“I have seen the future of home computing, and it is the iPad. I’m convinced of it,” Kenneth van Wyk writes for Computerworld.
“When I got my iPad, I immediately installed several software packages on it. Most of it was for entertainment (e.g., Netflix, ABC Reader), but I also installed a couple of apps that could at least ostensibly be used for business (e.g., Pages, Keynote). Each installation was simple: I ran the App Store application, found the tools I wanted, and clicked the purchase icon. Within moments, each package installed,” van Wyk writes. “The installation process gave me absolutely no choice as far as where the software would reside on my iPad. In fact, I had no choices whatsoever beyond yes/no to purchase the apps.”
“Once the apps were installed, I was able to get some of my Keynote presentations and Pages documents over to my iPad via an iTunes synchronization to my MacBook Pro,” van Wyk writes. “But here too, I had absolutely no way of controlling or choosing where the documents were placed on the iPad. Once I synchronized the device, the documents appeared for their respective applications.”
“For many of my fellow techies, the words ‘lack of choice’ are the kiss of death for a device like this,” van Wyk writes. “But for the average consumer, ‘lack of choice’ can be interpreted as ‘simple,’ by and large. And to get to the masses, simple never hurts.”
van Wyk writes, “The result of all this is a platform that is simple, intuitive and highly usable for common home computing tasks… And, even though I am not an average consumer of high-tech devices, I have absolutely no need to understand the underlying organization and architecture of the iPad. The apps I’ve installed just plain work. How can that not be a boon to the consumers of the world? …I’m convinced the model that Apple has laid out with the iPad is the future of home computing.”
Full article, which discusses how iPad’s model will “virtually obliterate” malware (including lazy Adobe’s Flash), here.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Dow C.” for the heads up.]
Such a vision. I can’t believe it! St Thomas just landed on earth!
THE PROBLEM IS TOO MANY OPTIONS.
ASK. YOUR. MOM.
More and more fawning like this just confirms the certainty that Apple’s remaining days in the real computer business are fewer and fewer. Hello AMDC Inc. – Apple the Mobile Device Company courtesy of one Steven Paul Jobs.
In 3-5 years at the most, our only option if we want to create something more complicated than an email, we’ll have to open our MBP, fire up Windows, and hope for the best.
But we’ll be having a great time wasting time playing mindless games, surfin’ around the net, and forgetting why we downloaded a couple of iPad apps that we completely forgot about.
Simple is Right
Sure, but you think Apple is going to let all the content creation to the other platforms. You don’t have a clue. Macs are more popular today than ever. Why would Apple kill a profitable revenu stream that has 92% growth potential. At the time that it is gaining traction. Don’t presume you can predict Jobs, because a lot more deciated folks have tried and filed.
The Mac is here to stay buddy. I might change form, but it is not going away any time soon.
Hey “Simple is Right”
Fire up WIndows?
Are you on drugs?
What are you doing on Mac Daily News?
Get out of here, Now!
My new i7 MacBook Pro is the best computer any person
who knows anything about computers could have ever
dreamed of owning.
You? a complete moron, correct?
@Simple is Right
Luddites like you are the main reason the computer industry has been held back by mediocre and dysfunctional systems like Windows for the past decade. You are clearly too stupid to understand the enormous implications engendered by the iPad and thus you have no place in the brave new world that Apple are promoting.
This is an entirely new device with profound implications for the education, service and medical industries – it does not supplant either desktop or laptops but complements them. The good news is that fools like you are destined to go the way of the dinosaur. The iPad will engender a new breed of computing, one that is user-centric, and I fully expect other manufacturers to follow, once again, where Apple leads as they have always done.
=:~)
@ Simple is Right
You’re kidding (like Zune Tang), right? Because if you are, you’re not very good at it (like Zune Tang).
People will still have a need to do things that are not possible or inconvenient on a touch-based computer. Apple is not going to cede that opportunity to Microsoft. Why would Apple create such amazing Macs like the 27-inch iMac and just released MacBook Pros, if Apple was not serious about Macs?
If anything, the popularity of iPad will fuel Mac sales. After the early adopters, a significant majority of ongoing iPad sales will be to non-Mac computer users. They will be getting an iPad to use with their “traditional” computer, which based on current user share, will more likely be a Windows PC. If their experience is positive (and it is based on current reaction), then when it’s time to replace that Windows PC, they will replace it with a Mac.
“Halo effect.” It already happened with iPod and then with iPhone, and it is the reason why Mac sales are increasing year or year, at a rate that beats the industry average. Why would Apple abandon a business that is GROWING each year?
No “Simple” you have it wrong. In 3 to 5 years Apple will have launched a new Adobe killing suite selling it for $599 and $399 pre installed on any “pro” mac ordered. The mac is going to get better, not die.
