iPad: Under- or Overwhelming?


A lots of techies seem underwhelmed by yesterday’s iPad announcement. But Kevin Marks has a good pro-iPad point of view. I have another one to add:

Yep, we have seen all the pieces that make up the iPad: unibody, touch screen, WiFi, 3G, flash, big button in front, dock, … So technologically, it’s indeed a “yawn”. But this ignores the market innovation that it enables, which is the opposite of a yawn.

Just two examples:

  • in healthcare, I can totally imagine hospitals putting up a stand+keyboard for the iPad in every treatment room, and the doctors and nurses carrying iPads. When they enter the room, they put the iPad on the stand, initially switched off, and figure out what’s wrong with you. Then, they can immediately enter what they need to into their medical records system.
    This is the first device for which this has ever been true! It can be carried, it wirelessly connects, it has the battery life, and it is big enough you can actually see something. The iPhone was the closest before, but the iPad nails it. That’s not just a billion-dollar market for Apple, but there is a very good chance we’ll all end up healthier!
  • in education, it’s the device that could make printed textbooks obsolete. At $499 plus volume discount, that might even save the school districts money! And imagine what a textbook could turn into if you carried it around like an iPad with WiFi and high-end graphics available.

It’s very impressive that Apple manages to innovate technologically and market-wise in the same company. Any other company that knows how to do that?


4 responses to “iPad: Under- or Overwhelming?”

  1. @Dan: “The form factor of this device facilitates conversations, rather than stifling them.” That’s exactly it, you put it very well.

    Turns out my two use cases above are exactly about that, although I didn’t realize it when I wrote them down: e.g. it facilitates conversation between doctor and patient and nurse and whoever else came to the doctor’s visit. Very much unlike a PC form factor or a mobile phone form factor.

  2. I’m normally the biggest Apple detractor on the planet, but before the end of the weekend I’m pretty sure I’ll have a new Mac Mini (or even a laptop) so I can develop for this thing. And I think the techies dissing it are much like the gamers who laughed at the Wii.

    Yes, it’s a glorified photo frame. The big thing I see for it is that, being flat and without the huge keyboard dangling off the bottom (like netbooks have) it becomes a social device; something to get passed around the table over drinks. The form factor of this device facilitates conversations, rather than stifling them.

    I think this device is the promise of the Chumby (which I have and use, although not in the way the makers intended) delivered.

    I’m not sure it’s going to be cheaper than textbooks for schools because my iPhone has been really fragile, and thus really freakin’ expensive, and my snark on that device has been that the iPhone convinced me I want a smart phone, now I’m waiting for my contract to run out so I can get one. But I think the promise of this product is that it’ll allow us to use the net and lightweight computing in ways that we didn’t think we needed to.

    Just like the iPod Touch (which, pre-iPhone I didn’t understand) and the iPhone. And I still hate iTunes with a passion and will do anything I can to avoid it and use a Sansa Clip for my mobile music.

  3. Most text books don’t need high end graphics, so the iPad would be a waste of money compared o other eBook readers); my doctors use PC’s with prox cards for authentication. They work fine. Not sure if the software would runon an iPad.

    Let’s face it, it’s a “me too” device with nothing new to add to the mix.

  4. Good ideas on using the iPad. Recently, my mom was in hospital. Doctors and nurses used a Palm (can’t remember the exact model, though) to coordinate where patients have to be treated next, e.g. send to surgery, pick them up after surgery. I thought that was quite cool. With a device like the iPad this could be even more efficient. Though I’m still undecided if I like the iPad. ;)