As I was following the live keynote, when I first saw pictures of Steve Jobs holding the “thing” itself, I thought to myself “uh-oh… a giant iPhone?”. And even though I wanted one immediately, it didn’t produce in me the sheer amazement that the iPhone announcement did over 3 years ago (yup, the iPhone UI is still at least 2 years ahead of the competition, like Jobs predicted). I wasn’t sure I needed one, but I sure as heck tweeted my enthusiasm about the new wonder device coming from Cupertino. I couldn’t follow the whole live event, so I had to catch up on all the details later. The UI for Apple’s own apps looked amazing. The ability to run games on such a big screen was awesome. And iWork looks pretty decent. And then I watched the keynote video stream.
All I can say is that this truly is a revolutionary device. Not because of it’s OS’ innovative interface (we’ve all seen that on the iPhone/iPod Touch) or because we saw something we’ve never seen before, but because of the possibilities a multi-touch device with a screen this big brings to developers. After seeing Phil doing a demo of the new iWork apps I was awestruck! They are breath-taking, both in terms of UI (looks) and UX (User Experience). Now, I really wanted one. Just because it’s not a revolutionary UI doesn’t mean it’s not a revolutionary device. And in it’s class, it is truly revolutionary (think tablet PCs, aka “cheap laptops”).
The Nay-sayers
When the iPhone came out I heard one-too-many big shots in the tech industry going “No way I’d buy one”. Those were the ones that rushed to every single touch smartphone device that was announced after the iPhone. What did most of them do after 1-2 years? They bought an iPhone. And even while they’ll complain about some things on it (as do I and most people that truly love the device), they’ve come to understand the reason behind the subject of most of their complaints. When was the last time you understood the reason behind anything Microsoft did that you disliked? Ya, I thought so. So, anyway, I wasn’t surprised to see them all back in full-force, bashing the iPad. All I can say is: I’m sure you’ll get one before 2012… :)
It’s a Big iPhone/iPod Touch
So, you think the iPad is just a big iPhone/iPod… Really? Have you actually seen the keynote video? Have you seen Apple’s own apps, like Calendar, Address Book and the iWork “trio”? There’s no way those apps could’ve been developed for the iPhone screen and UI! Did you notice the drastic reduction in tables in the iPad interface? Everything looks incredibly smoother and more “interactive”. The iPhone had severe constraints in terms of size and that’s okay: it is a phone after all! [I know, I know, much more than that, but stick with me here for a second] The iPad opens incredible opportunities for developers. And this time, they have and SDK from the get-go. I can’t even begin to think what amazing apps will come out soon. Before its launch, I saw a few “leaked” (read: fake) videos. The one that caught my attention because of the high level of details was for an IKEA app. Go watch that video now. I’ll wait. — Pretty amazing huh? :) Yes, I know it was fake, but that seems like possible from a functional standpoint. Besides, we all saw custom interfaces for iPhone apps (think TapBots and their amazing apps). The truth is, the AppStore (and the iBooksStore) will be the killer feature for this device. And once apps that truly use all the potential of this device, a new version will come out that will keep pushing the boundaries. And yes, I know that because I know Apple! :)
Disappointments… Are You Sure?
Of course, no device is ever perfect. But I heard some complaints that I have a hard time agreeing with.
No multi-tasking: I do believe multi-tasking is truly overrated. It is probably one of the prime reasons for decrease in productivity. Besides, it’s a device that does productivity really well, but it is also stellar at entertainment. One of my top iPhone feature requests also applies to the iPad: a quick way to return to the previous application like, for example, the Home button double-tap. Because iPhone apps are increasingly more aware of each other and are getting better at saving current state on exit (my favorites on that are Tweetie 2 and Instapaper), the lack of the ability to quickly return to previous app is becoming a major flaw in the iPhone/iPad OS.
No Flash: Where’s the problem on that again? Want my opinion? The iPad saves me the extra step of installing Click2Flash! Seriously though, Flash is a handy tool but it can’t become something web developers rely on. There’s little that can only be done in Flash now that HTML5 supports video so well. As to websites that use Flash for their user interface, well… I don’t use them and so shouldn’t you!
Big bezel/size: Well, any less and you’d be mis-touching it’s screen, which would be incredibly unpleasant. Besides, if it was any smaller, you wouldn’t have enough screen real estate too build amazing apps like Keynote and Pages! iWork is probably the single most revolutionizing piece of software on the iPad. Don’t get me wrong, Calendar and Address Book are quite amazing, but the User Experience on iWork is something beyond “pretty” and “nice”.
