The year’s most significant new technology was a disruptive product made by Apple.
Posted on 12/18/2010 3:04:48 AM PST by Swordmaker
The year’s most significant new technology was a disruptive product made by Apple.
This year, the editors of TIME Magazine chose for its Person of the Year award a young, enterprising 27-year old male who built a social networking website that has 500 million users and now has a net worth of $30 billion.
Man, that’s so 2006.
I mean, was 2010 so crappy that the only real choice was between an obnoxious, ethically-challenged egotistic Web 2.0 billionaire Wunderkind or an Information Technology terrorist pretending to be a journalist and Internet activist? Couldn’t they come up with someone who did something legitimately decent for the planet?
I’m sorry TIME, but you could have done better.
Frankly, I’m personally having trouble coming up with a person that should be awarded Man or Woman of the Year. However, I can certainly come up with people. On that list I’d probably include the trapped Chilean miners who endured 60 days of subterranean hell, and the engineers and workers who worked tirelessly to get them out.
Or the many thousands of rescue and aid workers that flew into Haiti to help salvage a nation destroyed by a devastating earthquake. Or even the workers at British Petroleum and other contractors and offshore drilling specialists who toiled countless hours to cap the Gulf oil spill, in the face of public outrage and thankless scrutiny.
If there were ever people that truly deserved to be on the cover of that magazine, it would be them.
But at the end of the day, ZDNet is a technology website. And if I had to name a single technology that made the greatest impact in 2010, it was without a doubt Apple’s iPad.
The iPad? So shouldn’t Man of the Year be Steve Jobs?
Well, no. I mean, Steve is a very important ingredient in the iPad’s creation and overall vision. Much of the iPad’s DNA has to be credited to him, without question. But we can’t give him credit for its engineering and design — that distinction must go to the corps of Apple software and hardware engineers that created what is almost certainly going to be the product which changes the face of computing for the next two decades.
Also Read: Special Coverage, Apple iPad (ZDNet)
When the iPad was first introduced to the public in late January, there was immediate derision of the product by naysayers that felt that it was nothing more than an oversized iPhone or iPod Touch. The mainstream technology press questioned whether or not the product would even catch on.
They were proven wrong.
Very. Very. Very. Wrong.
In the 4th quarter of 2010 alone, Apple sold 4.2 million iPads, with estimated yearly sales topping 9 million units worldwide. The holiday shopping season isn’t over yet, so it might go as high as even 10 or 12 million to finish off CY 2010.
The iPad is, without any doubt, the most successful product that Apple has launched since the iPhone or even the iPod. In terms of cultural significance and impact to the technology industry, it has in one short year changed the way we view the entire future of personal computing.
Instead of being tied to our desks in order to access our critical productivity applications, we now have the ability to enjoy a full, rich Internet browsing experience from the couch or from our bedside. We can enjoy rich multimedia applications, read books, play games, all from one easy-to-use, effectively maintenance-free 26-ounce hand-held device.
The iPad was certainly not the first computing tablet and nor did the idea originate at Apple or in Steve Jobs’ mind. Its legacy started in popular Science Fiction novels and television shows such as Star Trek, and it represents the combined achievement from over 40 years of advancements in computing and miniaturization, which will ultimately lead towards a transparent and ubiquitous computing experience which I call “The Screen”.
But we must give the credit where the credit is due. Apple and its engineers have changed the game. Forever.
Also Read: Apple iPad, We’ve Reached Star Trek-nology (Tech Broiler)
The iPad is certainly a very transformative, disruptive technology. It has in such a short period of time caused every single company in our industry to completely re-think the end-user computing experience and how to best enable their applications and infrastructure to support it and other “thin” technologies that are similar to it or compete with it altogether.
These include the current and forthcoming Android Tablets, Windows 7 and HP Palm Slates, RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook and also Google’s Chrome OS netbooks and tablets.
It has not only changed the technology industry, but it has also changed how media will be consumed, be it web sites, books and other traditional print media such as newspapers and magazines. It is a giant leap forward in bringing about a truly paperless society where access to information is instantaneous and from everywhere, as long as you have the means to afford it.
2010 will be remembered by many as difficult year, with numerous challenges that everyone had to face, be it economically, sociologically, politically and emotionally. But in our industry it will be marked by the introduction of the device that changed everything — the iPad.
Was 2010 the Year of the iPad? Talk Back and Let Me Know.
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
Time probably as the others like them will not award for true courage; etc.
