iPad: Yes it is revolutionary!

I've been in Costa Rica on vacation and haven't had the enough time or Internet access to comment on the iPad until now. I watched the keynote and read as much as I could about the device including the developers guide and UI guides already available from Apple. They are both excellent documents and I recommend them if you want to really understand the differences between this device and the iPhone and iPod Touch. While a lot of people think the iPad is just a bigger iPhone they couldn't be more wrong. It's a completely different form factor which simply leverages the foundation of Cocoa Touch API and the iPhone OS, which are also used in the iPod Touch.

What really sets the iPad apart is its screen size. That may seem like a minor difference but its actually huge. The screen size affords so much more in terms of what developers and designers can do with the device. If Apple can produce the iPad with the same touch accuracy and vibrant screen as they did the iPhone and iPod Touch, then the iPad is going to be a big hit.

Back in April of last year I speculated in a blog entry, "What Industry Will Apple Dominate Next? Video.", that the slate device Apple was rumored to be working on was a video play. I hit the mark on that one but missed the obvious Electronic Readers angle. At any rate, the iPad is going to have a huge impact on at least four markets.

1. It's going to be a kick butt video game platform - one that will send Sony and Nintendo crazy.
2. It's going to be a great portable video platform for both Movies and TV shows.
3. It's going to be a great Electronic Reader platform, one that puts the Sony and Amazon.com devices to shame.
4. Finally, its going to be an awesome application platform.

While the video game, video screen, and electronic books industries are of interest to me as a consumer, its the application platform that is most important to me as a professional developer/designer. I can already see the Health Industry locking on to this device as a portable digital assistant for doctors. Other industries such as Hospitality, Package Delivery, and Retail, to name a few, are also obvious target markets. Personally, I'm pretty pumped about these more enterprisey applications, but the market for personal and utility application is of course also big. What data do I have to back this up? None. Just my gut instinct which has served me fairly well over the years.

It was my gut that told me to switch to Java in December of 1995, to focus on EJB in 1998, Web services in 2003, and Multi-touch in 2008. I've probably made some bad calls as well, but I can't remember anything very significant. I never bet on SOA, which it turns out was a good thing to avoid. I haven't bet on cloud services either - there is only so much space in that industry for developers. So while I have absolutely no evidence that the iPad will be a huge success, my gut tells me it will and I'm going to trust that.

More importantly, for me, is that I love the device. The idea of it alone was cool, seeing the final product was very exciting. I know its missing a camera, but to be perfectly honest that's probably the only flaw I see in the current offering. Of course there are a lot of folks saying the opposite - one of the more funny commentaries was this one by C|NET. But I don't agree and I know they will be wrong and I wonder how they will excuse themselves for predicting that the iPad will fail, because it won't. I think that Hugh McGuire is spot on as to Why the iPhone Matters.

As I'm still on vacation I'm trying to pack as much into this one blog entry as I can - it may be while before I post again. So here is some other news that people who read this blog or have read any of my books might find interesting: I'm currently in the process of proposing a book on developing applications for the iPad to a publisher. If all goes well - and that's not a sure thing at all - I hope to start working on the book next week and finishing it fairly quickly.

After developing applications for the Microsoft Surface and the iPhone I feel I have a lot to contribute to developers who will be trying to understand and master the iPad. The book I want to write will also touch on design but I'm going to focus mostly on development as that is my true strength as a writer. Design is, for now, covered really well by the Apple iPad UI Guidelines. Maybe after doing development on the iPad I'll have something to contribute to the design side of things, but for now my skills as a developers and a writer of developers books is going to be my best contribution.

I haven't written a book for a while (although I did edit one last year) so this is a pretty big commitment from me. Writing books - good books - takes a lot of focus and effort and I don't take on that task lightly. But my gut tells me this is the thing to do and I'm going to follow that advice.