Magical and evolutionary iPad?
Dear Apple fanboy and fangirls,
A few months ago you may have read my post “iTablet – Time to think different again (predictions by Matt Ulvila)”. Shortly after, I promised a follow up and figured it was about that time…
OK, so my predictions might have been a little far fetched before the announcement. I admit that now, but my goal wasn’t to simply regurgitate every random rumor I had heard. Every tech website from here to Shanghai was already doing that. What I was trying to do was challenge people to “think different” about what the iPad could be.
This week, with the first reviews coming in, and the imminent launch of the iPad, there’s still a lot of concern with what the iPad isn’t rather than what the iPad can be. The iPad isn’t a laptop. The iPad doesn’t have flash and multitasking. The iPad doesn’t have a camera or removable battery. The iPad doesn’t even come with a base station or control your television like I predicted either. It doesn’t have any of these things yet.
What the iPad is, has yet to be determined and only time will tell. For example. Think about smart phones when the iPhone launched a few short years ago. The iPhone wasn’t the first smart phone, but the iPhone was truly was an “evolutionary” device because it had a great user interface. At the time I was rockin’ a Motorola Q, running some awful version of Windows mobile, and it was a rubbish user experience. My buddy Shawn had the sleek and sexy Nokia N95 which had superior hardware, but it had awful software and support which made it a bad overall user experience. What’s happened to phones in the last 2-3 years has been evolutionary change in user interface and software, rather than a revolutionary change in hardware. Same thing will happen with the iPad.
My advice for all my friends who ask my opinion on the iPad goes like this: Keep an open mind and a positive attitude in the months and year to come. Don’t fall into the trap of thinking the iPad is going to change the world overnight either. Don’t you dare think about the iPad as a typical computer running a desktop OS, because it’s not. It’s all about software and user experience, and how WE THE USER will evolve and use tablets in our daily lives. If you’re skeptical, sit back and enjoy the ride. If you’re a raving fanboy like myself and compelled to buy one today, wait a year or two for the iPad4G.