First, is it not the computer/television/phone we've wanted and predicted the last few decades?
Second, this really does change everything. It changes what we think of a computer. It changes how we use it. It changes where we compute, freeing us up far more. It changes what computer manufacturers will now be trying to create. It's almost endless, the changes it initiates.
It will change how we work with computers.
It will change how we play with them.
It will reduce, at least, the need for other resource and reference materials even further. It will all be at the tip of our nearby pad.
If you thought there a lot of backpacks in the past, get ready. They are going to explode in usage. Everyone will have one, to carry their pad. (I'm calling them pads here because that's what they'll be referred to in the future, once all the other companies start making similar products). As if this week, you have approximately 700,000 potential clients for your new backpack. And that's just the beginning, of course.
If you own a backpacking manufacturing plant, good for you. If you don't, it might be a good idea to start one up. Go to the drawing board right now and design one so the iPad slips right in, in one slot, and all the other, peripheral stuff goes in the rest of the pack. And of course it will have lots of little, additional pockets on it, for accessories and your other personal things.
"Man purses"? Outta here. You won't hear that term any longer, since we'll all have some kind of pack for the soon-to-be ubiquitous pads.
The more shallow trend of leather and other fancier backpacks--that wouldn't have lasted otherwise because it was just that, a fashion trend--will be replaced with all kinds of upscale--and downscaled and more casual--backpacks, all so we will have our pad with us at all times, along with all our other stuff.
The theft of these backpacks will explode, too, in the short term. But then, a tracking device will, very shortly, be put in the pads, along with identification so they can be located and returned to their rightful, original owners, unlike the iPhones and iPods, which is unfair and a rip but Apple hasn't addressed it yet. Now, they'll have to.
If you're Garmin, you know the iPad spells an even faster decline of need for your products.
Still work for Blockbuster? Same thing. Get the heck out, now. (You should have know this at some point in the last 5 years, already, truth be told).
Remember the big, recent hoo-hah about making texting in cars illegal? Sure you do. Well, that's going to be nothing in short order. With the new iPad--and the coming of other "pads"--we'll need to make computing in cars illegal. And quickly. It would be that easy to do, otherwise.
You tweet? Like Facebook? It just got a whole lot easier to put many more little thoughts and blurbs out on the 'net for all to see because of the iPad. I'd predict the further explosion of social sites on the internet and in our world, at least for a while, as it's still new. Whether we keep doing that, in the long run, is harder to say and forecast. For now, it will continue to grow.
Hear that sound? The world just shrank a whole lot more. Have a friend who went to Europe (or Japan or anywhere on the planet) for a vacation? Job? Anything? Pull them up on your 2 "pads" and have a face-to-face conversation. Business trip to talk over details? iPad. Done. No hotels. No flights. No days wasted in travel. No big, expensive conferencing system that has to be purchased for a big conference meeting. All in the past.
This will hasten, still further, the decline in need or desire for the newspaper and books. Their sales will shrink and at a faster pace. Sure, some people will still want them but there will be an even faster decline in the purchase of paper media. If you think about this, it's great for the forests and planet and so, in the bigger picture, humankind. On the flip side, if you work for a lumber company, retrain now. Get into computers. Or health care. Or teaching or something. Else.
I have to check but I hope the iPads already have compatibility with TV sets. If they don't, the next version needs to. Entertaining family and/or friends will be terrific, being able to plug our pad into our set and being able to play whatever. If, again, they don't already have this capability and you're Apple, I'm thinking the partner with a huge TV manufacturer quickly, to develop and exploit this capability.
Then, again, for the average schmuck on the street--that would be you and me--quick, think of a cool way you'd like to use one of these things. Something you'd love to do but that isn't yet possible. Write a software program (or two or three) and write your meal ticket for, possibly, the rest of your life, almost no matter your age. Think. Get creative. Have some fun. Then make it happen.
It has to be an incredibly exciting time to work for Apple. Wouldn't you love to already be working for them, now, and show up at work tomorrow morning? The excitement must be nearly palpable. If you were part of developing the pad, I'm thinking they've already got a nearly limitless number of ideas for the next version.
Another big salute and thank you from all of us to Steve Jobs.
Has anyone compared him to Thomas Edison yet?
Live long and prosper, Mr. Jobs. We love your work.
Links to related stories:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/03/11-ways-the-ipad-could-ch_n_523828.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/04/04/ipad-sales-estimate-600-7_n_524653.html
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/01/28/ipad-features-what-you-ca_n_439232.html
http://www.time.com/time/business/article/0,8599,1977687,00.html?xid=rss-business
http://www.apple.com/ipad/
http://www.tuaw.com/tag/ipad
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/188013/the_ipads_five_best_surprises.html
http://www.boingboing.net/2010/04/02/why-i-wont-buy-an-ipad-and-think-you-shouldnt-either.html
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3 comments:
It isn't a phone, even though it has the capability. It isn't a computer, even though it has the capability. It is marginally more portable, and far less capable than the netbook I am typing this on, at well over twice the price.
It is a giant iPod touch. The iTouch is fantastic--I read your post on my touch. But the interface isn't good enough to type on, and enlarging it is not enough to fix the problems with it--it was easier to dig my netbook out and boot it up to reply.
Open source software--linux and such is far more game-changing. It allows computers to go to third world countries, allows them to escape much corporate control, allows hardware to be used as the owners want, not the way Apple or Microsoft want.
but the fact is, this makes both the manufacturer and the end-user think of computers in entirely new ways. It doesn't matter that the iPad isn't perfect. That's beside the point. It will--does--have it's problems, naturally. But both Apple and the rest of the computing world are going to take this and run with it and whole new products are going to come from it, because of this product. That's the point.
I've been waiting for tablet and mobile computers like this to take off, for years.
It hasn't happened (yet). It'll be interesting to see if Apple manages to market it.
I do find it interesting that Apple has managed to claim the idea though, even if it wasn't theirs.
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