.FLYINGHEAD LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
.TITLE The iPad defenders have spoken
.AUTHOR Jorge Sosa
.SUMMARY Jorge Sosa touched a nerve with his recent dismissal of the iPad as a costly Etch-a-Sketch alternative, and received more reader responses to that article than anything else he’s ever written for this publication.
.OTHER
Computing Unplugged readers are an amiable bunch. They’re very polite, even when they’re asking me to extract my head from my posterior.
I touched a nerve with my recent dismissal of the iPad [[http://www.computingunplugged.com/issues/issue201002/00002478001.html|as a costly Etch-a-Sketch alternative]], and received more reader responses to that article than anything else I’ve ever written for this publication.
Here’s a representative sampling, complete with my unsolicited rebuttals.
.TEASER Tap here and watch the Apple-faithful lose their minds.
.H1 I sound like his wife
Is it just me or is reader Ken Ashford implying I have some sort of hormonal imbalance? I’m probably reading too much into his opening observation:
.QUOTE The cool reception of the iPad reminds me of questions my wife has asked me over the past 30 years.
.QUOTE As each was introduced to the world, she has posed the same question: "Why do you need a computer (or the Internet, or email)? What’s it for?"
.QUOTE I recognized their potential, but there was simply no way to explain it to her. She could only follow up with "But why do you need it?"
.QUOTE For the iPad, you must consider its potential, not just its first incarnation.
.QUOTE You mentioned the Apple IIgs, an effort to placate the massive Apple II base that felt they were being ignored by the very company they helped finance. So Apple pushed the Apple II technology to its limit. I recall it was marketed with the "Apple II forever" campaign. There was no place left for it to go and they soon rightfully pulled the plug on the Apple II.
.QUOTE You also mentioned [former Apple CEO John] Sculley’s brainchild, the Newton. I think it was the first thing Steve eliminated as soon as he came back to Apple. I had one. It was ahead of its time, but it was clumsy and it needed to die. I won’t say any more about that.
.QUOTE Which brings me to this. Take a quick look back at the iPod and the iPhone when they were first released. There were plenty of MP3 players on the market, but the feature rich iPod redefined the music player. The scroll-wheel-controlled menu could have done that by itself. Later iPod models continued to add capabilities and an online store to support it that took us beyond the earlier market for MP3 players.
.QUOTE The iPhone brought enough early features and high expectations to immediately redefine the future of the cell phone market. The developers kit and all the apps that followed have carried us with it into a world beyond the simple cell phone market.
.QUOTE The iPad has been part of Steve’s vision since the mid ’80s, waiting most of that time for technology to catch up to what he envisioned. I think we can agree that it will continue to have his full support. Yes, it was released with fewer features than we’ve grown to expect, but I’m confident it will morph and expand to take its place at the leading edge of another growing market that doesn’t currently exist.
Clearly Ken is well-steeped in Apple history. And if his crystal ball isn’t broken, future iterations of the iPad won’t be as lame. I hope he’s right.
.H1 The camera loves you
Rick Boden is a photographer who also thinks I’m wrong:
.QUOTE Just read your article and I have to say that I have the complete opposite feelings. I am a photographer and Mac user and this iPad is the first Apple product that I feel the need to rush out and buy because I think it will be so useful for me.
.QUOTE I make frequent one-day trips by air for photo shoots and the iPad will take a lot less space than a laptop and give me everything I need from email to reading to Web surfing. I suppose if I had an iPhone or iPod touch I could get by with using the small screen but this will make it far more enjoyable.
The funny thing is, Computing Unplugged Editor David Gewirtz said the iPad reminded him of a digital photo frame. I asked Mr. Boden, professional shutterbug, if he could see himself using the iPad for presenting his work. Here was his reply:
.QUOTE Yes I can see myself using the iPad as a presentation tool and I can see my wife doing so as well as she is a Web designer and often shows sites to clients at their locations. Mind you, the lack of Flash support might be a problem for both of us.
.H1 Silly rabbit, iPad is for kids
Brad Isaacs was the reader who probably thought the furthest out-of-the-box. He sees the iPad as indispensable for educators at colleges, high schools, charters schools and the like:
.QUOTE We’ve already seen a number of colleges provide iPod Touches or iPhones to students. Imagine all the uses of a larger note-taking (and/or recording) capable device, that also has the syllabus, text book, interactive lesson material, school systems access, class calendar, your email, alerts from the teacher, syllabus key alerts (upcoming test?), the Internet, online pizza ordering capabilities…I can just keep going here. If I’m a visionary at Prestigious State U or Private College — I am salivating at the possibilities (and the recruiting advantages) of being on board early.
Interestingly enough, Brad doesn’t work in education. He’s the operations manager for The Jackson Sun.
I, too, work for a newspaper, albeit not a Gannett daily. From that perspective, I can easily see why Brad would want schools to hand out iPads to their students. As an alternative to smaller e-book readers, the iPad might be a better digital delivery device for newspapers’ electronic editions. And if we (meaning those of us who work in the newspaper industry) can hook readers while they’re young, there’s a better chance we might actually keep our jobs in the next few years.
Could it be that the key to my future gainful employment lies with a device some smart alecks are calling the ultimate interactive sushi tray? I’ve got my doubts, but stranger things have happened.
.BIO
