It has been reported that when Bill Gates first saw it, he remarked "it needs a stylus".

The 10 percent who get Apple realize that the top feature of the iPad is lack of feature bloat. The question at each step of development and design had to be "What more can we leave out?" Apple is beyond caring about price points. They have plenty of money. They need more users. They now reach out to users:

• who fear tech
• who think that tech is mostly a geeky waste of time
• who find that cell phones are all the tech they need, but would like a bigger screen and typing surface

Why Grandma Wants an iPad

Her world has always been touching something tangible to create a visible connection that makes something happen. Pictures of grandkids are not getting developed to paper any more. How to interface her into the digital media option?

Digital picture frames were a big hit a few years ago. The familiarity of the frame was the schtick. Yet getting new pictures into it, getting interactive with it in any way, required reading a manual and learning something new. Grandma didn't do that. It just sat there running with the initial loving preload, on the default timer schedule, until it became embarrassingly outdated or stopped working. Nobody knows for sure.

If pictures of grandkids is all she ever uses an iPad for, that is enough. But likely she will gradually find her way into more offerings from the digital age. Push a big help button in case of emergency. Push a picture of the grandkids faces to summon a video chat session, stuff like that. http://instinctivecode.com/favorites/

No More Time for Geeks

Curmudgeons may remember the promise of the paperless office. Today, it takes a computer, $300 worth of software, ongoing training, and a laser printer to generate the paperwork grandma once typed up by replacing a ribbon once in a while.

Defragmentating while under attack by evil forces, always studying the next greatest solution which is oh so near, that is the 90 percent solution. Keep a paper trail just in case. Not sure anyone understands it, but small wonder nobody has time for grandma any more.

Cell Phone Simple

Cell phone simple is all the tech most need. It is also the hotbed of tech innovation. For simple needs, get a simple phone. Complex needs, more powerful phones. All require streamlined interfaces to work on the tiny screen.

The more is more crowd have choices that offer multitasking, even on a cell phone. Ubergeeks can load the system until it croaks, then hunt solutions to their problems. The iPad will remain a mystery to them.

The iPad retains less-is-more simplicity, while moving the cell phone experience beyond peering into a tiny screen and tapping tiny keys. Simple comes to the big screen. A very satisfied 10 percent "get" that.

Update:

Mike Elgan at Computerworld agrees: http://www.macworld.com/article/147090/2010/03/ipad_paradox.html

As if the iPad references to hygiene products weren't bad enough.

But seriously, the iPad allows people to interact with Information Technology while completely vertical. Or above their heads. On your back, or just about any position imaginable. Mobility, interfacing info on the move, is enhanced, dexterity requirements reduced, visibility greatly improved versus the Touch and traditional mobile devices.

The iPad creates entirely new categories of ways to do IT. About anywhere a pencil and paper worked, the iPad will work. Clipboards and running versus iPad and wifi.

At the Restaurant

Can your server type in an order to the kitchen on a netbook? I guarantee restaurants can copy the "push the Big Mac icon" fast food interfaces and extend the concept to their own menu items. Speed and accuracy both benefit. With the smooth, easy to clean surface, restaurants may want to attach these to a table or wall and let patrons order direct. With a couple of taps on the big screen, diners may split the bill exactly, calculate exchange rates and tips, review local attractions of interest. All from the comfort of their booth or table. Extend hospitality through technology.

In Hospitals

Remember the first time you saw a keyboard in the form of a notebook computer come in to the exam room, and thought "yeach"? Maybe it is just IT people that fully comprehend, but keyboards hold the distinction of being some of the dirtiest places on earth. Toilet rims are clean in comparison, because they can be cleaned. Start prying keys off an old keyboard to get an idea of how "nasty" accumulates over time in hard to reach places.

Health care workers now have the "clean" alternative. Plus they can interact with information while on the move. No need to sit, squat, or hunt down a flat surface. Talk about a time saver.

On Your Bicycle

Stationary bikes and big screen TV at the fitness club may keep you in shape, but no fresh air. Now you can watch movies, catch up on family photos, review presentations, follow twitter streams, while pumping away out on the open road. Could it be done with a netbook? Maybe kind of. But with a big touch screen, and a standard form factor for accessories manufacturers to target, IT mobility becomes simple.

Classrooms, Waiting In Lines, Shop Floors, anywhere you have to be able to do IT Standing Up.

Mobility, dexterity, screen size. Never before anything like it. Now Apple needs to cut the Air in half along the axis of the hinge, so it can be slipped into an inside jacket pocket, and there will not be much left to conquer in human interfaces for information access.

