why we need a real iPad killer and quick

IT Management earthweb ^ | May 12, 2010 | Mike Elgin

[Swordmaker]

I'll say it as plainly as I can: The iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad succeed mainly because of their user interface

No, it's not because of Apple hype, fanboy ,delusion, media gullibility, dirty tricks or anything else. Apple's multi-touch user interfaces are appealing to use for reasons most users, reviewers, bloggers and journalists don't fully understand.

Apple does understand. The company knows how, why, when and where to combine multi-touch, physics and gestures and an enormous repertoire of user interface design elements into something simple and exhilarating to use. They know this because they've been working on the problem full-time for seven years, guided by some very clear design sensibilities.

Any "iPad Killer" will have to at least approximate the interface sophistication of the iPad itself. So far, nobody has come even close. Quite the contrary. Competitors thus far have demonstrated a conspicuous lack of emphasis on user interface design. And that's why they fail.

A year ago, a lot of people thought a Fusion Garage tablet called the CrunchPad, now called the JooJoo, would take on the iPad with its larger screen, open and "cloud-based" approach, and low price. After a year and a half of development, the company finally shipped it. The device was panned by critics. It was an incredible market flop.

The next great hope was Microsoft's Courier project, a two-screen tablet that I knew as far back as September would never exist. They built some great mockups for how things should work.

But that doesn't count unless you can actually build a real product and ship it for a price people are willing to pay. I could build a mockup of a nuclear-powered jetpack with a built-in cup-holder. But my CGI wouldn't end the automobile era.

Some thought a project from HP called the Slate might "kill" the iPad, but that was another ill-fated attempt. Ultimately, the HP Slate was a Windows 7 PC with only 1 GB of RAM. Gimme a break. Worse, the tablet had multi-touch, but not physics or gestures. That's like making a blockbuster movie, but without sound. No wonder they killed it.

The latest "iPad Killer" is another project that doesn't exist. The Wall Street Journal this week interviewed Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Lowell McAdam, who said Verizon Wireless and Google are "working on tablets together." What does that mean?

Does that mean Verizon and Google have secretly formed a separate interface design company, and used their deep pockets to raid interface labs at universities to find the innovators in multi-touch design? Well, no. It probably means some suits had a meeting and decided to pursue some hasty product development based on the belief that duplicating the iPad experience looks easy enough.

(Google is also working with several hardware manufacturers to build Android-based tablets.)

Research In Motion (RIM) had reportedly planned an Android tablet for this year, but the company has apparently decided to do one based on its own operating system and ship it some time next year.

A universe of Chinese shanzai knock-offs, pen-based Windows-powered Tablet PC devices, no-name hardware-centric wanna-bes -- none of these are going to succeed until someone steps up and builds a sophisticated touch user interface with multi-touch, physics and gestures that thrills the mainstream public.

All the failures, and all the false hopes for those failures, are based on the flawed assumption that multi-touch user interface design isn't all that hard or important. It's based on the flawed assumption that specs -- USB ports, camera and multitasking, for example -- are more important than user interface design.

These panicked, cobbled together projects aren't going to compete. If we're serious about saving the world from the iPad, we've got to get the right people involved. Unfortunately, the interface innovators aren't working on an iPad competitor, and the iPad competitors aren't employing interface innovators, for the most part.

If history is a reliable guide, HP, Google, Verizon, HTC, RIM, ASUS and the rest are not going to build a more sophisticated touch interface than Apple.

Palm, which is now owned by HP, theoretically has a chance. The Palm Pre has a lot of very sophisticated interface design elements built in. It offers real multi-touch, physics and gestures. Transferred to a tablet with the right specs, I believe the Palm group now at HP has a shot.

[Richard Kimball]

figured this was something akin to Maxi Pads.........

Sure you did.

[BunnySlippers]

I wasn’t sure I wanted or needed one. Then I found myself in line on opening day to buy the 3G model.

Everyday I have it, I like it more. I no longer have to pack up my laptop when I go out. It is very similar [for me] to my Day Runner from decades ago. Total organization at my fingertips.

But it’s more. I watched a TV program on my iPad during my long wait in the doctor’s office yesterday afternoon. I got a great free book on MacWorld website and put in iBooks and started reading it today. I went down to the coffee place this morning and sat and arranged the photographs that I am putting onto my new website. I read the WSJ on my iPad over breakfast without having unwieldy papers to fold and newsprint on my fingers. After a great lunch at my favorite Thai restaurant i polished off a couple more levels of Gears, my favorite game.

I could go on ... but I love it. =)

[BunnySlippers]

I wasn’t sure I wanted or needed one. Then I found myself in line on opening day to buy the 3G model.

Everyday I have it, I like it more. I no longer have to pack up my laptop when I go out. It is very similar [for me] to my Day Runner from decades ago. Total organization at my fingertips.

But it’s more. I watched a TV program on my iPad during my long wait in the doctor’s office yesterday afternoon. I got a great free book on MacWorld website and put in iBooks and started reading it today. I went down to the coffee place this morning and sat and arranged the photographs that I am putting onto my new website. I read the WSJ on my iPad over breakfast without having unwieldy papers to fold and newsprint on my fingers. After a great lunch at my favorite Thai restaurant i polished off a couple more levels of Gears, my favorite game.

