The Professional and the iPad: Part 4 - Enter the iPad

iIf you haven't seen either Steve Ballmer's 2010 CES keynote or Steve Jobs iPad product announcement, stop reading now, find the videos and watch. I'll wait. Come back when you're done.

What did you think? If ever there was a personification of the differences between mobile computing visions it's certainly there in those two presentations. Ballmer quizzically stalking an array of machines (Wow, they all run Windows) and eventually ham-fisting a "slate" from HP with an underwhelming 30 seconds of "we can do mobile touch too" demo. Jobs on the other hand was about the concept, the idea, the promise and the future. He made it clear; the iPad will not be another Netbook and no, it's not a giant iPhone. It's magical baby and we are changing the game.

When you first see the iPad, the clarity of product vision over a 10 year span becomes very real. Take a look at the evolution of mobile and touch-based products from the first iPod, through it's various generations, to the iPhone and, yes, even the MacBook Air. Doesn't the iPad look like the screen off of a MacBook Air sans keyboard? Apple was thinking about the future and a review of the product evolution makes an outsider like me go "Doh!" at the obviousness of their direction. In hindsight, of course.

The iPad is not a pen based me-too slate or a convertible tablet. Apple actually knows something about that having had a crack at that game with the Newton. The iPad is both mobile and tactile in a way that no Windows based machine currently is. That is a key take-away -- Apple knew the pen-based model was broken. What's the point in adapting handwriting as the major source of input on a machine when multi-touch technology exists? Why are people going to pick up a pen when most laptop users have now given up the mouse?

The gestures and cues that appear on an iPad show a real integration between the software and the hardware. Previews of key applications demonstrate that somebody actually designed the software with the functionality of the hardware in mind. Applications currently run one at a time and that, to me, is important. This is a tool for focusing on doing one thing well while you're doing it. If you want to watch a movie while you write a movie script, IM a movie actor and chat to friend about the movies then use another class of computer. The iPad wants your attention. The navigation does not seem like an afterthought in the way that "flick" technology in Windows 7 does. iPad is hands-on, just like a keyboard but better. A two year old is going to grok the iPad. A 2 year old. Give a two year old a Windows based Tablet and all they will do is chew on the stylus.