On the iPad
I think I have read every possible post about the iPad since it was announced more than a week ago. What I have found is that there are mostly three kind of people’s opinion about the product: people who don’t seem to get the idea behind the product, people who get the idea and are fine about it, and people who are worried about that idea. I’ll try to comment about it here.
What is it?
Well, as it was announced, the iPad goes in between a computer and a smartphone, to be used when you don’t want to use your computer and your smartphone. When is that? I had questioned myself that a lot of times since the netbooks arrived, because netbooks are meant to be used on those moments too, and never found a good answer. Maybe that’s why I’ve never been interested in netbooks.
But the day after the keynote it became clear to me. My parents wanted to buy some stuff on the web and the whole process was: wait till the computer load Windows, manage Windows and anti-virus updates, open Firefox, update and restart Firefox, load the site to buy what the wanted to buy. It’s way too much friction to just buy some stuff. I know it’s not the same process every time but If they had an iPad, everything could have been faster and more comfortable.
A laptop or a netbook could have offered comfort too but it’s not about the hardware or form-factor, the friction is in the software. As I said when I talked about Chrome OS, the third niche is there but it’s not good enough because the software isn’t right. Chrome OS and the iPad (and maybe others like litl, who knows) should change that, and all those trivial tasks we do today (people turn on their computers just to go to Facebook or YouTube) in our main computer will go to these new devices, to do it faster, frictionless.
So, think about the iPad as a product to use when your computer is way too much and your smartphone way too small.
Still, there are some cases where the iPad could fit well as a main computer (grandparents, mothers and kids, for instance), and as a “laptop” to people who don’t need more and already use a desktop.
The tablet-style seems adequate since is not a work machine. If trivial tasks these days means e-mail, web browsing, music, videos, photos, games and social networks, the screen keyboard suffice. If you want a more comfortable writing, there is the Keyboard Dock.
The reason why the iPad is frictionless is because of iPhone OS (Chrome OS should be frictionless too because is basically the current Chrome browser right in your face), a pretty straight forward system with one app at a time focus and one home button to change between apps. There’s no explicit multi-tasking, at least not as we know it. On the iPhone, apps like Phone, Mail, iPod, Messages or Calendar are always running in the background, but the user don’t even notice it. Third party apps don’t run in the background, they save their current state when the home button is pressed, and go back to the way they were, when the user come back. Also they use push notifications If they need to notify something.
If you watch the demo for Pages, Numbers and Keynote from iWork for the iPad, you’ll notice that the whole concept of the file system is gone, the user don’t have to see it anymore. All the files created by the user appear when the application launch and you swipe to navigate through them. I don’t know what happens when the user has too much files but I suppose there must be a way to organize them, maybe with tags or something.
This way, Apple take care of the device’s resources and the user don’t need to think about closing apps, the system running out of memory, file system, folders and things like that (Mac OS X on the iPad wouldn’t have bring this). Everything is transparent and works, letting people to focus on using the product (and updating it occasionally) rather than using and maintaining. Is the way it always should have been.
Do I have to worry?
We didn’t notice it with the iPhone, but the iPad is telling us what is the future of iPhone OS and computers as we know it. It will be first in this in between devices but obviously will end up in our main computers as well. With this kind of OS, computers (with the current form factor or new ones) will be like other devices where you basically turn on, use and turn off when your done, noiseless and, in the case of the iPad, even safer, since all the applications you’ll use will be from the App Store.
The App Store is great but what really worries me is what apps can or can not be in the App Store according to Apple’s “duplicates existing functionality” policy. If Apple fix this, what I’m envisioning here could be awesome.
This OS concept obviously will evolve, maybe they’ll add the option for third-party apps to run in the background with its way to change between apps, maybe some sort of notification inbox, a different way to organize your apps, but don’t expect something complicated because the point is simplicity and ease of use. They don’t want to turn iPhone OS into Mac OS X.
Operating systems as the way they work today, will be there just for developers, geeks and enthusiast. Because, let’s face it, we are the only one who care about root access and stuff like that. Normal users just want to get the work done and move to their own lives.
The iPad is a really nice idea to take computers to the next level, but this whole concept will depend on how well the product sells. I don’t know If this will work or not, but I hope it does.
