Tuesday, February 16, 2010

An Apple "Pro Pad" in two years?

An Apple "Pro Pad" in two years? A TidBITS article speculates about larger pad devices running future versions of the iPhone OS, taking over more tasks and activities hereto done with laptops.
Me, I can see it. Once you have a tight and secure, easy to use device like iPad, it's not hard to imagine stretching it at the corners, literally and figuratively, to become more powerful. After all, the platform has to develop and expand, and we hardly need a device smaller than the iPhone. And also the geeks are foaming at the mouth about the limited capabilities of the iPad, it's not unthinkable they could expand a bit into that market while staying true to the spirit of the system.

I must admit I have been quite lukewarm on the idea of the iPad being used for production, but TidBITS visits this issue too.
I'm still wondering a little why you'd choose an iPad over an iMac for serious content creation. But this article, and particularly the comments under it, has some interesting thoughts, like this one by Ian Turner:
For me, the iPad is all about freeing up content creation. A much wider spectrum of users will be able to use it. Children will take to it even more naturally than writing because they just have to touch it. Other people who just are not currently comfortable with the computer will suddenly have so much more confidence because there is so little to learn. But it is even more than freeing up who can create content, it is also about where you create content. If you get a creative urge whilst watching the TV, you can just doodle away on your lap, putting it down and taking it up whenever you feel like it. Reading and writing become much closer to the same experience because you can just flick from your ebook to your note taker and back again all in a form factor you can use whilst standing on the train. Even more importantly for me, it really does free up people working in the field to be much more spontaneous. Imagine a geologist working in the field. They don’t have to sit down and open up laptop, you can just take it out of your bag, download a quick picture, type a quick blog post and send it over 3G. The work becomes much more free and spontaneous for everyone working in the field like scientists, engineers, journalists, teachers, and even relief workers. Something so light and so useable really will change the way that we create things in response to the world around us. For me, I think the iPad will change the world even more than the iPhone.

And here's an article about how software company The Omni Group feels about the iPad platform. (Hint: enthusiastic!)

1 comment:

Timo Lehtinen said...

The iPad is a nice datamachine for sure. And a larger inbuilt monitor can only make it more useful.

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