I had wanted to wait a little while since the iPad was launched to let the implications sink in a bit before trying to write about it. I have had so many thoughts flying around my head about Apple’s new device over the last week that I haven’t really known where to start. The more I read about it the more enthusiastic I get about the iPad. I also get equally annoyed about some of the stupid things that are being written. One thought keeps resonating with me though: the iPad isn’t really a computer. At least not in the traditional sense. (I know that technically it is a computer) Instead you should think of it more as a device that happens to do computing tasks. Let me explain.
For years Apple has tried to make computing easier for the average person. The selling point for the original Mac was that it was “the computer for the rest of us.” While it certainly made computing tasks easier, even using a Mac still requires a degree of computing knowledge. As the internet became mainstream the world was promised the ideal of the internet being as easy to use and ubiquitous as news papers and magazines. While we got the ubiquity, we’re still using the same tools to access that information. At the end of the day, you still needed a computer, and you still have to deal with all that entails. Even things like having to boot a computer up before using it stand in the way of easy and fast consumption of information. While these issues have certainly been mitigated over the years they are still there. For some people though, this is the essence of computing and they don’t like the idea of that changing.
I read one complaint about the iPad that I thought was particularly revealing. The writer was taking issue with the fact that the iPad didn’t offer enough incentive for business users and would only be considered a toy. Therein lies the problem with many people’s perception, not just of the iPad, but of computers in general. Many people out there still see them as a work tool first and foremost. Even personal computers are still considered primarily as a device to get some form of work done, even if that’s just sending emails or using word processing. Simple and often mundane computing tasks still require you to know how to use a computer. You still have to deal with an operating system and a file hierarchy, even if you just want to send an email. Apple isn’t the only one to try and make some aspects of computing faster and simpler. Google’s approach to tackling this problem is to create an operating system that is essentially a browser. It figures you can both browse and be productive using just it’s online productivity tools. But google’s chrome os is still work focussed, and its still computer focussed. Yet computing has become as much about consuming media as it is about being productive. Whether it’s books, magazines, or tv shows, the internet has encapsulated them all and yet the only real way to consume media from the internet is through the tool that is still primarily considered a work tool. Even with chrome os and netbooks, the user experience is still the same. Apple has shown that there can be another way.
Some people are openly hostile to the idea of computing being redefined, but the claim that anything else is just a toy though is unfair. Are magazines just toys? Are books? No, of course not. Why then should a device that is designed to make their digital counterparts as easy to use as their analogue ones also be considered a toy? The iPad offers a new way to look at computing, and I think this scares a lot of people. Its “closed” nature is offensive to some because they can only think of it in terms of existing computers, but that’s not really what the iPad is, or what it’s supposed to be. The iPad is a consumer electronics device that happens to do computing tasks. While it’s designed to replace having to use a computer for certain tasks, it’s not trying to completely do away with the desktop or laptop for tasks that they are more suitable for. Once the iPad is released, computers aren’t going to suddenly disappear or stop working, so those arguing that the iPad represents a loss of freedom are simply missing the point. The iPad isn’t for running your c++ compiler or hacking your system, or for running multiple operating systems. That’s what computers are for. For other tasks though the iPad removes a layer of abstraction between the user and the information they are viewing. Just like you don’t need a tool to read a book, with the iPad you no longer need the tools of a traditional computer, the keyboard and mouse, to read electronic information. You can touch it just as you would a printed page. While this was pioneered with the iPhone and iPod touch, their small screen size has limited the impact of just how much of a revolution this is. On a full sized system this will make a huge change to the way we interact with the digital world.
While many may have wished Apple to produce a fully fledged computer in a tablet form factor, this just isn’t it. The iPad is not for geeks. It’s for normal people who want to read the paper online without having to boot their computer up. It’s for people who want to communicate on the internet without having to deal with operating systems, files, folders permissions and viruses. It’s for someone who wants to access information on the move without having to bring their laptop. There are multitudes of reasons to want a device that lets you do computing tasks without having to have a computer. It’s not for people whose life revolves around their computer. It’s for everyone else. If you want an “open system” buy something else. The iPad is not for you. Just as you wouldn’t hack the system on your dvd player or hi-fi, you can’t hack the system on your iPad. It’s not a personal computer. It’s a whole new class of device. It’s an internet and computing appliance. If you want to tinker use a PC or a Mac. For the rest of the world the iPad will be a breath of fresh air. It’s something that, when its released, it will have seemed like such an obvious thing. Just like the Lisa paved the way for the Mac and the GUI revolution, the iPhone and iPod touched paved the way for the first true revolution in computing in many years. While some might yearn for a fully fledged personal computer from Apple with a touch screen input, this isn’t it. What it is however is something far more poetic. It represents the culmination of a very long journey for Apple. Thirty years on after setting out to do so, Apple will have finally achieved its goal of truly providing a computer for the rest of us by taking the “computer” part out of the equation.
