It’s been a week since Apple’s latest product announcement. Reaction to the announcement has been mixed, with many enthusiasts calling the new product a “disappointment”, or even “failure”.ipad

We, at SkratchBoard, has an entirely different perspective. We believe that the iPad will cause an inflection in the industry to fundamentally transform the form factor of what most users think of as a desktop or laptop computer. But why now? Many tablet devices have already come and gone in the past 10 years. Why do we think iPad will be different?

There are several reasons for this:

  1. Mass adoption of touch computing. iPhone has paved the way to familiarize many users with touch computing. Although Apple is certainly not the first company to make a touch product, it’s difficult to argue that it’s the first one with massive success.
  2. Web as application platform. The web is showing no sign of weakening as powerful application platform. Most of what users need today can be accessed through the web browser. That means the chances for a new OS to success is increased as long as it has a great web browser and delivers a delightful user experience. Sounds like the iPad.
  3. Being locked down might be a good thing. Although many enthusiasts find the iPhone/iPad application model to be too closed, the fact is that the PC model is probably too open for most users. If you know a couple of non-tech savvy people, you may notice that for some reason their computers are ALWAYS broken. The simple reason is that a PC gives them too many opportunities to contract viruses, malware, screw up the registry. Compared that with iPhone/iPad, it’s pretty difficult to screw up the system. And it still provides close to 100% of what an average user needs.
  4. It’s all about the Apps. The applications on the tablet form factor will make or break the success of the product. Apple is in very good shape, because not only is it enabling 140,000 apps to immediately be runnable on the iPad, it is also bringing in the same contingency of developers onto the iPad platform.

It looks like Google will soon be putting out its own vision of a tablet device as well. There will be a flood of tablet devices coming to the market in the next couple of years, further legitimizing this device category.

Are you going to buy the iPad when it comes out in March?

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