There's no doubt that the iPad is a beautifully engineered product. But, then again, we have come to expect nothing less from the Apple of the last decade. This is a far cry from the Apple of the 90's, which had desperately lost its way, seen its share price scrape the floor and had no end of technical trials and tribulations. Now, the situation is reversed. The share price is through the roof, iPhone has established itself as a leader in the Smartphone marketplace and iTunes has revolutionized music distribution. Steve Jobs has both re-established and reinvented himself. This must have been a long road for the man who was ousted from his beloved start-up and who could be found roving the halls of universities in a suit and tie (at least at my alma mater), giving demos of his 'Next' computer to anybody who would stop and listen. They say that adversity is what shapes us into who we are. Jobs certainly had his fill of hard times but it's probably the best thing that every happened to him. And to Apple fans, too. Not to mention fans of Pixar and Disney.
My feelings about iPad are mixed but in the interest of full disclosure, they are decidedly positive. So, if you want to read a slam of the product, then feel free to move on now. At least, I hope I can offer a more reasoned and pragmatic review than some of the other stuff I've been reading lately.
My feelings are mixed, because the expectation vs. the execution of the product are a little out-of-sync. From a hardware perspective, the device delivers on expectation. It has a good form-factor for watching videos, browsing web pages, reading books and magazines. It's well-machined and the battery life is surprisingly long given the size of the screen. The interface is responsive and generally snappy (with a few exceptions - especially, Zinio). A lot of people seem to be disappointed that it doesn't have a camera but, I suspect, will grudgingly accept a range of accessories (at different price points) to offer that functionality in the future. All good on the hardware front, I say. Others might say, 'not revolutionary' - but is that really true? Did anybody really believe that a device with these specs was really possible (and at this price-point) 6 months ago? I don't think so. To me, that's pretty revolutionary.
Creating a mass-market product that is both reliable and simple to use requires discipline and compromise. The iPad doesn't have multi-tasking, memory card slots, USB ports, or moving parts. Why should it? For each additional input you provide, you increase the complexity. You increase the chance that something won't work. Not all memory cards work in all devices despite being the correct form factor. Why? Because nobody agrees on the same specs. Not all USB devices require the same amount of power to operate (which can have adverse affects on battery life). Some might even damage your device. And if a user buys some third-party accessory that they are able to plug into their iPad and it doesn't work, who are they going to blame? Ultimately, it's going to diminish the halo around the iPad, until they come to believe that it's the iPad that's the problem - for not working with their favourite device; for not working with every other supposedly 'standard' device out there. So, instead, Apple creates a proprietary connector and a vetting process that ensures that nothing that is sold as an accessory will diminish the iPad experience. What about the lack of multi-tasking? Well, Apple provides multi-tasking to a select group of apps that they control - so there is multi-tasking. There just isn't multi-tasking available to ALL apps. And why should they? Multi-tasking increases complexity. Mediocrity sets in. Some developers get lazy, or try to hog all the resources. Things don't work as smoothly. The user blames the iPad. Instead, forcing every app developer to make sure that there app can be shut down cleanly and be resumed nicely where the user left off - even after it's been completely flushed from memory - is good discipline. And it keeps the device simpler and less prone to errors, complexity and mediocrity. And you know what? Users actually get used to using one app at a time for its intended purpose. In my experience, it's far easier to train someone to use one product/device/service for one task, then to introduce them to one device that does everything. Only geeks (like me) love the 'everything' device. Most people prefer to stick to something that is more clearly defined. Form follows function.
The software is where the execution is at odds with expectation. Given the tremendous hype from Apple, we all expected something revolutionary from a 'services' perspective. Instead, there are only a handful of applications that do anything new with the iPad, so there is a bit of an anticlimax when browsing the App store. This feels like a product that was rushed to market. Perhaps events were starting to overtake Apple and they felt that they needed to get this out the door NOW and put a stake in the ground. Perhaps the market is about to get very crowded with tablets and ebook readers and all kinds of contraptions, so Apple knew that the window of opportunity to cut through the noise and clutter would soon close. SDKs were only available to most developers less than 8 weeks before launch. That didn't give them much time to prepare. All of this, by the way, was true of the original iPhone launch - and look where it is now - so none of these criticisms are deal-breakers, but it does take some wind out of the sails. I would have liked to have seen more apps and services that showcased why the iPad is such a magical device.