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“The iPad is not a Computer” …
hmmm. isn’t it?
for shure?
then i still wait for the ‘iiPad’ (two pads, to read left, google right… or just read double-pages). and flat-fold them down as the laptops (sensful and practically).
i still wait for – and most for the moment, iPad is a computer again, and not just a channel-marketing-instrument … (!)
i don’t like channeling.
This article has it about right.
The comment by “Micha” is bizarre, and looks like he’s never been the school.
Perhaps that explains why he’s not got the point of the article?
I never liked laptops, and hope I never have to use one again
Now now, be nice. I think it’s just an english language thing as he’s from Germany |i think so it’s fair enough. Actually he emailed me mockups of what he was talking about and it makes sense.
Absolutely agree, in fact I expressed similar sentiments (not as eloquently) in my blog http://tinyurl.com/yc7zpek
I think the vast majority of complaints about the iPad are from Mac users who were really hoping that the iPad could have been the very highly desired small footprint, lightweight laptop missing from the Mac portable line for so many years. Discovering that this was not the case (i.e., too much Touch, not enough Mac), a lot of Mac users were inadvertently bummed out.
The smallest laptop Apple offers is 13″ and for many users, that’s just too large (yes, I know the MacBook Air is thin, but really, thinness hasn’t been a problem since around 1998 or so).
If we delve in between the lines on so many of the complaints seen around the net, we can plainly hear the plaintive cries of Mac users pining for a small footprint Mac portable. And it’s tough to complain about these complaints because these are all users who were just hoping to buy something from Apple!
Great article Thomas, thank you. I’m amazed at the amount of people who don’t ‘get it’. I know the iPad will be a great success for Apple and I look forward to my iPad purchase!
P.S. I would love to see an email button at the bottom of your articles so I can forward them to friends…. : )
Thanks !
I’ll look into that email button. Good idea. If anyone knows of a wordpress plug in that will do it please let me know.
Thanks
iPad :: Computer
bird :: dog
Thomas, thank you very much for a very insightful article. You have eloquently described what I have been thinking ever since the debut of the Apple iPad. It has frustrated me immensely that the “Geek” world and the IT world did not see the change of electronic media before their very eyes in the iPad. Your article has accurately described the very fact that the iPad is a totally new way of consuming media that the traditional computer is just not suited for. You have raised all the key points so I will not rehash here. I can however describe my own experience. I am in the telecomm/IT business. My newspaper and magazine reading is now all online. When I am home from work, reading the news on my MacBook Pro is not the best approach even though the Mac OS is the best OS ever. I already see the iPad filling the empty space on my coffee table to read the news, or reading Consumer Reports when I am relaxing. Better yet, to take the iPad with me when travelling on non-business excursions. I predict the iPad will be a winner, but to a very different and new market segment.
Like the replies above, I agree with you wholly. Thanks for writing the article
because you’ve dealt with the critics of the iPad in exactly the way I (and many others) think they should be dealt with. But unlike the posts above, I can see that all you have done is beautifully elaborate on what Jobs said in the keynote.
There was a ‘gap’ in the apple market. In one column you have the iPhone which, as you said, is too small to read large information sets on, and you have the Mac Book line. Portable, yes but the MB range still has a track pad and keyboard, just like the LISA did.
In the middle you now have what is Apples flagship mobile device. And I say mobile device because that can be whatever you want it to be. Mobile as in it goes from the dining table (for reading the morning news on) to the living room where you show your Gran the holiday pics. Or its mobile in that it goes with you and your band on a world tour so that you can quickly access the info you need (in your calendar, contacts or browser) and ENABLES you to do what you need to do.
Then at the end of all this, you can relax by watching a movie, listening to music, or reading a book alone, or with a partner in the perfect comfort of wherever you happen to be. Its a life device for whatever your life consists of.
