I could be talking to a coworker, unsure of some documentation. Or I could be eating while reading news. Or I could be waiting in line for 3 minutes and reading a few paragraphs of a programming guide. Or (one of my favorites) holding my squirming two year old in one arm (holding the phone) and the hand of my four-year old in the other, showing the Wikipedia entry for the island of Capri to my seven year old.
It's a tablet! That fits in your pocket! That you can use one-handed! That has data access everywhere!
It's the freakin' future, folks. We're living in the freakin' future.
I'm afraid I haven't been paying attention: is there a brief, cogent argument for why the iPad will do this whereas the Tablet PC form factor did not?
I think styluses are for geeks only. Using handwriting recognition and gestures is like writing on paper, only it's not really. It's also like using your desktop PC, but not really. Geeks like us can learn these new conventions and have fun coping with a stylus. To most people it's a terrible pain in the *ss.
Taking up a pen tablet also involves taking up the stylus. That's 100% more overhead than something like the iPad. A paper reference book can be looked at, browsed, indexed, flipped through just by putting your hands on it. Install software to allow that on a pen tablet, and you still have to pick up that stylus in addition to going to the tablet.
In short, it's more immediate. It's immediate enough to reach a mainstream audience. Pen tablets were not.
I mean it IS cheap. The data plan IS cheap.
I had never heard of a tablet pc; until, I was browsing craigslist for a cheap Wacom solution last month. I've heard of an iPad and its not even in stores yet. It will probably be half a decade before I stop hearing about the iPad.
Perhaps we should give it a chance.
Software.
I could be talking to a coworker, unsure of some documentation. Or I could be eating while reading news. Or I could be waiting in line for 3 minutes and reading a few paragraphs of a programming guide. Or (one of my favorites) holding my squirming two year old in one arm (holding the phone) and the hand of my four-year old in the other, showing the Wikipedia entry for the island of Capri to my seven year old.
It's a tablet! That fits in your pocket! That you can use one-handed! That has data access everywhere!
The freakin' future, folks. We're living in the freakin' future.
But: Can I get one that's ruggedized to work in a mine, or explosion proofed for an oil rig, or certified for medical environment? Can I get rs232/Can/I2C? Can I build an adapter without selling my company to Apple?
Even if I did, I want to sell an expensive logging/inspection package then Apple take 40%
http://www.appleinsider.com/articles/09/11/03/exclusive_look...
http://www.tuaw.com/2009/12/02/apple-looking-to-sell-ipod-to...
Furthermore, it will disrupt numerous markets: portable DVD players, GPS units, PDAs, laptops, industry-specific bespoke mobile platforms (what is that thingy the UPS guy uses?), control systems, newspapers, magazines, you get the idea. Anything less would not be worth Apple's time.