The rumors are starting to make a little sense now. Re-energized by a
Border’s Books survey for readers preferences, someone noted an Apple iPAD as an option. It makes sense that Apple would be working very closely with bookstores on this future device, and its possible someone slipped up and disclosed information they shouldn’t have. Or simply it was a
marketing stab in the air. Or, its possible the slip was intentional. Like a trial balloon.
Who knows, but let’s have fun with the idea anyway.
Here are my top seven reasons why an iPAD will be a success where Tablets have failed in the past.
1) It Won’t be a PC - Not only “it won’t be a tablet” but it won’t be a PC. The desktop metaphor won’t work here, period. A “Start” button on a tablet is a joke. A hovering mouse pointer is stupid. Drag-able windows everywhere is nuts. Icons and menus and scroll bars driving functionality is lame.
Apple gets it. There is no Finder on the iPhone is there? Thank goodness. The failure of screen-driven devices beyond pocket size has to do with the reluctance of the industry to disrupt the PC. Instead this class of device has always been forced into a position of comparison with that of the standard PC either as a companion, or as an extension, or as a replacement. This is what happens when industries, not the end users, get to dictate how new technology will be applied into the market. One of the major criticisms of Apple has been they failed to open their platform and create an industry like the Wintel world, and they also failed to compromise their fixation on the consumer and the end-user experience, rather than put more effort on the standards of corporate IT world. Thank goodness again, otherwise we would have no iPhone.
2) EBook Store – Yet another store for Apple: iTunes, AppStore, and now an ebook Store. I remember reading awhile back that Steve Jobs said nobody reads anymore. Ha ha. More revenue PLUS, the possibility of a subsidizing angle from a top book store, say Borders? Unlike the muzak industry, retailers have a bigger foothold on the market and therefore Apple won’t be dealing with the publishers directly. Border’s makes sense, they are the number 2 giant and just last year decided to go after Amazon head to head with its own internet presence. Why wouldn’t Apple make a deal directly with them? It makes a lot of sense.
3) Video – This is not the no-brainer people think it is. A laptop has an advantage besides having a keyboard. It works well with tops: laps, desks, tables, airplane trays, and other flat surfaces. Watching video is mainly a stationary activity. That is why I should also say you can’t take the “TV metaphor” and put it on this device. If the user interface for this winds up being an Apple TV extension or a touch version of Front Row then this will fail. It won’t be though, Apple is too smart. The real killer application of an iPad for video of course is an extension of how we already are using the iPhone 3GS. Not just for video clip streaming and viewing while in ultra mobile environments, but for video clip creating. It will have a camera, and it will supplant the home cameras in a way that will make it a home video studio with feet.
4) Personal Communicator with Choice. “Not an iPhone” means Verizon and Sprint will be a contractual possibility. That means the iPAD Pro (vs. a possible WiFi only version) most likely have both a CDMA and GSM radio in it like HTC’s Touch Pro 2. Though I am pretty sure the iPAD will be based on upgraded version of the iPhone’s cocoa touch OS, it is likely the “iPAD” will be considered a new product category. It won’t be a phone, but it will be a Personal Communicator class of device that was supposed to (and should have) disrupted the PC’s dominance a decade ago. The competition from having more than one choice of providers will allow for even better subsidized prices, making this new contraption even more appealing.
5) WebPad. Wanderbook was conceived with from the idea of creating a WebPad in 1999. When wireless technology began its rise, the idea of pen computers running a browser, untethered, seemed to be a no-brainer. It was, and still is a valid concept. As I said in #1 above, the problem is the concept got killed by trying to also port a big fat desktop operating system on to these devices where the will of the mighty PC industry refused to compromise for the benefit of the end user.
6) Headset Oriented – The iPhone is a self contained phone, and like all phones you can raise it to your ear and speak into it, put it into your pocket etc. - a major advantage over Personal Communicators with larger screens. Ok, but this advance could be a disadvantage as well. Is it really healthy to put a transmitter next to your brain all day? I won’t feed into the health concerns of mobile phones, just that it is a concern to many people, valid or not. Plus, handsets are now a no-no in many states while driving and it seems wireless speaker or headsets are the way of the future for this and other reasons. Plus, unless it is a speaker phone, which for many reasons are not practical all the time, you can’t use your screen simultaneously. So, a device that is meant to be used with a head makes sense.
7) Games – The iPhone and iPod Touch have open up news possibilities in the game market. A bigger screen simply means bigger possibilities.
8) A New Metaphor UI - This is one I am not sure of…(why I said 7 reasons). I think this is going to be a very tough nut for Apple to crack. Sticking to the phone metaphor was brilliant, but I think it could fall apart with a bigger device. However, a more sophisticated digitizer integrated with multitouch may be too much too soon. Also, of course, breaking too far away from the iPhone U/I would be risky.
But the thumb can only reach so far, and let’s face it, thats the primary “stylus” we use, our other digits on our hand – not as much. The phone metaphor itself can only go so far. I am guessing the iPAD will not only have a bigger display, but a richer display, like that from Pixel QI which is a new kind of epaper that has a rich full color and fast refreshing screen, and with a lot of the advantages the other epaper technologies have: high paperlike contrast, low power, lightweight .
Pixel Qi Product Vision
Therefore a richer U/I to go along with it makes sense.
Personally I love the Notebook metaphor of the electronic briefcase (AKA PenPoint), and I find it amusing the PC industry took away the notebook name for itself, but never took the metaphor. A richer interface means more gestures, and now that Apple has brought back the notion that gestures can be good, instead of bad (yes, there was a time when this was standard thinking, again it was driven by PC industrial driven world). Not to forget the “ThinkPad” which by the, was also originally a system design for PenPoint.
Anyway, this iPad means there is a need for something richer than the finger or thumb as a stylus. No not a keyboard, arg…I mean yes, a better software keyboard, perhaps, maybe handwriting reonigiton done right (but thats another article for me to write) – but one that includes ink. You know, like ink on a piece of paper but digital, concept we some of use know as “ink as a datatype”. By the way, those who know a little know nothing…Microsoft did not invent ink writing applications. The whole concept was full realized out of, yes once again, GO corporation with PenPoint.
But I digress. Handwritten digital ink, and the ability to manipulate it with a rich gesture set would enable a more human interface, not simply a paper note taking application, no, no, this would permeate throughout the entire U/I, like a lamented layer over everything. Get it? Maybe not, it’s really sad that much of what was PenPoint was ripped from the history books.
which may still be propriatary for all I know). The song (maybe the best part)i one of my favs, a band called the plimsouls… I’ll have to get a higher res version up later. Done in Flash, back then not as powerful as today, but I had a lot of fun doing it. I had close to a zero budget for multimedia and 
