An interesting article about the iPad (and subtly about the Surface)

[kristalsoldier]

Hello,

I came across the following article (which is an excerpt from a book - details in the article). Link here: How Steve Jobs Made the iPad Succeed When All Other Tablets Failed | Wired Opinion | Wired.com

Now, overtly, the article is about the iPad, which makes for interesting reading by itself. But I was also struck by how much of what Jobs was talking about when he was designing the iPad actually applies to the Surface.

For example, from the article:

"The foundation of Jobs’s iPad pitch was counterintuitive. Most people don’t buy a laptop for the tasks they were originally designed for — heavy office work, such as writing, crafting presentations, or financial analysis with spreadsheets. They use it mostly to communicate via email, text, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook; to browse the Internet; and to consume media such as books, movies, TV shows, music, photos, games, and videos. Jobs said that you could do all this on an iPhone, but the screen was too small to make it comfortable. You could also do it all on a laptop, but the keyboard and the trackpad made it too bulky, and the short battery life often left you tethered to a power outlet.

What the world needed was a device in the middle that combined the best of both — something that was “more intimate than a laptop, and so much more capable than a smartphone,” he said."

Of course, Jobs' answer to this was the iPad, but note that in a very real sense, it is the Surface (particularly, the RT) that responds most effectively to his question. The iPad, even now, is only a partial response though it has had the advantage of the first mover, which has proved to be of immense market advantage for Apple.

 

[demandarin]

Its been well documented that Bill Gates actually spoke of this type of computing way before jobs. He even described Ipad type devices before jobs even came out with it or talked about it. But yes, the Surface is the better solution to what he said.

You should check out the new Surface 2 comparison to Ipad air video I posted in Surface 2 section in reviews thread.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Its been well documented that Bill Gates actually spoke of this type of computing way before jobs. He even described Ipad type devices before jobs even came out with it or talked about it. But yes, the Surface is the better solution to what he said.

You should check out the new Surface 2 comparison to Ipad air video I posted in Surface 2 section in reviews thread.

Thanks. Will do.

 

[The White Falcon]

Its been well documented that Bill Gates actually spoke of this type of computing way before jobs. He even described Ipad type devices before jobs even came out with it or talked about it. But yes, the Surface is the better solution to what he said.

You should check out the new Surface 2 comparison to Ipad air video I posted in Surface 2 section in reviews thread.

Alan Kay and his DynaBook idea were well before Gates's comments.

 

[kristalsoldier]

Yeah, that is mentioned in the article too.

 

[demandarin]

Although fiction, they used Ipad/surface type devices on star Trek the next generation. Before it was ever made into an actual product.

 

[Jglnaz372]

Although fiction, they used Ipad/surface type devices on star Trek the next generation. Before it was ever made into an actual product.

I remember some of the science fiction books I read as kid in the late 60's-early 70's about flying cars, talking robots, living on the moon, the Jetsons cartoon becoming reality. Ideas about the future were always spinning around in my brain somewhere as a kid and it took some like Gates and Jobs as well as many others to make that into reality. I am patiently waiting for my holodeck room (Star Trek)' self driving car, virtual work station (being at home in my PJ's but the office is projected around me with my co workers who see me in my suit and tie without worries of a commute), tv the size of my wall on any wall we chose, oh, and my kids looking over my shoulder want a zapper device that turns us to dust if we go into their room without permission. Yikes, I guess future technology is not as great as I thought! lol

 

[kristalsoldier]

I particularly like the idea of a virtual office/ work-station. More realistically, I would like Nell's interactive device as described in Neal Stephenson's Diamond Age!