The question then remains, is this an evolutionary product, or a revolutionary one? Is this an incremental upgrade from an iTouch, or a game-changer? I believe that it's a game-changer and here's why.
For a long time portability has been a tremendous compromise between form and function, versatility and reliability. The most reliable devices were not very multi-functional and tended to only handle a few core tasks well (palm pilot for calendaring and scheduling, mobile phones for making calls, etc), whereas laptops could do anything but were extremely complex, less reliable and less responsive (long boot-up times, sensitive hard disks, compromised battery life, many calls to tech support, etc). For the first time in recent history, the iPad gives us a consumer electronics device that can be used for as many tasks as a laptop computer but without all the downside. It offers the simplicity and reliability you would expect from a solid-state device without the reduced functionality. This is an important milestone. It allows Apple to crank out millions of identical devices to people around the globe at an amazing price point. For years, educators have dreamt of the sub-$1,000 notebook that would lift third-world classrooms out of digital poverty. Well, here it is.
The beauty of the iPad is that all the functionality is handled by developers who create apps well-suited to their specific tasks. This solves the inherent tension between being a jack-of-all-trades but a master of none. The one-size fits all, Swiss Army Knife approach to software results in bloatware (MS Office is a case in point). It's difficult to be all things to all people. Instead, by keeping the device simple to use but allowing people to chose the right app for the job and making sure that the app won't overtax the device, step on the toes of other apps and be true to its purpose is a great solution to the problem. Allowing people to create apps tailor made to solve specific problems in vertical markets (medical, technology, finance, etc) makes the solution very versatile, while reigning in complexity. Furthermore, if the device itself doesn't have the computing power to provide the full solution locally, the app can simply offload that heavy lifting to the cloud and get the results back (as, for example, an app like ScanR does). This allows for nearly unlimited solutions in the same form-factor.
All of the above is a long-winded way of saying that the iPad is the first Un-Computer. It provides all the functionality of a computer without the previous limitations and costs. It builds upon the applications and services established by iTunes and the iTouch but it provides the form-factor and processing power necessary to support rich experiments in multi-media convergence. Movies and television on demand? No problem. Living Textbooks? Can't wait but the 'Elements' book provides a taste of what's to come. Networked apps that connect people in the same room as across the planet? Sure. Games that need the power to run 3D virtualisations? Yes. What about board games and tactical tools that need the screen real-estate? That, too. The iPad isn't a phone - that's the iPhone. The iPad isn't the family A/V - that's the Apple TV. The iPad isn't the music player - that's the iPod. Instead, the iPad is a personal media hub that connects everything together, locally and globally. It allows you to pull anything from the cloud and interact with it locally.
And here's what it comes down to and why I've saved the best for last. In Apple's marketing video, there's a very brief mention of 'putting the Internet in your hand'. A very simple idea, to be sure. It doesn't sound revolutionary... but it really is. Do you remember when we had to access the Internet over dial-up? It was a nightmare. It took ages to download anything. We couldn't wait for broadband. But when broadband came along, people questioned why we needed so much bandwidth - wouldn't it all be so unnecessary? But one of the biggest virtues of broadband wasn't simply the huge increase in bandwidth - it was the 'always-on' aspect of the service. When people didn't have to login to do something, they begin using the Internet for causal searches and the rest is history. It changed our behaviour and it changed our way of life. It made the Internet omnipresent and pervasive. It allowed us to invent new services and new activities. It connected us to knowledge, people and ideas in ways we never imagined possible. Now, all of that is in your hand.
The iPad is my first experience of truly having 'the Internet in my hand'. It's not a hobbled, chopped down version of the Internet like my iPhone. It's full-fidelity. I can easily pass it around to show people stuff. It's easy to gather around and share information. It's a social device. My iphone isn't a social device and, frankly, neither is my laptop. It may be difficult to understand how something that looks like an overgrown iTouch can be a game-changer but, then, so did broadband before it became ubiquitous. I think the iPad makes a lot of old ideas suddenly possible. In particular, there are ideas in educational gaming that have only been dreamt about but couldn't be realised because they required a certain level of technical ability in a form-factor and at a price-point that was accessible to all. Well, here it is. I'm really excited about the future and I think the iPad is going to usher in a lot of new revolutionary products and services. As with the iPhone, Apple has provided a platform and asked the rest of us to show the world to make the most of it.
By: Road Warrior Article Directory: Articledashboard
