The iPad Revelation.
On January 27th 2010, Steve Jobs took the stage and introduced Apple’s latest creation: the iPad. Unlike other “revolutionary products”, it did not get as much media attention or enthusiasm from experts. Pundits would find several issues with it: “it doesn’t have a camera”, “there is no USB port”, “it’s just an oversized iPhone” etc.
But something started to change in late May and June. People, regular people actually started buying them, and having the experience of using a totally different device, definitely not an iPhone, but dangerously close to their regular computer.
Users everywhere would report that this thing was changing their life, they would leave the laptop behind for days, and most couldn’t explain what was the iPad advantage, but they knew this experience was better, much better than the “old laptop days.”
Last week, I also took an iPad for a spin. After a few minutes it dawned on me: this is the future, and the beginning of the end of the PC era. Nothing I have ever used was so seamless, so simple and yet so “computer like” as the iPad.
Except the original Mac from 1984. When the Macintosh was introduced to the world it was also far beyond it’s time, and lots of pundits said it was not ready to take on regular business PCs of the day. But it brought irreversible change to the ways computer work: graphical interfaces, user friendliness, and a mouse.
The iPad is very much like the Mac of old, it shows us the things to come: Touch interfaces, instant on boot time, carry anywhere Internet and unbelievable simplicity. And that’s the big revelation few have seen about the iPad yet: it’s like 1984 all over again.
