Ok so almost every blogger anywhere has written something about the iPad so I figured now is the perfect time for me to write my thoughts about it! There are countless articles on why the iPad is the next best thing or the worst thing ever for Apple. I don't really want to talk directly about the iPad v1 I want to talk about what the iPad means for personal computing at the consumer level. There have been some really interesting articles that have covered this topic notably Jeff Atwood and Joel Spolsky's podcast #82 and Jeff Croft.

If we can move past all the arguments about the hardware and lack of features we are left with the logic behind Apples choices for the iPad. Apple clearly cares very deeply about user experience, thats a pretty obvious fact. However many people look at the iPad and see it as a contradiction to that ethos. I also first thought the same thing. I was very disappointed and literally laughed when they announced it. I thought "This is the thing that has so much hype and Steve Jobs said was the most important thing he had ever done?". However after thinking about it some more perhaps this is actually the beginning of a paradigm shift in how general consumers interact with computers.

First lets get one thing straight, I'm talking about general consumers and by that I almost certainly mean NOT YOU. If your reading this blog then your almost 100% not a consumer your a producer (this point It think has been made and backed up enough already). But what does this mean in the long run? I think this means we are going to see the general use computers get simpler and less customizable. I think there is going to be a percent of backlash and some people will take longer to adopt the "new world" computing paradigm then others but in general I think it will create a better user experience for every day people interacting with computers. Sure people will have to give up some level of control, but do those people really need it? Is the ability to change x, y, and z really worth having your computer crash 10% more often? My father could careless if he could change the way his icons looked or decided how to structure his folders I actually think he would be better off NOT having those options it would be much easier for him to understand how to use the computer.

Also 3rd party software becomes much less of a headache. I don't know how many hours I've spent fixing my non-technical friends computers when they accidentally downloaded a bad program or installed something wrong causing it to effect the performance of the system. With a more closed system some of these problems drop off but you get new ones. The biggest new problem is that Apple is now the gate-keeper for your computer, and I know that really bothers me. But I really don't think the general consumer minds that much. I'm not saying the app store is perfect, I think its very far from perfect (This Signal vs Noise article I think sums it up very well) but I think the ideas behind it are well thought out.

Overall I think the iPad does have potential to shape what the personal computing market looks like for the next decade. On the other hand it might flop like a lot of people are expecting it to. EIther way its an interesting topic to look at as a software engineer.