“iPad” to solve problems we didn’t know we had?
Saturday, January 09, 2010 at 02:58 PM | Posted by howard
Apple may offer a completely touch-based version of the iWork suite standard with its (presumed) upcoming smartphone-laptop hybrid.
According to the New York Times, engineers who worked on the product say it will respond to “a complex new vocabulary of finger gestures,” and that Apple has been developing “a multitouch version of iWork” for years that would be perfect for it.
“Recently, anticipation for new tablet computers has been almost absurdly focused on the magical product that people expect to emanate from the mind of Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs,” reads the Times article.
As Jessica Mintz reports for the AP, “It would have to show us why we ought to pay for yet another Internet-connected screen, on top of the TVs, computers and smart phones we already have.”
From Jessica Mintz’s article:
-Apple has a knack for spotting problems we didn’t know we had. It can leave us wondering how we survived without vast libraries of music and TV shows in our pockets or the comfort of knowing “there’s an app for that.”
..the mechanics of the human body may be stronger than Jobs’ charisma. We tolerate devices like smart phones with their tiny screens and awkward keyboards because they’re fine for what we need them for — quick, on-the-go reading and messaging. As soon as the screen gets bigger, though, people tend to start wanting to do more with the device, such as typing longer missives, says Mark Rolston, chief creative officer for Frog Design, a firm that designed one of Apple’s first computers. At that point, the limitations of small screens and the lack of a real keyboard could be intolerable, and people would move up a rung to a small laptop.
Rolston believes Apple won’t market a tablet as a replacement for a workhorse laptop. Instead, Jobs will describe a limited set of uses for the device at first, Rolston says, and later Apple may broaden how it advertises the tablet. He pointed to the way the iPhone evolved from easy-to-use phone to multipurpose pocket computer a year after its debut with the advent of the App Store-
Reader Comments
Steve always does it that way. His vision creates a market, often by filling a need the consumer didn’t know was there. But, they won’t call it an iPad, that I’m sure of. It’s too close to iPod.
“ahem”