered all my angles in his great post here. So instead, here’s my opinion in a nutshell:
Firstly, the iPad isn’t a computer – it’s not a desktop, netbook or laptop. It’s not going to replace any of these for good, like so many people are suggesting. Instead, it is expanding on the idea of the iPhone and developing the category of ‘appliance’. You need to check Facebook? Ok, press this and it becomes Facebook. Email? Press this and it becomes email. Most people won’t need to know how the workings or filesystem operate underneath, just like no-one these days can fix a toaster if it breaks. The appliance just does what it says it will do without you having to worry.
So yeah, it’s not going to be the enthusiast’s cup of tea. With the exception of those jailbreaking etc. there won’t be a way to mess around with the insides. And that’s fine. It hasn’t stopped the iPhone from moving 40 million units at all. The problem is that the enthusiasts are the ones making all the noise at the moment, because we’re the ones who got up at 4am to follow the announcement and write the blog posts. If the ‘average user’ had a choice between iPad simplicity or complexity that they wouldn’t use and would increase vulnerability to hacking, viruses and instability, I think I know what the vote would be.
Same goes for multitasking. In most cases, the average user is going to use Facebook, then use email, then watch a video. Not try to do these all at once. The boost to battery life is a far more valuable selling point. Sure, background processes need to be introduced for live updates and applications like Latitude, but we’re already halfway there with push notifications. Likewise, there will need to be a way to move information between apps, particularly now that iWork is coming onboard; hopefully this will be via online cloud storage rather than an onboard file system.
So, as stevenf puts it, is a manual car better than an automatic? No, they’re just different. Apple have built a brand on the idea of ‘turn it on and it works’ (well, that and ‘ooh, shiny!’). The iPad is just the next extension of this. The iPhone brought a lot of enthusiast mobile phone features (such as basic web browsing on the go) to the masses, and the iPad will do the same for a wider range of computing functions. It’s certainly not perfect, but for a first generation product, it’s pretty damn good – developers are going to have a field day with a multitouch screen that big.
The biggest question at the moment in my mind is whether content providers will take up the challenge. The iPad (and the slew of devices that will mimic the concept over the next few years) represents a very mainstream adoption of the tablet concept, one that is built for content consumption. Apple could well be throwing newspaper and magazine publishers a lifeline here. However, it’s not going to be enough to simply reproduce the same product for a different media, they are going to need to evolve and evolve quickly to compete.
Publishers will need to look closely at what features can be used on the device and go out on a limb to ensure that their material is what people turn to. Because they are not just competing with other magazines or newspapers any more – when someone picks up their iPad, they are choosing between games, videos, music, books, blogs, and countless other competitors for their attention, not just between traditional types of published material. Users are going to need a reason to turn to a magazine.
Book publishers will also need to lift their game. The iPad is not going to be the world’s best ebook reader, the screen clearly dictates that. However, the iBook store will fast become a major player in book sales and customers are soon going to become frustrated and angry with the games that publishers currently play with pricing, distribution and availability. Book publishers have so far been lucky enough to avoid the fate of record companies, but this could quickly change once ebooks receive the same treatment that music got via iTunes. It’s time for some radical changes in the industry if people want to stay in the game. Otherwise, there is going to be one hell of a backlash from consumers.
So sure, rail against the iPad and its lack of this or that for now. It’s certainly the fashionable thing to do and shows how much more you know than Apple. But then wait until you hold and use one. Wait until the next Flight Control, Evernote or Facebook killer app is released. Wait until the devs start pushing the limits of the device. Then look around and see the sheer number of people that this device allows to get online without the hassle of a full computer and operating system and the inherent problems and confusion that they bring.
Steve Jobs knows that you can’t just give people what they want, he’s already pointed out the problems when you do that. Instead, Steve and Apple have the ability to innovate and sense what people will want; and not just the enthusiasts and tech professionals, but the general population. While we’re waiting for it to be released, try looking back over the cries of outrage when the iPod and iPhone were released. And just as the iPod and then the iPhone brought so much mobile computing and network power to the masses, so will the iPad do the same (even with the stupid name). Just give it a bit of time.
Posted in 
content rss
