PlanetB

Make no mistake, if Steve Jobs came out on stage at an Apple press conference and announced that they were coming out with $500 touch screen toilet paper called iTP, the World would still have mad Apple love and Twitter would be buzzing with multi-touch toilet paper envy. The fan base that Apple has secured is certainly not without merrit. When Jobs came back to Apple in 97, the slew of inspiring tech that came out of the company, with slick design and spot on marketing, arguably took it from being a supplier of niche products to becoming a brand with almost mind controlling powers. And like it or not, the iPhone could potentially be considered as the catalyst for the biggest paradigm shift in consumer technology in the last 20 years.

If you asked me 4 years ago if a multi-touch 3.5 inch screen mobile phone with great software support would be an amazing seller, I would have said yes, regardless of which company produced it. It was exactly what the general consumer didn’t know they needed. The iPad though? It can’t be carried in one’s pocket. Face it folks, it has limitations:

• can’t take pictures.
• wouldn’t be a very good portable music player.
• certainly wouldn’t be useful as a phone.
• no FLASH support
• no multi-tasking

At least that’s the kind of criticism I hear about the iPad – even from the zanny Apple lovers. And when most people speak positively about it, I don’t hear much that would convince my mother that the iPad was something she needed. When I asked my nephew what he thought about the iPad, he almost started foaming at the mouth. But when I ask what it is about it that he likes, his vague descriptions made it sound like the iPad is simply a large-screen iPod that is less effective than my $250 netbook. To some extent, perhaps it is.

But I believe that most people’s expectations of what the iPad should have been was grounded on, more or less, in what the iPhone and netbook or laptop are. The iPad will be neither of those. And it wasn’t meant to be.

• the smart phone or mobile device – fits in the palm of your hand
• the netbook or laptop or desktop – to do things that would otherwise require a keyboard and large(er) screen (not necessarily just email – documents, programming, photo manipulation, etc)

So where does the iPad fit in? It’s a tablet and as such fits squarely (with rounded edges of course) between the mobile device and netbook/laptop. It may be able to do some of the things that both of those devices can do, but will definitely not surpass them in their ability to do various specific things well (phone, writing, programming, music player, photoshop, etc).

The challenge that will face most consumers is getting over their expectations. I forsee lots of unsatisfied iPad buyers on launch day.

There is also a challenge facing software developers targeting the iPad. You can simply take your iPhone apps and blow them up for the larger iPad format. Doing so, however, don’t expect much. Those iFart apps lose their luster on the larger format. Or not… fart noises are still hilarious. But you get the idea. The iPad requires remodeling, rethinking, a different approach.

The question remains – what are some of the practical applications for the Apple iPad? Let’s not really discuss specific apps, but more target markets… I’ve been thinking about this and have some ideas.

Clipboarders - Anyone who would carry a clipboard or visit clients. This includes real estate agents, insurance agents, door to door solicitors, FedEx carriers, physicians, auditors, fitness professionals… the list goes on and on. Each of those markets could likely benefit from niche applications catering to what they would otherwise do with a clipboard or perhaps on a laptop.

Couch surfers – This market includes people who semi-casually want to look something up or show someone something while at home, probably sitting on the couch (or other place, unfortunately probably also including the toilet for some). Could be movie listings, the weather, photo albums, the family tree, security cameras feeds, youtube videos, TED Talks, vodcasts, Discovery Channel tv shows that you can’t watch because the rest of your family is hogging the tv… This list is endless. Sure these applications could possibly work just as well on a different device, but the iPad definitely has a market for these kinds of things and this is the kind of market that most developers will likely target.

Readers – People do still read books. Sure the iPad may not be as good as an e-ink device for reading, but I’m sure the market for ebooks on the iPad will be huge. I’m also sure that many iPad owners will additionally own a Kindle or other ebook reader that is specifically made for such a task. We aren’t heading to a single device World any time soon.

Makers – The makers market is probably one of the smaller markets that could be targetted by the iPad. Programmers would obviously have a hard time writing anything of any significance on the iPad. Writers would likely be somewhat unproductive at writing their next novel without a true keyboard. But for cooking, baking, music making, finger painting, proofing and other things that don’t necessarily require external input devices, there is room for some innovative applications. Of course, Steve Jobs is anti-stylus for some reason. He was quoted as saying “yuck” regarding a stylus. The lack of which means less impact to the maker market. The inability of the iPad to use a regular stylus may not be a huge constraint though as there are indications that third party companies have created a compatible stylus. Having this would no doubt increase the market penetration of the iPad on the maker category.

Gamers – This is obvious. At the iPad press conference, some low key uninspiring game demos were shown. I’m not convinced that driving games will rock on the iPad as much as they do on the iPhone, but there is no doubt an incredible oportunity for game developers to port or create for the iPad. With the larger screen dimensions, even two player board games are possible. Checkers or Go anyone??

Expectations that the iPad would be a device all encompasing in its ability to adequately handle all activities from A to Z is unrealistic. Also unrealistic is the idea that the iPad should have features that simply work better on other devices. It is not a camera nor is it a mobile phone. The iPad is what it is and will be successful in its own right. When I want to talk on the phone I will use my Blackberry. When I want to listen to music, I’ll use my iPod. To take a picture I’ll continue to use my SLR and to read an ebook from the comfort of my couch, well when the iPad comes out, I’ll probably use that.