A few weeks ago I was contacted by Agam Shah who writes for PC World. He was putting together a post about the anticipation as Apple began taking orders. It’s a great article. Give it a read.
As a follow-up he sent me an email asking 3 questions. As I was answering, I thought it would make a great post so here goes.
The three questions are:
- How do you see the iPad as a game changer in the computing space?
- Will the device live up to its hype, or that remains to be seen.?
- How do you see yourself using it.
iPad as a game changer
I do believe this device is going to change the face of mobile computing. Many of us who are Star Trek fans (which is most techies…), a reminded of the handheld tablet used for many years by the crew. I imagine that from that tablet, Captain Picard could run the whole ship if he needed to.
The iPad has that potential. Let’s look at this from the consumer and business perspectives.
Take my wife (please…)
She has an iBook. What does she use it for? Every night she sits in bed and does any one, or all of these 6 things:
- Read and respond to email
- Connect with friends on Facebook
- Play Scramble (Boggle clone)
- Upload her photos from camera
- Listens to, and/or purchases music from iTunes
- General Web Surfing (looking to spend money somehow of course)
Does she need a laptop? Does she EVER use Word, Excel, Powerpoint, etc? The answer is NO.
And the other thing she does is read books. ‘nough said?
So tell me that the iPad is not the absolute ultimate device for the every day mom. Tell me she can’t completely replace her laptop with this device.
In fact, she would be more inclined to use it if there were apps available at the press of an icon that could help her do the things she needs to do every day.
That goes for Grandma, Grandpa, and every other living human being on the planet. A huge percentage of laptop users won’t need one anymore.
How many of us carry around a Netbook and/or an eBook reader? You know what I use my netbook for? To remote desktop into my office computer in case of an emergency or if I need to get something done quickly. I use NONE of it’s computing power. Do I need another computer that I have to keep in sync? No, it’s just a window into my real computer.
As for my Kindle, say bye, bye! Do I need a black and white, hard to read, cumbersome book reader anymore? Don’t think so! I can now read books and PDFs in the correct format on the go. If I want to read something later, I print as PDF and email to myself.
And the apps that will appear for the iPad will be unbelievable. I am sure of it. They will be function specific and will serve a single purpose well.
So on to the enterprise.
Imagine this device being used by doctors in a hospital, or in their office. Imagine it being used by restaurants to take orders, or by retail associates to look up prices,etc.., by coaches on the field, by teachers in class.
The possibilities are endless. No one wants to boot a laptop to look up a price. Doctors aren’t carrying laptops into patient’s rooms.
The networking capability, size, touch screen and portability of this device place it way ahead of anything else available. And no one will catch it.
Will it live up to its Hype?
Oh yea.. Maybe not right away since the media and others want to bash it for no apparent reason. But as the apps appear and we see how it takes over portable computing, we will look back and mark April 3rd, 2010 as the beginning of something special. That I am sure of.
Bash away, but this is not just a big iPhone. And even if it was, the iPhone was, and still remains a game changer that has blown through the hype it generated.
So how will I use it?
Besides the standard email, web surf, eBook reader, video player, etc… I have a number of things I believe will dominate my use.
- First of course is using it for developing iPad apps and AppClix our mobile analytics service.
- As I mentioned above, I plan to use it as a remote terminal to my desktop computer and our servers. Quick, easy access when needed. In, out, done.
- It will be a window into the health and status of my company’s infrastructure. A single glance will show me servers, status, what’s up, what’s down, what’s getting strained, etc… It will also be used to see where we stand as a business at any given moment. Revenue, Click-through rates, conversions, sales reports, contact manager, etc.. All this without booting a laptop. Just pick it up, click icon and there it is.
- Things I haven’t though of yet. – You can be sure that there will be a hundred uses I have not even thought of yet.
As a consumer, I will use it to play games, surf the web, communicate with friends, watch movies, read books, listen to music, etc.. I don’t see myself ever booting my netbook again.
And when the 3g wireless version comes out… The game becomes a blowout.
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