iPad Changes the Game, Or Does It?

Two days ago, Steve Jobs walked on stage and held up what Apple is calling the iPad. The internet has been losing its mind ever since, and I have been refreshing tech blogs nonstop trying to figure out what I think about it.

Let me just say it: I am not sure this thing makes sense.

What It Is

The iPad is basically a 9.7-inch touchscreen device that runs a modified version of the iPhone operating system. No physical keyboard. No multitasking (at least not yet). No USB port. No camera. It starts at $499 for the base model, which is honestly less than I expected, but still a lot of money for what it is.

Apple is positioning it as this device that fills the gap between a smartphone and a laptop. Something for browsing the web, reading ebooks, watching videos, checking email. A "consumption device," as people are calling it.

The Skeptic in Me

Here is my problem with this. I am typing this blog post on a laptop. I code on a laptop. I SSH into Linux servers from a laptop. What exactly would I do with an iPad that I cannot already do on my laptop or my phone?

The tech forums I follow are absolutely brutal about it. "It is just a big iPod Touch" is the most common take, and honestly, it is hard to argue with that. No multitasking means you cannot have a terminal open while reading documentation. No file system access means you cannot manage your files properly. For someone like me who is learning to program, this device is essentially useless.

And then there is the name. iPad. The jokes are writing themselves and I will not repeat them here, but Apple really did not think that one through.

But Wait

Here is where it gets interesting. I was talking to a friend about this yesterday, and he said something that stuck with me. He said, "You are thinking about this like an engineer. Think about it like your mom would."

And he is right. My mother does not need a terminal. She does not need to compile code or manage files. She wants to check email, look at photos, maybe browse some websites and read the news. Right now she does all of that on a shared family desktop that takes five minutes to boot up. An iPad would actually be perfect for her.

I think Apple might be building something for the other 90% of people. The ones who are not computer science students. The ones who find laptops complicated and phones too small. If you think of it that way, the iPad starts making a lot more sense.

The Ebook Angle

The other thing I find interesting is the iBookstore. Amazon has been doing well with the Kindle, and now Apple is going after that market directly. The Kindle is great for reading, but it is terrible at everything else. The iPad can do both: read books and browse the web, watch videos, play games.

I have been using my laptop to read PDFs of textbooks (some of which are definitely legitimate copies, of course) and the experience is not great. A tablet form factor with a good screen could actually be a much better reading device. I can see myself using something like this for reading technical documentation and ebooks, if the screen is good enough and the battery lasts.

What This Means for Computing

Whether or not the iPad succeeds, I think the idea behind it is going to matter. We are moving toward a world where not every computing device needs to be a full computer. Some devices can just be windows into the internet, optimized for consuming content rather than creating it.

This is already happening with smartphones. The iPhone changed everything by making the internet accessible from your pocket, but the screen is tiny. The iPad is asking: what if you had a bigger window?

I keep thinking about what this means for cloud computing, which I have been reading about obsessively lately. If your device is just a screen that connects to services on the internet, then the device itself matters less. Your data lives in the cloud. Your apps are web services. The device is just a viewport.

That is actually a pretty radical idea when you think about it, even if the first version of the iPad feels underwhelming.

My Prediction

I think the iPad will sell okay but not great in its first version. Apple fans will buy it because they buy everything Apple makes. Regular consumers will be confused about why they need it. Techies will dismiss it.

But I also think Apple will iterate on it. They will add multitasking. They will add cameras. They will improve the software. And in a few years, tablets might be a real product category that normal people actually use.

Or it might flop completely. I have been wrong about things before.

What I do know is that I will not be buying one anytime soon. I am a student and $499 is a small fortune. Plus, I need a real computer with a real keyboard and a real terminal. The iPad is not for people like me. Not yet.

But I will be watching closely. Because if Steve Jobs is right about this, it could change how a lot of people interact with technology. And even if he is wrong, the conversation about what computing should look like is a valuable one.

For now, I am going back to my laptop. It has a terminal, a file system, and a keyboard. Everything an engineering student needs.