iPad – Is It About What They Say It Is?

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iPad – Is It About What They Say It Is?

January 27, 2010 at 11:59 pm | In Mobile Computing | 1 Comment
Tags: iPad, Mobile Computing

http://www.apple.com/ipad/

Yes, it’s here. And it looks as if it meets the expectations about sleekness, etc.

But what is revolutionary about it may not be what we think is revolutionary about it. Yes, you’ll be able to use it like a kindle, or surf the web on it, etc. However, the form factor itself fits alot of situations that a tablet, laptop or even a netbook do not, and an iPhone certainly does not.

I was in the hospital with a family member the other day, and some of the nurses who came in had these funny, oversized palm pilots they were carrying around. For that matter, I’ve seen teachers encouraged to use handhelds to manage classes.

But this format is more useful, and probably more like a clipboard than anything we’ve seen yet. So it’s feasible that a lesson plan, charts, etc. could be combined with messaging tools, and other more traditional apps like calendars and email. Think of replacing paging systems, computers in patients rooms, “kiosks”, lots of paper, all in a variety of industries where you have to move around.

The announcement today may be the tip of a different iceberg than we think.

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I had colleagues at Tacoma Community College several years ago who were using slate tablet PCs for exactly these sorts of things. A slate tablet was about the same size as the iPad but ran Windows XP. I haven’t seen any slate tablets lately as they all seem to have been phased out and replaced by convertibles. I was watching for the release of the iPad to see what Apple did and I, frankly, am very disappointed that it cannot multitask.

I used a convertible tablet PC for several years in Tacoma. I was able to use it not only for keeping track of notes in meetings, email, and my calendar, but I also used it instead of a whiteboard to present material in class which I could then post on my web site for students to view. The iPad as I understand it would not have increased my productivity the way that tablet PC did. My experience with a tablet as a professional convinced me to buy one for myself which I now use for taking notes in class as well as for general computing.

I understand that Apple was not trying to create a tablet PC in the sense that I am used to them, but personally, I would have been much more interested if they came out with something that ran even a scaled-down version of Mac OS X or, at the very least, was capable of multitasking. I also believe something like that would be better suited for some of the uses you point out. Why haven’t tablet PCs already filled those niches then? One thing: marketing. Too many people have never heard of tablet PCs before and think the iPad is the first “tablet”. (One industry got the message, though: book publisher representatives all walk around campuses these days with a tablet computer.)

Comment by Scott MacDonald — February 8, 2010 #

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