Post-iPad Release

Saturday, April 3, 2010 – Apple’s iPad Launch

The long anticipated release of Apple’s tablet computer, the iPad, finally reached the hands of the mainstream consumers.  Many friends of mine lined up for the iPad release at midnight and some even got a picture with Steve Wozniak, the co-founder of Apple Inc, who was also waiting in line with the other customers.

Now that a week has passed and people from pundits to little kids have taken the device for a spin, their feedback has made their way to the Internet.  The main concern with the iPad is the kind of situations and locations that the iPad would be perfect for.  Of all the reviews I have read, a commonly agreed upon area to use the iPad comfortably is the couch, having the device propped up against one’s legs with the knees bent at an approximate 90 degree angle.  

Yet of all the reviews I have read, Gizmodo decided to post a review of an inevitable place that all gadgets end up: the bathroom.   Although people don’t like to talk to about it, they take their electronic devices with them into the bathroom and use them while they take care of their business.  In our attention deficient disordered society, simply sitting on the toilet isn’t stimulating enough, we have to be making phone calls, returning text messages, checking Facebook or Twitter.  Although engineering these electronic devices have come a long way, their mortal enemy remains to be water, a substance that is ubiquitous in a bathroom.  For that very concern, I have seen far too many friends drop their mobile devices into the toilet (hopefully an unused one) and it poses a huge risk for something as large and potentially slippery as the iPad.  Alas, the iPad and bathroom Internet surfing were not meant to be.

So that takes care of WHERE the iPad should and should not be used.  But who is Apple’s latest and (hotly contested) greatest intended for?  I can tell you right now, diehard tech enthusiasts do not like the iPad for its lack of features and poor design.  If these diehard tech enthusiasts, who are the type of people who would still use computers and gadgets even if they weren’t cool in mainstream culture, don’t like the iPad, who is expected to love it?

How about the expansion of the computing market?  The current hurdle in computing is the learning curve.  Sure, for you to be reading this, using a computer may be second nature to you, as is riding a bike or driving a car.  But to explain the concepts of computing to the uninitiated seems like a daunting task for the teacher and a vague and arbitrary subject for the pupil.  How do you explain the concept of “windows” in which programs run in, that you can have multiple iterations of these “windows” to run the same program, but you can’t have multiple programs run in the same window?

In comes the Apple iPad.  Its aim is to simplify computing and ease the learning curve for those uninterested in learning how to interact with a computer.  The main target audience: children and the elderly.  A two year old has little difficulty learning how to manipulate the Apple iPad because she knows that she can just TOUCH what she wants and move it.  Try to have her use a mouse on a computer and it may be difficult for her to grasp the concept of moving the mouse and having to click a certain button in order to manipulate the computer.

And now, WHY?  Why should people care about the Apple iPad?  As I was outside enjoying lunch with a friend yesterday, I sat next to a group of girls who were talking about the iPad.  One girl believed that the iPad and tablet computing in general will completely replace the laptop within five years. 

While I may not completely agree with the timing or the statement itself, tablet computing is slowly making its way into the consumer marketplace.  Take the laptop, for example.  It was somewhere between 2000 and 2010 that the price and functionality of laptops had finally hit an equilibrium that was acceptable by consumers.  Prior to the ubiquity of laptops, desktops were all the rage.  Prior to desktops, people simply didn’t have computers.  Following the trend, it seems as if tablet computing will do the same to laptops.  The only question is when.