iPad will be initially misunderstood as a “big iPhone"
January 28, 2010
– Comments (11)
The iPad is out. I quickly read all the news about it, and became a little disappointed. But don’t write off the iPad so quick. Sure it is not revolutionary like the iPhone was, and while reading the news out there I really got to the conclusion myself “the iPad is just a big iPhone”. But, then I started to get it.
When I first saw the keynote when the iPhone was introduced, I was blown away. This was a truly revolutionary product. The hardware was awesome, but to me, the “crown jewel” was the interface. The interface made things usable, fun, and easy. Then I bought one and started using it. I was even more blown away. After using my iPhone for a while, the interface became almost addicting to me, because of its intuitiveness and easiness to get things done. But then, when I go back to my desktop computer, I feel like I’m in the past, using a “retarded interface". I kept wondering “it would be so nice if my desktop computer learned the tricks of the iPhone interface”. On the other hand, the iPhone interface was awesome, but the iPhone is tiny, so you really need bigger/better hardware to do more advanced things.
So, say hello to the iPad. Initially, since most applications are going to be iPhone apps, the iPad will, for the most part, be a “bigger iPhone”. It is not until you see and play with the iPad applications, that “you start to get it”. I saw Apple demonstrate Keynote, Pages and Numbers, and iBook. Then Safari, Email and Calendar for the iPad. That is when things clicked for me. I thought “wait a minute, I see where this is going”. The iPad applications will initially cover 70% of your needs, but as more and more sophisticated applications show up, the iPad will eventually replace your desktop OS and computer. Seriously. Even though I’m a mac fan, I consider myself a “realist” and I believe Mac OS X will not beat Windows never in market share in its current incarnation in the desktop OS wars. However, I think the iPad/iPhone OS, is morphing into the desktop OS of the future. I believe, Apple found a way to beat Microsoft not only at the operating system game, but with Keynote, Numbers and Pages, they will also beat them at the “Office” suite game. I’m getting ahead, but it is becoming obvious for me now that this tactic actually has a good chance of working for Apple (unlike Mac OS X).
I don’t expect you to agree yet. I work with computers and software for a living so I know what I’m saying. I still have friends with Blackberries that can’t seem to understand what the big deal is about the iPhone. I don’t argue with them, I just tell them “if you buy an iPhone, you will see”. And all of my friends that had blackberries, that reluctantly bought an iPhone, come back and tell me “I get it, even though the blackberry does almost all the same things, the iPhone is a pleasure to use”. I expect something similar from the desktop OS experience. People will get it once they start doing work the iPad interface way.
So as it evolves, I expect bigger iPads, with bigger screens and more capacity. However, the external keyboard/dock I believe is a necessity for that “20%” of the time when you need to do heavy typing.
So after I thought about the iPad further, not so much what it is initially, but what I believe will become, the iPad is not a "huge iPhone" but simple “huge”.
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