I could go on ... but I love it. =)

[OldDeckHand]

"I do not believe these tablets will be a fad. "

My neighbor bought one last week. I must say, there's something unusually comfortable about laying back in the couch and surfing the net. I do it know with my iPhone from time to time, but that really is too clumsy to do any power-surfing; it's just too small. In any event, while the lack of support of flash is a deal-killer for me, I could see how these things could really take off.

If something that Apple will support replaces flash as the preeminent video delivery platform in the near future (which seem highly unlikely), iPad could really establish for themselves the dominant position in a rapidly growing market. It will be interesting to see who blinks first, Adobe or Apple.

[BunnySlippers]

Touché!

[BunnySlippers]

Apple haters, they’re simpletons. Old joke.

[RightOnTheLeftCoast]

"Seems like an overgrown iPod touch."

You say that as if it's a bad thing.

A friend is on a 40-country, seven-week trip right now with his wife and a combined total of 38 pounds of gear, including a base-model iPad and a digital camera. Ten days into his trip, he has already amassed more than 2,000 pictures. He and his wife are keeping in touch via email, web and Skype. His entire itinerary, many dozens of pages including ferry and train and bus schedules, is stored on his iPad in .pdf form. Meanwhile he has ebooks and movies and music to give them a touch of home.

If the history of computing teaches us one thing, it's that sometimes the hardware has to come first, and the applications will follow. My friend is finding the iPad's unprecedented battery life, ease of use and broad functionality--and yes, it's bigger-than-iPod-touch screen and keyboard--gives him a critical mass of capability that is enabling all sorts of enjoyment as they journey along.

He's 67, by the way.

Bottom line: don't knock it until you've tried it.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

Yes, the MagicMouse looks pretty cool, I may have to try it when I get my next Mac. So far, my 24” iMac is working nicely enough. =:-D

I was happy with my 20" iMac, but dissatisfied with the scroll ball, which I could never clean satisfactorily; it would work briefly and then fail. The touch surface on the Magic Mouse provides the functionality that the original mouse was designed to have, but wasn't reliable at. If you like scrolling, you might want the new mouse even if your Mac is otherwise fine.

[Ole Okie]

Apple haters, they’re simpletons. Old joke.

Indeed.

I have a Dell Studio 8000 desktop, which seems to be a great machine. But I also have a MacBook Pro, an iPhone and an iPad on order.

Sort of mixed signals in my case. Really like the Apple products. But also really like the Dell Studio 8000.

[IncPen]

you are very right... I don't. I found the lowest interest bearing account I could find to keep the tax down. Screw Obama.

He's more likely to get it via inflation, not taxes.

[Swordmaker]

Why kill or compete with a product that seems to be going nowhere, capable of not much? Don't make an iPad clone, make something useful.

It seems you are not paying attention if you think the iPad is not going anywhere or is not capable of much.

This reply was posted from my iPad.

[glasseye]

“Bottom line: don’t knock it until you’ve tried it.”

I’m a PC guy...for almost 25 years now, so I have a bias.

A Buddy is an engineer for Apple and pulled one out the other day to show me some photos. What an awesome little machine.

You just want to put your hands one it.

Just a delightful product.

[RachelFaith]

Only, the 50 foot wall pad you wouldn’t need to touch. It would all be gesture like in Minority Report. It is coming... if Obama doesn’t let the Muzzies Nuke us first.

[dennisw]

I think you told me last week you had no need to get an ipad right away.

[Swordmaker]

I think you told me last week you had no need to get an ipad right away.

It was not I. I ordered mine within one minute of Apple making pre-orders available. I just had to wait until the 3Gs shipped.

[Crolis]

My guess, since Apple seems headed toward consumer products, is an internet enabled, flat panel TV which can function / be controlled with touch or remote control.

Watch TV, read your email, surf the web, stream video, grab netflix or youtube content, display pictures, run apps which give you weather, news, or a stock ticker. That technology could go in many directions.

[Gator113]

Sidebar: Please tell me if you know.

When is Apple going to contract with Verizon?

I like much of what I see with iPhone, but I require dependable reception/service. I am not convince that there’s anything better than Verizon for coverage.

I sure do love my iMac.

I haven’t bothered to study the product, but I’m don’t see a purpose for iPad... perhaps I should pay more attention. ;>)

[itsahoot]

Good deal, don’t invest it you don’t understand current markets.

What ever you do, don't buy APPL, those losers will only go down.

[Gator113]

I have a MagicMouse. I’ve had it for less than a week and so far I really like it.

I had gone through 3 Mighty mouse, they were nothing but junk within a month or two. The scrolling balls quit on each of them. Apple was great in quickly replacing them, but I finally told them to give me something else... the next day my MagicMouse arrived at no charge. No more dirty balls.

The MagicMouse is small and it would fit me better if there was more to it, but I’m getting use to it’s size.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

As I have said previously, each time Apple introduces a new product the anti-
Apple people pan it and call it an iFail before it is ever introduced. They are ALWAYS wrong!

Apple’s uniqueness, IMO, (Some may even call it Jobs’ uniques.) is to see way down the road and incrementally build toward that vision. Their products are visionary enough that they build a platform for the truly creative people - the users and developers - to exploit that platform. That is where the usefulness of the platform is realized, in its applications.

Each new Apple product from the beginning of OSX has been simply another step down a raod that has already been well mapped.

Anti-Apple people will just have to live with that. Someday, it won’t be market share being discussed, it will be what else can we do with this!