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.

[AFreeBird]

I don’t really need a camera on my iPad. I have a DSLR for pictures which I can connect to the pad. I have no desire to make video calls either. I do have a camera on my iPhone though.

The iPad, and iPhone too for that matter, multi-task just fine. The issue is in software. For the iPhone, Apple wanted to make sure that the device’s core functions (you know, being a phone first) were not compromised, not to mention battery life, so decisions were made as to what apps would be allowed to multi-task. They have continued to work the issue on the OS level and iPhone OS 4 will allow for more apps to multi-task.

Correct, there is no iPad specific Skype app. There is an iPhone version that I don’t see why it couldn’t run on the iPad. The interface may not look as elegant scaled up 2x, but you’re really only using it to make calls. Now the multi-task issue would be a problem. You’d have to stay in the app to keep you call going. I think. Don’t have any experience with it so I can’t say for sure.

Please explain to me how you’re going to use the mouse over functionality of Flash on a touch device? And for the record: Flash is a buggy and bloated, battery sucking application. It doesn’t matter on what platform you’re talking about. Flash needs to go.

USB? Why, you going to carry around a 1TB USB drive with you? A printer perhaps?

[CodeToad]

No need to kill anything Apple related. If people like them, so what? No his forced or coerced to buy an Apple product of any kind.

[kevkrom]

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

Not really mixed signals if you're using them for different things. Pick the right tool for the job and all, right?

[NCC-1701]

Jerry Jones could use that monsterous video board at Cowboys Stadium as one huge iPad. Think how neat that would look. It would be a problem getting up to the screen to touch it, though. It is 90 feet above the field.