Does anyone actually believe what van Wyk is describing is “computing”.
Enjoy your love affair with this 10 in. square gadget of glass and plastic – give one to your grandmother because it is so simple, but please don’t call it any kind of computer.
Thanks for this post, MDN. The IT guys at work really appreciate light humor to close out the week. I-Pad is the future of home computing? Hilarious.
I highly recommend you MAC fangirls get over yourselves and ask your certified IT specialists at work what computer makes the most sense for use at home. Why do you follow the smug and pretentious herd just to be part of a shiny toy owners club? The IT guys where I work have seen the future and it includes a stylus, lots of ports, Windows 7 and Zune Marketplace. Sorry to say it but I-Pad buyers will be missing out.
Your potential. Our passion.™
Hi Steve Ballmer. The iPad also doesn’t have any physical keys. Also, no Microsoft Windows or Adobe Flash. I am sure people will not want it either.
Steve Ballmer is nominated to be the village idiot again for the full 2010 year! It is also hard to find a good experienced dancing monkey.
Helpful iPad tutorials for “thinking different”
http://www.bluemangolearning.com/blog/
re Simple Is Right and ZuneTang – funny to see how others jump at this silly Windows bait. Who cares??? There’s better things to do then give them the light of day. Easier to change the channel and move on.
Read my article / blog entitled “iPad: Do they *really* get it”. Found here:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/24744/
Or the full article here: http://bit.ly/bhhcf2
-RC
I played with one for the first time an hour ago.
It will serve well for about 90% of the tasks that 80% of the potential users routinely do.
So it may cannabilize some laptop sales.
I have a Macbook, a slot-load iMac for backup, but an iPad will serve for 90% of the time that I leave my house.
Enough said.
I just have one question here—why then is there a lineup of 15 (and counting) competing tablet products (labeled “iPad Killers” while suspiciously resembling iPad) suddenly being rolled out and touted by every other COMPUTER manufacturer? And their spec sheets drooled over, and their future success prayed for, by throwback tech bloggers and pundits?
GMAFB
Yes Simple. The iPad is a computer that is running a OS X operating system. Apple strips out the features that are not required at this time to reduce the required RAM. Apple supports a keyboard now and could support a mouse, printer, iSight iChat camera, …
It is a computer. Not a toaster, calculator, … You could call it a multi touch device running a UNIX OS X operating system if you like. It will still replace those other small netbooks. Maybe, to you, if it isn’t infested with viruses and spyware, it is not a real Windows PC.
Just keep saying to yourself. It is not a computer. It is not a computer. It is not a computer. …
Too often choices that we are forced to make, become viewed as options instead of burdens. Where to save a file, where to install an application, what file format should I export. In reality, removing the need to make those choices is removing unnecessary burden. The iPad, its OS, and its interface are another step in computer evolution, the continued progress towards allowing users to focusing on “what” rather than “how”.
“I have seen the future of stupidity, and its name is Simple is Right. I’m convinced of it.”
I think he’s probably right. I think too that if Jobs had not been kicked out of Apple the Mac platform would have developed in much the same way as the iPad/iPhone/iPod platform has.
BWT I saw Star Trek TNG last night and they had iPads, want to know where Apple will go next? Watch Star Trek, it’s all there.
Keeping things simple is even more important now than in the past.
The explosion of electronic devices with complicated interfaces makes simplicity that much more
desirable in a computer/computer-like devices. For example, who has time to wade through half-inch-thick
manuals just to learn how to use a ‘simple’ digital camera?! Frick if I do.
btw… Apple doesn’t call this thing a computer – they call it a “magical and revolutionary product” – whatever the hell that is. But, the point is, they do not call it a computer. And, for good reason, its not!
I dunno about you all, but I think zune tang missed a strategic opportunity to call us “Dorks” at the end of his post. I started to laugh half way though his post and stopped when I saw it wasn’t there…
Here’s another great article on how the iPad has revolutionized portable computing. http://www.macdaddynews.com/?p=2412
Alan Kay said it best:
/*
There are 3 basic phases of an idea:
first- it’s ridiculed
second- it’s called a visionary product
third- it’s copied
*/
They’re all coming out of the woodwork now.
My other thought after having worked with a iPad is that we can’t know just how many ways it will end up being used. In that sense, it could be revolutionary.
And in my earlier comment about the fact that it may steal some laptop sales: I think that will come from the Windows side.
This thing fulfills the needs of a segment of the population that does not currently have computers, but will buy because of the simplicity, and will then wonder why they did not or could not do it earlier.
Thats my bet. (call them stupid if you want because it is a simple product. Stupid is as stupid calls)