Jobs is All About the “Post-PC” Lately
Apparently Steve jobs thinks that when you tear the mouse and keyboard off a computer, unicorns start flying, lambs lay with lions, and a new earth floats down from the heavens. He likes to call it, grandly enough, the “Post-PC Era”.
Tablets have been with us for way longer than most of the regular folks realize. In fact, I’ve been loving the “tablet experience” since at least 2005 (currently, I’m on this rather un-sexy model).
What’s different with the iPad (and what few people seem to mention) isn’t only the fact that you can smear your fingers on the screen and see things move, but rather a more mundane technical detail: you don’t boot it up. It’s always on. Instantly. That’s the real key killer feature.
“Really?” you say, “That’s what you think is so great about the iPad?”
Well, that, and it’s ability to morph into any number of useful interfaces. But, yeah, mainly that.
To illustrate the innovation that’s changing our behaviour, let me present you with this plebeian scenario:
Scenario: We’re watching TV on the PVR. I think that chick from the show is the same chick from that other movie. My wife disagrees. How to resolve this relational conflict?
Pre-iPad Response: I could check Google or IMDB and prove her to be clearly in the wrong. But first I’d have to wait like two minutes to boot up my laptop. And then I’d need to undock it probably. And waste some battery juice. And all that would require me to get up from my sofa. Screw that! And so I live in ignorant bliss, smug in my self-satisfaction. It’s not that I’m lazy. I’m perfectly OK with getting up off the sofa if need-be. It’s just that these actions require me to deviate my currently engaged behaviour.
Post-iPad Response: Since I’m using my iPad to control my media center, it’s already on my lap. So I just pull up the IMDB app and… oh dear. She’s right. I’m wrong. Damn. I reap the benefits of instant knowledge and hard truth that would otherwise have been unused, pregnant with power but untapped. I still say nothing, and continue watching, hoping she didn’t notice me looking it up. The iPad’s always-on-ness makes this possible. Seamless integration with behaviour and context.
Is the form factor of the iPad its biggest innovation? Or is it really something less conspicuous, like its up-time and malleability?
June 2nd, 2010 at 1:51 pm
Humble pie. There’s an app for that!
June 2nd, 2010 at 4:45 pm
Great point about zero-bootup. Its power saving features are really appealing, moreso with its battery life. A MacBook Pro or iMac with touch capabilities can’t compete with the context of an iPad’s intended use.
June 2nd, 2010 at 7:05 pm
I’ve already used my iPad in scenarios similar to that several times before. In fact, my family has ‘borrowed’ it several times to look things up in lieu of booting up a laptop. My mom, who often finds technology difficult, picked up my iPad and was able to use it without any instruction. That says it all.
I think Jobs is mostly right about this becoming the Post-PC era, because for most digital activities, a PC has become obsolete compared to something as simple as the iPad.
He likened the PC to a truck being used by farmers and construction workers, and the iPad being a sedan(more like a sports car) for everyone else. This analogy is fairly perfect, once the iPad gets OS 4.0 and multitasking.
June 3rd, 2010 at 9:54 am
Sadly, the post-iPad response scenario played itself out yet again last night. Catching up on the Betty White SNL episode, I was convinced that the girl singing with Jay-Z could possibly be Alicia in some kind of very good disguise. My lady whole-heartedly disagreed. Of course, thanks to the iPad, I discovered she was right. Of course, I did not share my findings at the time preferring instead to pretend I didn’t bother looking it up. Of course, she knows better but is big enough to let it go. Stupid iPad.
June 8th, 2010 at 2:59 pm
BTW, if they made a version of my laptop that is “instantly-on” like the iPad (and maybe 1/2 pound lighter) I would throw my iPad away. Seriously. That’s a fact. THROW IT AWAY.