Enter the iPad. Although upon its announcement I termed the iPad “temporarily irrelevant” to my family of tech-gurus, I think it’s important that upon it’s debut we discuss the iPad’s inherent revolutionary potentialities. If we follow the course of past iProducts, the iPad is surely something to keep two (maybe three) eyes out for. I often pride myself on having bought a first generation iPod, when I kid you not, people were asking me what in the world an iPod even was. So let me tell you what the iPad is, because there seems to be some confusion, albeit on my part as well. The iPad is a portable laptop computer with no tangible keyboard. It is for all intents and purposes, a very big iPhone, without the phone part. My first question was of course, what is this trying to replace? I am yet to get an answer, and even Mr. Jobs himself has flustered in giving a response. But as Lev Grossman of Time magazine noted, “Apple never holds focus groups. It doesn’t ask people what they want; it tells them what they’re going to want next.” My cousin, a programmer and tech-obsesser, filled our holiday conversation with talk of the iPad empire that will soon ensue. His 4 year old son who inherited a hand-me-down iPhone 1G said it best: “Daddy, this is like my phone, only bigger.” He then tried to put the iPad against his ear in an attempt to make a mega phone call (LOLs are welcome). But let’s talk publishing. The iBook application is without a doubt the main proponent of the iPad that has all of the industry buzzing over. Amazon’s Kindle may become an old pastime, like harem pants or planet Pluto. John Makinson, chairman and chief executive at Penguin told Stephen Fry in another Time article, “it gives control back to us and allows us to discover how the market is developing. Frankly, when I saw the iPad, it was like an epiphany…This has to be the future of publishing. You’ll know if you’ve spent any time with one.” I for one am not sure if I’m ready to give up the paperback pages and reading magic of holding a book in my hands, but millions have already taken the digital plunge. An iBook revolution seems imminent. Ironically, just a few magazine pages after the above-mentioned articles, there is a full-page ad for the Kindle. Hmm…somebody’s scared…
Rachel Lily
For more information on the Time articles click HERE