From the iPod Shuffle which weighs less than an ounce and can talk, right on up to some of the most powerful multimedia servers on earth, Apple has the hardware part of the human interface to technology covered. And their operating system seems to be doing a good job of keeping up.

UPDATE:

Accessibility options include voice over - making text talk to you. Ding, email is received. Then with automation, the iPad can read the message to you while the device is still in your pocket. http://www.apple.com/ipad/features/accessibility.html

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More..

http://seekingalpha.com/article/187725-apple-s-ipad-for-business-is-being-underestimated

Rising Above the Legacy of Complexity with Toaster Simple Tech

Apple and Jobs laser focused on utility for the masses at a price point for the masses. This should force netbooks and cheap laptops to get cheaper still, for those who prefer cheap.

Users may now choose to do 95 percent of technology with panache, at what formerly passed for budget prices. All forms of data consumption are included, in state of the art interfaces. Twelve applications:

• Web surfing. In ways that roughly 60 to 80 percent of users have never witnessed. Changewave or similar for more precise numbers. Users of the most popular browser of our day, even if recently introduced to newer versions, are not accustomed to many of these features. A lot of people are going to be a lot amazed by modern browser technology. It is about a decades worth of fast forward.
• Email. Reading and responding, pics, etc. With essentially a full size keyboard in landscape mode.
• Photos. Not necessarily iPhoto? A camera adapter option, no built in camera. Bluetooth and wifi for sharing.
• Video. No 1080p (1920x1080), but 1024x768 is plenty immersive for the form factor. Good enough for youtube HD.
• iPod. iPod as an app? iTunes as a separate app? Looks more like iTunes is becoming the store, iPod the player. iTunes on either a Mac or a PC is required to use the iPad. The nomenclature is getting rather confusing.
• iTunes. See Above.
• iBook Will Jon Shipley, the Delicious Library, in some form or another is now iBook. In full form it is more than just a cool Library (iBook) app. Will it be hamstrung on the iPad? Will it be full featured hookable from the developer SDK? In the Delicious version, organizing "stuff" is graphically enhanced in ways that astound newcomers to OS X.
• Maps. 3G models via assisted GPS or cellular location will have practically HUD for local attractions. If AT&T comes through on $30 per month unlimited data, virtual reality becomes an option for tourism and hospitality industries. Expect lots of apps to complete the VR/HUD experience on the big (bigger than iPhone) screen.
• Notes. Entering simple notes of course. It also has a mic to record audio notes. Speakers and the ability to read out loud included. Does the processor have the oomph for voice-to-type in real time? Apps already available for tracking direction and pressure of at least 10 fingers touching the screen.
• Calendar, Contacts, Search. Less is more

Surprisingly to me, the iPad still requires a mother ship and iTunes. Probably still does not true multi-task. The advantages are that security remains Touch simple. Re-purposing and re-provisioning equipment to users is Touch simple.

Simple is the biggest blessing and achievement.

Simple - no Geeks Required

The anti-problem-ware solutions vendors are piling on top of each other lately. A barrage of advertising corresponds to the release of a new version of the worlds most popular operating system. The catastrophe potential of trying to engage COMPLEX technology without the "value added" wares is well advertised, widely acknowledged.

75 million iPhones and Touches have so far managed to survive, even thrive, in the real world without the confusion. Apple can barely build the Touches and iPhones fast enough.

Complexity lovers can still multitask with the iPad - buy two, or several. A fanfold of four iPads would weigh less than most bargain priced 17" laptops. Mix and match Touches and 'Pads to get as complex as requirements dictate.

No need for squads, geeks, wares, confusing and contradictory claims. Toaster simple is what people prefer in tech. Apple has proven that with the Touch. The iPad provides a bigger pallet to engage information streams, and a usable typing surface. Trying to cram in "more" would detract from the value equation. Simple is the breakthrough.

The legacy of More..

Two factors limiting the utility of the iPad are onboard storage and connecting to legacy data sets.

For more storage, connect to a server. That is simple enough to understand, and implement. The Mini Server introduced 4 months prior to the iPad fits the bill perfectly. The unlimited client license on the server also makes it a great mothership for a fleet of Touches and 'Pads.

Connecting to legacy systems is the only part that remains to be simplified. Legacy systems are often mired in complexities. Many of the 140,000 applications developed for the iPhone and Touch address methods of connecting legacy data. But when every situation is different, how to determine which, if any, of these 140,000 apps best suit a specific need?

To make information technology toaster simple at the organization level requires full spectrum knowledge and understanding core information technology principles. Over 1,000 members of the Apple Consultants Network have made that commitment.

Apple Certified Consulting in Southwest, MO doug.brethower@lakedata.net 417-327-6673