Touching on the Pad

The ipad is gonna be everywhere in 1-2 years.

All those people saying “how could I replace my laptop with that” are lying about how much work they do. Most people I know spend at least 75% of their time in front of a computer doing exactly what the ipad is made for – consuming/sorting their media, browsing the web, and reading or composing short text blurbs like IM, email, and internet postings.

I produce music and develop software – 2 things iPad v1 can’t do. But that doesn’t mean everything else I do with my mac can’t be more conveniently done wherever I want with the pad.

Plus look at iPod/iPhone as a model — you know iPad v3 will add the missing features of earlier models (like a camera, the phone app, hulu, an outlook client, and theater sound to list a few).

Think work. Think any job that doesn’t keep you in a cubicle all day.

Think about a private app store for an enterprise, stocking only their approved apps.

Think about your work database, your POS system, your customer list, etc. being on a pad being carried around the office or around the neighborhood/route. Ever walk with a laptop or a netbook?

It’s the UPS brown-tablet for the rest of us, doing things way more exciting than collecting our signature.

Think about presentations without a $1k projector.

Ever pass a laptop around a large room or conference table so everyone can see up close? Yeah right. The pad will be there making laptops look like corded phones.

Oh it’s so sensitive looking with that thin screen, better not get too close or lean near it! I love my macbook pro, but clamshells have never been cool unless you are baking them.

Oh yeah phones… yeah, think of all those people grabbing their iphone to do everything. Can’t get that damn thing out of their hands!

Yes the pad is like a larger iPhone. Think about that, it’s not an insult. The only real thing hindering the iphone now is screen space. So the iPhone goes back to pocket-mobile only, and the iPad becomes local-mobile.

You are not gonna write or browse on an iPhone if an iPad is nearby, but to me crouching in front of a laptop on a table is starting to remind me of getting up to change the channels.

I think security and deployment software will be needed on the iPad, and I’d consider investing in carrying cases, handles, sterile stylus’ and cleaning products.

There’s a ways to go, but just like the iPhone, entrepreneurs should lead the way with software and hardware to bring the 21st century to us (finally).

But it will be everywhere, and like the iPhone it will take other companies two years to even come close to it. I predict it being a complete lifestyle changer, like the web itself.

Remember when people would try to live using the internet only? Same thing for the iPad — it will do so much so easily we won’t ever go back to before it.