I love the tech media (and by love, I mean loath), because their fad cycle keeps getting shorter and shorter. In the last 12 months we have gone from:
1. Netbooks will rule the world … to…
2. Webapps on notebooks will rule the world … and now…
3. Tablets will rule the world (or, more correctly, the iPad will)
So what exactly is going on here? First off, any technology that potentially puts the hurt on Microsoft is going to be extolled as the next great thing. Netbooks running Linux killing the PC (presumably running the evil Windows) was a great story… and then everyone decided that Linux sucked and went with Windows on a Netbook, thus returning the Netbook to the “PC running Windows” category. Then ChromeOS came along and the media decided that the future was web applications for everyone! Then, just as that story was ramping up, a miracle was visited upon this earth: The iPad! Now it’s tablets for EVERYONE!
With the advent of the iPad, the future now being pandered by the Tech Media (ZDNet’s Larry Dignan: Is the mouse dead?) is one where “Touch Devices” kill the PC. Infatuated with the iPad, the media has decided that THIS is the future (at least until something else, that might save us from the “evils” of Windows, comes along from Google, Apple or someone else).
Mea Culpa: I own an iPad, and I think it is a terrific device. It is beautiful, slick and intuitive. The applications are a joy to use and the overall quality of the experience is, simply put, the best I have ever seen. It is, quite literally, the most well implemented tablet solution anyone will likely ever see (unless a Zune/Windows Phone 7 tablet is forthcoming). The question is, what problem is the touch screen tablet, or more specifically the iPad, trying to solve?
Excluding implementation items that can be fixed, like multitasking, device connectivity and a number of other big issues, here are several critical issues that surround the touch tablet that are simply endemic to the form factor:
1. Sucks at any type of content creation: the iPad’s onscreen keyboard is as good as touch keyboard will get, but it is still terrible. Trying to write an e-mail, blog entry or anything that is more than a line or two is really painful. In online chat scenarios, the auto correction is a pain. Yes, you can get a Bluetooth keyboard or a dock, but at that point it becomes an incredibly clumsy form factor. This blog entry is being written on my netbook for this very reason – doing so on my iPad would be a painful and slow endeavor. Furthermore, without a stylus, anything resembling media creation is literally impossible.
2. It’s not a good e-reader: The Kindle is not a backlit, touch screen device for a reason – it would make READING a lot more difficult. Backlighting is hard on the eyes and having a touch screen would mean that the device would be prone to fingerprint smudging and would have the significant glare problem that plagues the iPad (not to mention making it nearly useless outdoors).
3. It’s too big to be a really good portable media device: the iPod is the correct size: any tablet will be just big enough to be displaced in a bag by another more functional device like a netbook or notebook – unless carrying unnecessary stuff is your idea of convergence. My netbook plays back the same content on a similarly sized (but wide-aspect ratio) display as an iPad and is infinitely more useful on a plane for getting real work done. An iPhone/iPod/ZuneHD/WinPhone 7 all fill the role of mobile media player far better.
Several of these issues can be addressed, like adding a keyboard, but then you lose the elegance of the implementation of a device like the iPad. I own several Tablet PC’s, but wont buy another because the added cost isn’t worth the functionality that, ultimately, I never used (keyboard and touchpad are just infinitely more efficient). Put more simply, the very thing that makes the touchscreen (or any other type of) tablet so neat is ruined when you try to augment with a keyboard and mouse/touchpad because it destroys the unique user experience.
All this lays bare the truth about a device like the iPad, that it’s really more about fantasy than the future – in short, it is a beautiful toy with a dubious set of use-case scenarios. Too big to be an iPod, too difficult to type on to be a netbook and too compromised by a touch screen to be a good e-reader. However, it is the world best platform for Bejeweled (and Pinball HD rocks!).
