Welcome iPad

So it's here: the iPad. While many others are underwhelmed by what Steve Jobs presented, it roughly met my expectations. Sure, a camera, a SD card slot, multitasking and Flash support would have been nice. But it's not central for this device. Apple feels strong enough to leave these features aside. And they are right: The iPad will be a huge success even without them. Remember the complaints when the first iMac was introduced without a floppy drive or when became clear that the iPhone would have only a software keyboard. People complaining about the lack of certain features we got used to in the past completely miss the point. It's not about features. It's about user experience.

I actually was overwhelmed by the user interface design of the presented apps. It suddenly became clear to me, that the iPad will kill Windows (and of course the Mac OS in it's current form too). Not immediatetly and not completely. But my predication is that in a few years OS like Windows will be reduced to irrelevance. Like Linux now. They will still be here and might have an important role for some tasks, but it's not what people will be using for everyday activity with a computer. – This is a bold claim. Crediting the iPad as the device that will replace the PC as the primary computer, seems like honoring the president of a nation involved in two wars with the Nobel Peace Prize. It might not be wrong, but it certainly feels premature. It's a claim founded in anticipation, not in facts.

What makes me so sure that my anticipation is correct? – Basically the study of my own behavior. I have an iPod Touch for about 4 month now, and it radically changed my use of computers. Even though it only has a tiny little screen, I use the iPod Touch now as primary device to read and write mails, to read news, to quickly look up something in the web, to organize my tasks, events and contacts, to listen to music and to take notes wherever I am. The convenience of having a lightweight mobile device I always have with me just beats all the advantages of a full-fledged laptop. For 90% of the things I want to do while on the way it's perfectly okay. The hardest limitation is the screen size. And that's where the iPad comes in.

Sure, the first generation of iPads is for early adopters like me, who will use it as a second or third computer device. But if the iPad would rest in this niche, it would have no reason for being. It's target group in the long run are normal users like my parents. My parents hate computers because they are so complicated. Let's face it: The interface of current OS is just not friendly enough. The desktop metaphor was a breakthrough in the eighties and windows, menus and toolbars were adequate for MacWrite back then. These interface elements are geared towards an man-machine-interaction with keyboard and mouse. But both of these input methods are not ideal for mobile use. A hardware keyboard makes the device too big and too heavy. And due to the human limitation to two hands, a separate pointing device is one device too much for mobile use. So everything has to be in one tablet. And the input methods are how you hold the tablet and where you tap on the tablet screen. This is a very direct way of interacting with the machine. I won't have to explain it to my parents. We won't have to teach a five year old girl how to do it. Everybody who knows how to use a light switch and a cup of tea is already familiar with the basic interaction patterns. It couldn't get simpler.

But, there is a big but: The software needs to be rethought for these interaction patterns. The failure of Windows-based tablets is a clear indication how important this task is. The iPad won't fail. On this I'm very sure after I've seen the redesigned apps. Apple has done it's homework. And the designers at Apple did an amazing job to ensure that the appearance and visual effects just feel right for the specific task the app does. My parents will love the iPad. They won't even think that this device could possibly be a computer. For them, the iPad will be a new kind of device they can use to do things for which they previously had to use a computer.

Of course, I am no friend of Apple's absolute control over what software runs on the iPad. It makes sense from an Apple business perspective, but it's a bad idea from the user perspective. Even if the dictator is benevolent, democracy is to be preferred if both settings result in the same outcomes. So I encourage every competitor of Apple to do better than Apple with an open platform. That won't be easy, because Apple is years ahead and by the time others will have comparable touch computers, Apple will already have considerable market dominance. And please, please, learn from Apple! They did it right. Microsoft didn't and they probably will not until it's to late. Forget about Windows! Touch computers have new man-machine-interaction patterns that require new user interface paradigms. We need to completely rethink, redesign and rewrite the software!

But it's worth the effort. And developers will not eschew the effort, because they know users will love the iPad (and if done right also competing touch computers). I'm pretty sure, in five years there will be touch computer software for almost every task. The user experience will be better because the device is lighter, the interaction is more direct and the software looks prettier and is not as complicated as Windows and Mac software. Many users will be willing to trade these advantages against seldom used features and a bit of typing speed. I certainly will. As soon as there are comfortable apps to manipulate text and graphics, the iPad or a similar touch computer will be my main computer. The iPhone is too small as an editing device, but the iPad is not. And for sure, there will be bigger iPads and desktop iPads sooner or later. The iPad starts as a device optimized for mobile use. But as touch computers are getting closer to a functional equivalent of the PC, they will replace PCs even on the desk in your office.

By the way: The DokuTouch template used here is my anticipation of the iPad. This is my first try to rethink a wiki user interface for a touch computer.