The Ambitious Paradox

Unless you’ve been hiding under a rock for the last few weeks, you probably know that Apple Inc. announced the iPad on Wednesday, a new tablet computer that they’ve positioned to compete in the burgeoning netbook market. In the lead up to the announcement, I tried to convince myself that I would neither want nor get one. For one thing, I couldn’t imagine where it would fit in my life. Between the iMac and my iPhone (and occasionally Kari’s Macbook Pro), I have all of my computing needs met. That middle space for a netbook/tablet just didn’t seem to exist for me. Additionally, most pundits expected Apple’s new creation to come in at around $800-1000, which would definitely put it out of the price range for a product that wouldn’t replace anything I currently have. Approaching the announcement, I thought I had properly convinced myself that no matter how cool or intriguing the product was, I wouldn’t want it in the same way that I wanted the iPhone 3 years ago, or even the iPhone 3G almost 2 years ago. With my mind at ease, I eagerly awaited to see it and dismiss it.

Ironically, the announcement went pretty much as I expected with a product that I pretty much expected. The new iPad is essentially an oversized iPod Touch, complete with the ability to run almost all iPhone apps. Of course, web browsing is expected to be a better experience with the larger screen, and the iBooks ereader app is nice, but without E-Ink, I knew it wouldn’t be replacing my new Nook anytime soon. I thought the iPad-optimized version of Apple’s iWork office suite was very cool, but since finishing school, I haven’t used such software very often, so that wasn’t a deal-maker. I was pretty satisfied that while Apple introduced a cool product, it was a cool product I could do without.

Then, I began to think. I thought about how many pundits said that it wouldn’t replace a laptop or desktop computer. I thought about how I generally don’t like to sit down at the desk with the iMac to work on that computer. I thought about how lately I’ve preferred to do as much of my computing tasks as possible on my iPhone because the OS is just so fun and easy to use, despite the small screen and virtual thumb keyboard. Slowly, it began to occur to me that the iPad might be exactly what I am looking for. It provides the iPhone OS that I love with a larger, more useful screen. The multitouch, gesture-based UI is perfectly suited for such a device. It allows full, ten-fingered use of the iPhone OS’s virtual keyboard that I actually enjoy using. I even “realized” that I do more word processing than I thought I did, and the VGA video adapter means that I can connect the iPad to a projector for Keynote presentations. Suddenly, it occurred to me that the iPad wouldn’t be a replacement for my Nook or my iPhone. It might actually be a replacement for my desktop computer. Of course, it doesn’t have the power and capability of a full-featured computer, but the majority of my computing tasks (certainly my day-to-day activities) consisted of tasks that the iPad should be able to handle. The other 4-5% could be done on my now less important iMac. Now, the iPad is not without its faults. I really believe in order for it to be the kind of device I want it to be, it would have to have some way to access Hulu, which it a Flash-based site. Since neither the iPhone nor the iPad allows Flash (which I’m typically grateful for), neither can play video from Hulu. Right now, that’s my biggest problem with the iPad, but it’s by no means a deal-breaker.

So, I’ve talked myself into wanting the iPad. I didn’t want it to happen, but there it is. I could definitely see myself using this as my main computer, capable of doing roughly 95% of my computer work. It’s light and portable. It handles (most of) the web brilliantly. It plays all kinds of media, and despite the lack of E-Ink, it looks like it could be a decent ereader in a pinch. It has a really incredible suite of office software, optimized for the interface. I think it’s also safe to assume that third-party developers will soon develop some iPad-optimized apps that will further expand its functionality, and existing iPhone apps will continue to work in the mean time. Altogether, this may come closer than anything else to fulfilling Macintosh founder, Jef Raskin’s, dream of the computer as a completely intuitive “information appliance”. That sounds much more enjoyable to me. It also sounds potentially better able to integrate with my life than a traditional computer. Eventually, I hope the iPad can help me move into that that phase of at-ease computing. Now to convince Kari that such benefits are worth the $499 starting price…