It doesn’t fit their agenda of self adoring.
I have to admit that I’m thinking of getting one. Anyone here have one? Positives/negatives?
I have one. I love it. I would not have one as my only computing device. We needed a second machine so I didn’t have to keep begging computer time from my DH. I just needed something to do web based stuff. It works great for that.
If you can, I would put off buying one until spring. The new version is rumored to have a camera and a USB port.
Feel free to freepmail me if you have any questions.
“If you can, I would put off buying one until spring. The new version is rumored to have a camera and a USB port.”
Yep, I’ve been lusting after one, but other things took priority. Now I’m glad it worked out this way!
I’ll buy one of the new ones once they’ve been out for a month or so to make sure they don’t have teething issues the way many Apple products have had.
Good advice on waiting for the next model - will they support flash as well?
Posting from one right now. Love it!
I have a 32GB WiFi only version. I should have held out for the WiFi+3G, and I should have gone with the largest storage available -64GB.
Not having Flash capability is an annoyance, but not a deal killer IMHO. Flash is a bloated and buggy application. More and more sites are starting to see the light and go with HTML 5 based content. There’s still a ways to go, but those sites that still rely on Flash, only, don’t get my “touches”.
Their loss.
You’ll still want a regular computer, be it desktop or laptop, but for about 90% of my needs, the iPad has been great. 10+ hours of battery; sits on the coffee table like a magazine; instant on, get what you need, and then instant sleep awaiting your next demands.
I've been helping an 82 y/o lady
With no prior iPod experience
learn how to use an iPad
She was up and giggling within 15 min.
e-mail within 1/2 hour
surfing within an hour
Remarkably tolerant of arthritic hands
it was very endearing to watch...
And doctors office and 'reading room'.
Since I'm not hooked up to a big cell phone account I opted for the 16gig WiFi model. Love it.
Looking at the new Samsung Galaxy, their 7" tablet, it's as much or more $$ than the iPad.
I have one; I actually won it from a vendor we do business with.
I am known as the family techie (though I am 50) and have been for the past 18 years. I make my living using computers, especially improving the end user experience.
The iPad is simply a new, more personal, way of interacting with content...be it business content, entertainment, news, games.
My wife loves it; my daughter loves it; I love it. And we only have one.
I find all of us spending more time using the iPad, in more and different ways. The way it presents information and content to the user is more like a magazine than a computer, and it is much more mobile than any lap top.
The only con I have seen is caused by my initial tendency to want the experience to be more like what I have on a notebook computer, especially when using a web browser.
Once I got past trying to make it into a notebook computer (in terms of how it is used), my own use of the device went WAY up.
I am plotting the next purchase — probably after the release of the iPad 2.0, which I expect will be in the first quarter of 2011. We definitely want the next one to have 3g capability.
It’s awesome.
Positives: Online anywhere, anytime. Crazy super convenient. Paid for itself in a hurry (really, it did).
Negatives: It’s not a “serious” anything...but what do you expect from a device no bigger than a notepad?
Ends the compromise between power and convenience. Take portable needs with you, leave the non portable “serious” bulky stuff on the desktop.
Indeed, disruptive technology.
I still can’t picture using one over my notebook but like you, I just found out I have a free one coming. I could see mounting on on the bathroom wall, but I don’t think Mrs. dangerdoc would approve. I’ll probably let the kids use it to decrease some of the congestion around the computer.
I bought my wife one for her birthday. It’s really awesome as she can pack her “brain” around with her. Notes, recipes, shopping lists, etc. constantly being used. Games and other apps are sweet things indeed.
I personally don’t like typing on it, and I would rather have a regular laptop so I can type. Maybe I want a Mac laptop?
God Bless you for that Good Deed.
For me, it is fun
And I have a personal interest in this
I've worked with computers since ‘72
Everything from board design, wire wrapping
machine language coding
“Converted” to the Mac platform in ‘84
Because, for the first time,
I could use a computer,
without “Thinking” like a computer
I can and do use any available platform
but I have an indelible gratitude to Apple
for permitting this “Switch”
Wow! How do you pull that off? Please post your secret.
:-)
I’m 77 and dumb as a rock so I would not be posting here if were not for the “bullet proof” nature of the Mac. My first one was a Proforma 6100 from Sears. My contribution to internet usage is trying to show my FRiends how to delete the return addresses in eMail they forward. My 12 year old grandson showed me how several years ago...
Is it better than the Kindle for reading books?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.