A lot of people and most of my friends are disappointed with Apple’s latest creation. “It’s nothing more than a bigger, oversized iPod Touch” they say and basically they are right but having an oversized iPod Touch has it’s advantages. The size and form factor alone allows you to do so much more in a much more comfortable manner. In the beginning, I was very skeptical as well and was completely underwhelmed with the iPad announcement but after watching the keynote yesterday, I think it may have a bigger impact than I thought first.
For once the form factor seems to be right. I am a huge iPhone fan and love all the apps I downloaded and purchased over time. I cannot imagine how it was back in the days without this little gadget. You can do so much with an iPhone but some things on the iPhone are just not that comfortable. I mean, browsing the web to quickly look up something is fine. Answering an email with “Ok, let’s do that” is just fine. Playing the casual game is just fine. Writing a longer email, taking meeting notes, browsing the web with the iPad seems to be much better (not to mention using the physical keyboard accessory).
Lot’s of my friends are complaining that the iPad has a stripped down version of OS X (like the iPhone) installed. They prefer to have a full running version of OS X or Windows on it. I admit, that this would have it’s advantages but in my opinion Apple made the right decision. I’m not a fan of the App approval process and the Big Brother – Attitude of Apple and find it really annoying. I understand that this will protect most users like my parents but I really miss the “Ok, I am an adult and take the risk to install and use dangerous software”-button to do crazy stuff with a device like that. On the other hand, imagine running full OS X or Windows on a device like this. Windows, pull down menus, buttons, it’s just not built for a device like that. Imagine a Finder or Windows Explorer running on a device and by mistake you wipe your finger and move some folders around your hard drive. It’s just not right. Apple pulled something off what Microsoft failed to achieve. They (re-)invented the UI for such devices. The only “problem” is, that they achieved that with the iPhone. Yes, the UI was born with the iPhone and it was genius. There’s nothing wrong to take this approach further to the iPad. Obviously it worked great for the iPhone to enable multi-touch so why not bringing it to the iPad? My guess is, that everyone who is disappointed with the iPad announcement expected another similar breakthrough invention as the iPhone and it’s UI.
Look at Windows 7. It claims to be multi-touch enabled but where’s Microsoft’s effort to build a Shell and API’s, User Controls, etc. to enable developers bringing great multi touch apps to Windows? Looking at HP’s Slate PC they introduced earlier this year, I thought, wow, you can run Windows 7 on this tiny little device? Great! But on second thought: will that be practical? What can I really do with it? Yes, I can start Outlook and Word and whatever but how will it feel?
After seeing the iWork demo, I am convinced that you really can work with such a device. I’ve seen people with a Windows Tablet and stylus running around, trying to get meeting notes and even these guys admitted that working with a stylus sucks.
To sum it all up: Apple may have made the right decision and the motto “Less is more” seems to be appropriate. The iPad will not replace your desktop PC, laptop or iPhone. Doing heavy duty work will always be done on your fully capable desktop OS. It’s the daily tiny stuff like communication, entertainment, infotainment such as emails, games, browsing and what ever cool apps will see the light of the day where the iPad will shine.
Just my two cents…