The Not Computer for the Rest of Us

On January 27th, an incredibly important speech was delivered. Sure the State of the Union, but Steve Jobs' unveiling of Apple's worst kept secret, the iPad was the real deal.

The iPad is not a huge leap forward. It's principal advantages over an iTouch are only two, but those two are huge.

• Size. Yes, size matters. I personally have no problem reading 'The Count of Monte Cristo' on my iTouch, but a lot of people are going to be more comfortable reading with more screen real estate. And while a lot of the apps I use on a daily basis are fine on the the iTouch/iPhone and are often likely improved by the focus forced by the constraints of the platform, there are plenty of apps and many web pages that will improve with more room to roam. Reviewing, let alone editing, a spreadsheet on an iTouch? No thank you.
• Typing. This is really size again, but it's a significant functionality improvement. My iTouch has freed me up to travel without a laptop and still keep in touch, but essays and longer emails wait for a keyboard. The iPad keyboard will take some getting used to and will start out with a bunch of bad press, but trackpads took some getting used to and started out with a bunch of bad press too. The iPad looks like it's going to be a little bit bigger than something I'd like to carry around, but choosing between it and my laptop for most trips is going to be a no-brainer. And I'll still have the iTouch in my pocket for walking around. The iPad will have an optional keyboard, but having bought the optional keyboard for my Newton and then only using it once or twice, I'll be skipping it this time.

There are a number of criticisms leveled at the iPad.

• Tablets have been around for years and made little impact. Trying to cram the existing PC/Windows experience into a tablet doesn't get you to the "tipping point". What it gets you is a device that isn't a very good PC. Apple's iPhone OS reimagines the UI and scales up to a tablet better than Windows will ever scale down to a tablet. Throw in iWork, redesigned for the iPad, and 140K existing iPhone/iTouch applications plus the web and web based applications and you've got a tool that's tough to beat. Amazon's Kindle certainly won't, it's price point may be lower and they'll be adding apps, but they've been thoroughly leapfrogged.
• The iPad isn't "open". Linux fans remain puzzled by the failure of Linux to take over the universe. It's free! It's open! It's massively configurable! Yes, it is. And 1% of the universe cares, if that. In the early '90s, I spent several hours helping a long time Apple employee set up an .Xdefaults file on his swanky sun workstation while he looked on in stunned disbelief. Being able to open up the hood is great, but most people don't want to do that, they just want to read their email and look at Facebook and then get on with their day. I only care that Android is Linux if, for some reason, I want to do "chmod 4777" on my phone. Few do.
• Corporate IT hates it. Of course they do, that's their job. Their job is also to figure out how to make it work if there is a business or productivity case.
• It's not really a computer. I don't imagine I'll be busting out Eclipse and cranking any code on it any time soon, but, for now, that's not what it's for.

An interesting thing about most of these comments - they've been leveled at Apple forever. The Mac isn't open, corporate IT hates it and it isn't a "real" computer. Bust out of your box, maybe the computer for the rest of us is just a device that, without a lot of fuss, does a lot of useful things.

Tongue extracted from cheek, how is a product announcement on par with the State of the Union? Because if the iPad is successful, it will cause cultural shift, the way the first PC did, the way the web did, the way cell phones did, the way laptops did. It will put the web, your books, your music, your work, your recreation all in your pocket for a relatively low price. It will succeed where others failed because it goes that one last mile and becomes a device for the rest of us.