Closed filesystem: That’s probably one of the few problems I see with the iPad. Looking at how iWork opens/saves documents reveals its closed nature. You navigate their gallery wherein lie your documents. I’d love to see a “Pro” version of the iPad, with a more OSX-esque filesystem. Maybe not the entire OS, but perhaps an Finder-like app from Apple themselves. On the other hand, 90% of the users are better off not having access to the filesystem, and for the other 10%… I’m sure a jailbreak will come soon enough. :)
No Camera: Really?? You see yourself taking pictures with a device the size of a closed Macbook Air? As to the front-facing camera (for iChat Video, for example), I can see a new version coming out in 1-2 years including that. Besides, Apple didn’t even include iChat with this release and I’m sure they’ll release it at some point (along with some sort of multi-tasking, to run iChat Agent in the background and quickly switch to it).
Hate to Love it
Bottom line to the iPad is: it is a revolutionary device. The reason why some didn’t think so was because they expected the same “WOW” factor the iPhone had 3 years ago. I’m pretty sure Apple thought of the iPad during the iPhone development. They probably thought “Hey, this iPhoneOS is really awesome and this multi-touch is terrific. Too bad we can’t build 10in iPhones. Ya, that’d be awkward… Oh, wait!”. I love reading on my iPhone, mainly blog posts and articles. I can’t see myself reading a book on it. I bought “Classics” when it came out and I don’t think I got past page 4-5 on any of the books there, and I love its gorgeous interface (so did Apple!). The idea of reading such short blurbs of text per screen is annoying and reading book becomes a daunting task that way. I’m still the guy with a couple of notebooks, one of them for taking notes while I read a book… on paper! I love books: their smell, their touch, the experience of reading them on a coffee shop, etc… But because of my traveling lately, I’ve suffered from having some books in one place, some books with me, some books in other places and it sucks. Not to mention how expensive it becomes when moving to a new country: books are heavy and airlines don’t like that!
Buy a paper book, get the e-book version for (almost) free!
The iPad opens a new possibility for authors and publishers. It allows them to include color pictures, videos, graphs, links, etc right on their books. I can’t even imagine how awesome it would be to have an animated sequence at a chapter cover page, or a small screencast on a technical book. Can you think “live links”? Ability to link to webapps or videos or code that can be updated if the need ever comes? Can you think of “in-book purchases”, where you can buy a new revised print/edition for a discounted price? The possibilities are now wide open. I bet Apple will do to books what it did to music: standardize. Book prices will become more standard (not the cheapest) and small publishers and authors will have a new audience and way to reach potential buyers. Anyone who’s gone through the process of self-publishing can probably attest for that better than I, but I’ve heard it’s not easy, nor the price/quality—in terms of the actual print, not the content—is as good. If you’ve bought 37signals “Getting Real”, you know what I mean (awesome book, highly recommended).
But I still love the paper…
Well, don’t tell the tree-huggers that, but I know what you mean. Like I said before, the feel of reading a paper book is incomparable to any other reading experience… now! We might see that change in the future, and even though I’m a bit conservative on that, I can’t deny that it will be the future (and no, it wasn’t Apple who started it).
A few questions remain…
I still have a few questions about the iPad though. Like:
- Will Safari have a limitation in terms of number of tabs like its iPhone counterpart? Will it “blank” my other tabs all the time, forcing a reload on tab switch?
- Will I be able to buy an iPhone app and have access to iPad optimizations once I install it on the iPad?
- Will iPad apps be able to include an iPhone-optimized version in them? Or will I have to buy the same app twice?
- Will developers be able to provide in-app purchases for optimized version of their existing apps? What about the other way around—iPad apps with optimized iPhone versions?
But the biggest one in my mind is: “How soon will the jailbreak be released?” (along with “Will Apple mind that too much?”).
Also, was this what Apple had in mind when they created iWork.com? Maybe that will become a way to share documents between devices, like the iPad and a Mac… ;)
Final Remarks
In my opinion, this is a transition device. Apple is once again writing history. Brace yourselves as this is the path that personal computing will be taking. No, laptops and desktops won’t be going away soon (if ever), but personal computing is way more than that. The iPhone revolutionized the personal communications device segment. The iPad will do so for the personal productivity and entertainment segment.
Also, these are my initial thoughts and I don’t presume I’m right and everyone is wrong. I’m not a hypocrite and I’ll be vocal about what I think. But I don’t mind being proven wrong or disagreed with. You can contact me by email (check my homepage for that) or @levifig on Twitter. :)
