Community

• Blogs
  • Expert Blogs
  • Community Blogs
  • Create a Blog Entry
• Discussions
  • Start a Discussion
• Job Center
• Chapters

Forgive me, Steve Jobs

• 
• 
• 
• 

OK, I will admit it.

When I first read the reports about the iPAD in January, I thought, "Who would want a big iPhone?"

I confess, Steve, that I just didn't get it This is despite, I might add, being totally in the tank for Apple as evidenced by my 2 MacBooks, a MAC mini, and my 2^nd iPhone.

But over the past few weeks, I have been thinking about my patterns of content consumption and creation, and I am now fully on Board. The Apple marketing department can now rest, secure than I am on Board.

A lot of this came about as I prepared for my keynote at AIIM On Demand this year - 8 disruptive forces that will transform the content management industry. One of the key forces I talk about is the impact that mobile technologies will have on the evolution of content management and E20 in the next few years.

The more I thought about it, the more convinced I became that there is a place for an iPad-ish device.

And then I totally bought the farm when I got custody of an iPad for the weekend before the AIIM Show. [A note: we purchased 3 for the booth at the Show because they were way cheaper than paying the pirate rates for a 3-day rental of a flat panel.]

My reasons for bullishness on the iPad are as follows…

My content usage typically falls into 3 main categories.

1. Pure content consumption. Clearly the iPad is a huge winner in this category. I do this kind of content work almost constantly.
2. Modest content interaction. This would be things like dealing with email, tweeting, commenting on blogs, taking notes, short articles - you get the idea. The iPad is great at this. I am even in a brief window in which going through e-mail is actually enjoyable (I am sure this will fade). Ditto #1, I do this kind of work almost constantly.
3. Intense content creation. This is creating complicated spreadsheets. Multi-page word docs. My super fancy presentations. This type of work is very "peaky" for me. It clearly is something the iPad is not good at.

So… 2 out of 3 ain't bad. And as time goes on, two things will happen that may even tip things further: 1) other players will enter (Google reportedly has a Pad coming, as does HP); and 2) Apple will inevitably improve this device little by little by little, just like they did the iPhone.

So I am in.

To add to the above, here are a few other things I like.

1. Carrying one makes you feel super cool. People have tech envy.
2. Graphically intense books will be beautiful on this device. IBooks includes a free illustrated Winnie the Pooh. Take one look and you can see how this will blow Kindle out of the water. The bookmarks thing is much better than on the Kindle. For both the Kindle and the iPad, I want to export my bookmarks/highlights - why can't I?
3. I can read my Kindle books here as well as on the Kindle.
4. Power situation MUCH better than I thought. Way better than the iPhone. Makes me wonder why the iPhone power situation is so bad.
5. The dude in front of my on the plane can't slam his $%%^&*# seat back and crunch my screen.
6. Watching a Netflix On Demand movie on it is pretty cool.

Here are some things I don't like.

1. You can't read it in the sun. Advantage, Kindle.
2. The whole Flash thing.
3. Give up the iPhone apps on the iPad thing. They open up the same size as on the iPhone and just look plain stupid.
4. I wish it was a little lighter.
5. I wish I could access some sort of file system.
6. The screen gets messy pretty quickly when you are using it a lot. And on a device this beautiful, that is much more noticeable than it might otherwise be.

So...if I could hazard a prediction, I predict that within a couple of years we will be doing most of our E20 kinds of interaction on a device like this. What do you think?

Comments

Submitted by Bryant Duhon April 27, 2010 - 10:33 PM

Having had custody of one of the iPads for a week myself, I've even got to admit (as someone who gets annoyed by the Cult of Apple) the iPad is pretty cool. Lightweight updating on twitter, facebook, etc was easy. Plus, tracking the NFL draft while sitting on the couch with it was VERY cool. (OK, that wasn't very cool, but being able to do that was.)

Can't wait to see what the next generation of these devices, HP, Apple, and whoever else, brings.

Report

Was this helpful? Yes No

Reply

Subject  

Comment  

Submitted by Nick Inglis April 28, 2010 - 8:52 AM

John, I'm not sure that "Intense Content Creation" isn't completely supported on the iPad. With Pages, Keynote and Numbers you've got high quality word processing, better presentation power than Powerpoint can offer and a spreadsheet application (that admittedly still needs some refinement). Your dislike list is completely on target except for the file system one. As someone who's developing an iPad app, that's definitely on my 'like' list.

Report

Was this helpful? Yes No

Reply

Subject  

Comment  

Submitted by James Palo May 11, 2010 - 11:59 AM

I too was a non believer in the Ipad. I just couldn't understand the point. Then I bought one to demo at the AIIM Snow. Wow. First off it was hard enough to wrestle it away from my kids all weekend to practice my demo. We have an ajax document viewer that runs in any browser so, the Ipad was a perfect test of this. Then laying back on the couch and browsing the web was a joy using just my fingers. Now I hate to use a mouse. Ok playing songs on the plane ride, since its an Ipod too. I don't really play games but my kids had already downloaded a ton already. Ok I'm old so the larger sreen size makes reading email much easier. I can also quickly zoom on an area or turn it sideways. I didn't have to take it out like a laptop when going through security.

At the show on the floor I could demo in the walkways instead of trying to move people over to a demo station. When I did demo on a normal station I kept trying to use my fingers on the laptop. Hmm

Don't forget about the 140,000 applictions available. Many are already being tweeked to use the Ipads larger real estate.

It is not a phone, though. So you still need your Iphone.

What I don't like is having to constantly fight over it with my kids, so I bought another one.

Report

Was this helpful? Yes No

Reply

Subject  

Comment  

Submitted by Eric Schwarzenbach May 11, 2010 - 5:23 PM

You might try looking up that expression "bought the farm." It doesn't mean what you seem to think it means.

Report

Was this helpful? Yes No

Reply

Subject  

Comment  

Submitted by John Turner May 12, 2010 - 7:31 PM

Bring on the oversize phone. I always carry a briefcase and wouldn't look too out of place with wires running from a headset into the case having that wireless reparte. I don't need the phone while I'm driving. Leave a message and I'll get back.

I think the camera adapter / USB access is weak. Let me plug in my flash drive to access files and I'll be totally sold.

Report

Was this helpful? Yes No

Reply

Subject  

Comment  

This post and comment(s) reflect the personal perspectives of community members, and not necessarily those of their employers or of AIIM International