The iPad

There's been so much tablet here and tablet there that I don't really want to do much writing on this. Kevin Hoctor has summarized it well with his The Computer for the Rest of Them and Steven Frank has analyzed the developer's perspective perfectly already.

To give you a few original bits, here's two Tweets I did during the announcement:

The iPad is where the Mac has been going since the Mac Plus. Affordable computer for normal people. In 10-20 years the Mac may be gone.

(...) I think it's exactly what's needed right now. I'm not the target audience, but love it.

So, in short, I think the iPad is the future, and I think that's mostly good. I hope Apple will get competition so nobody gets a stranglehold on the customer. I think it's an interesting device, and I want to have it, but I can't really justify buying one right now. But I'm a Mac/iPhone programmer, so I'll get to develop for one sooner or later, it's almost inevitable.

Reader Comments: (RSS Feed)

Drew Thaler writes: "I'm not the target audience, but love it." That's a very dangerous place for a product to be. "Looks great, but not for me." Everybody admires it, nobody buys it. Been hearing a lot of that. :-) I agree that something very like the iPad will be the future in the long run, though. If Apple is persistent and learns from its mistakes, it could even be the iPad.

Uli Kusterer replies: ★ Drew, agreed, it can be dangerous. But remember, all people talking about the iPad right now are either press or hardcore computer users. It's like querying a group of men whether they'll buy a pack of tampons. Our sample selection is skewed against the iPad.

Ken writes: The IPad and Talking Moose are made for each other. Plus, finally, after 24 years, the App store provides the perfect way for all those loyal Talking Moose adherents (the ones who remember multi-finder and floppy disks) to pay a gesture of appreciation to whomever takes the time to do a Talking Moose app. Over 1,000,000 will purchase within the first month. Suggested price: $1.99. Do it.

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