Mobile.Dynamic.Smart.
thomas, good insight. trade pundits have trouble getting it because of their filters. they see everything in terms of how it will affect the trade. the iPad creates a space for a new class of devices. call them adaptive single purpose devices. they are adaptive based on software. seem to remember an apple patent around this concept a few years back. people then though apple was going to metaphorically morph the device. now we know how it is implemented.
to answer those who want the iPad to be a computer, try calling your car a computer. no, it’s a transportation device with computers in it. or, try calling a hellfire missile a computer. no, it’s a device that will absolutely ruin your day with a computer in it.
some people will understand this sooner than others.
I feel similarly about the iPad, my tact was that the iPad is in the end almost exactly what Michael Arrington was hoping for in the CrunchPad. As you say it is a device that makes simple computing tasks more convenient and accessible. Jobs could probably move plenty of iPads with adoption by baby boomers alone.
http://bit.ly/cN3Yq5
Instant on. That’s why business will adopt it.
You get a desktop-class calender app, an almost desktop-class email app — both of which turn on at the touch of a button.
That, and the fact that it’s the same size as whatever they’re already carrying (magazine, report, etc.
It’s a no-brainer to have one with you.
Thanks for your article and absolutely agree with you, but I think we have not seen everything yet to come with the iPad. Already ordered four from my retailer, one for each in the family.
Very nicely written.
The lede is that lots of people are actually afraid of this product. Can you ever recall any other commercial product causing so much reactionary fear in people? It’s like a religious movement. It’s very revealing at a deep level, it shows how emotional things have gotten when people react this way to a simple device.
Mainly, I think the iPad will be fun, and make me happy. So why is it that some people don’t want to have fun and be happy?
The other factor is the price. If it were $100, people would just brush it off as a toy.
BINGO. When new products come on the market, people usually do not understand them. If they last long enough on the market (apple tv??) then they can really take off.
I do not see millions selling the first year, but as apps start appearing and writers actually use them. stand back.
Just a thought.
en
I can kinda see it from that perspective, but you seem to push the newspaper/magazine thing too much. Makes you think you’re paying $500 for a browser that can show news articles. Plus, who’s really dying for their news that much? Most likely business-minded people, which this article says the iPad isn’t meant for.
You seem kinda like me with my Palm Pre. A big mass of people will probably criticize it without ever even using it… but if it makes you happy, that’s all that really matters. Instead of giving all these defenses, why not just write, “It does what I want it to do.” It’s capabilities may be revolutionary to some people, but totally useless to others.
I don’t mind having a limited computer. In fact I think it could have some reliability advantages. But I think Apple may have missed the mark. Business users are desperate! We desperately want to carry less on business trips! Have you noticed how business fliers often only carry one bag for clothing and computer.
But for in order for me to leave my laptop at home. I need…
1) access for USB disks/SD.
2) file browser
3) my iDisk
Maybe the I will get 2 & 3 but not number 1.
Apple people listen to business users!
Apparently the iPad is sold out on pre-order in some countries in europe … some people have understood the concept.
I hope there is just one leftover for me.
Great article. Only the short sighted cannot see the true potential of this new platform.
And this is only their first generation model! I’m sure they have bigger and better versions on the drawing board.
Ok it not a fully fledged computer but I can VNC to my computer for more robust tasks when I need to from the convienence of this more mobile platform.
Finaly there is a device that my 73 year old mother can easily use to check emails. The idea of using a normal computer was to much for her but this she is happy to try.
I have been waiting for this type of device for a long time. Great for the environment too as it will eventually reduce the amount of printed media.
I’m a quadriplegic and type with a stick. This device will make many tasks much easier for me.
Keep up the the good work steve!
Well said!
I am a confirmed geek, been using computers since I was 8 years old ( now aged 38! ), but since I got my Apple Mac I have been born again. The Apple kit is for having fun, enjoying using a computer as a tool to improve your leisure time. I now make music, take photos, play games. I don’t get home anymore and spend countless hours building linux kernels or messing about coding anymore, I can do that all day at work! I now spend all day at work day-dreaming weekends when I can drag the family out on a another photography trip, knowing I have the tools to backup my hobby!
Such it is with the iPad, it takes Apple ethos one step further to take “computing” and eletronic devices to the next level. To put it another way, get those who might think twice about computers ( read: PC ) to think again about using electronic devices to improve their leisure time, not hinder or waste it.
This is the best article so far in describing what the iPad is. Well written. Thank you.
It is so amazing how many people get it. But the few don’t.
The iPad is a monster product precisely because it is not a computer. But it allows many people to do computing tasks without thinking about the hardware and operating system underneath.
5-17-2010