“Is there room for a third device?” — something between the phone and the laptop? That’s a question that many of us have wondered about ever since e-readers, tablets, and “mobile internet devices” first hit the scene.
When Steve Jobs introduced the iPad this morning, he again posed that question, and said such a device would have to be “far better” at seven key things: browsing, email, photos, video, music, games, and eBooks. The iPad will do lots of other things, in part because of the App Store, but these are the most important. Obviously we won’t really know until the iPad is released, but based on the demos and some initial playing with units at the introduction, here is my first take on how well it will perform at these tasks:
Browsing: In a lot of ways, it’s easy to believe that the iPad could be better for browsing than a phone or a laptop. The screen is bigger than a phone, and the device is easier to hold than a laptop; and the multi-touch interface does make it easier to navigate around a page, zoom into text, etc.
At least initially, though, there is one big way and one smaller way in which desktop or laptop browsing is better than on a iPad. The first is obvious: the iPad doesn’t support Adobe Flash, which means that sites like Hulu or most network TV sites simply don’t work. You can get videos from YouTube, but it’s not quite the same thing. Eventually, Apple hopes the world moves to HTML 5 video, but for now, that’s a big weakness.
The other, more minor issue, is that for now at least, you’re forced into using Safari, which is quite nice, but lacks the plug-ins that many of us are used to with Firefox and other browsers.
E-mail: Again, the larger screen clearly makes for a better email experience than on an iPhone. You can get a multi-pane view, with previews of your email messages. This is arguably as good as on a laptop, and again the tablet form factor is easier to carry. I would argue it’s not as good for typing long e-mails as a laptop (which has a physical keyboard), but for reading, this should be quite good.
It didn’t get much attention in this context, but the iWork applications could be particularly important for handling mail. I often get document attachments, and iWork should allow me to read, and to do some light editing on these documents. iWork will support both its native Mac files and Microsoft Office files. These applications won’t be as full featured as the Mac versions, but they should be sufficient. (The one obvious feature I’d like to see that isn’t in the first version is the ability to add comments to documents.)
Photos: Here, the iPad wins hands down. The screen looks quite good; and when docked or just set up, it can really look like a interactive digital photo frame, but one with much better transitions than normal. This is a clear win for the tablet form factor.
Video: Here there are pros and cons when comparing the iPad or any table with a laptop. It’s certainly easier to carry and watch video in the tablet form factor, but the content is of course, limited to the size of the screen (though Apple said an optional connector will let you output the content to a TV.) Most laptops, of course, have notably larger screens than a tablet.
Also, with most non-Apple laptops, you can choose a Blu-Ray drive and output 1080p content to a monitor or HDTV. The iPad is limited to 1024 by 768 video. Frankly, I’m not sure whether most people will be able to tell the difference, but it will matter to some.
Music: The iPad seems to have better speakers than an iPod touch or iPhone, but otherwise, it’s hard to see what makes this a superior experience for music. Yes, it’s a better user interface, and it probably would be easier to create playlists, etc. on a tablet than on a small screen. But portability wins here, so I’d give the nod to the phone.
Games: The game demos were quite interesting. While it’s good that existing iPhone games can run on the device, these will get far more interesting when games specifically written for the platform arrive.
I do expect that there will be some unique games that are compelling on the iPad. But it seems to me this is additive to gaming on a phone or laptop. Again, phones are great for quick, casual games – something you always have with you and can pull out while standing in line. Desktops and laptops have far more capable graphics and processing power. All three forms make sense here.
ipad bookstore.jpg
eBooks: Another clear win for the tablet form factor. Whether you’re talking the iPad, the Kindle, or one of the many other eReaders in the market, there’s just no question that the tablet form factor is easier and more natural to carry than a laptop.
The book reading application looked more elegant, but somewhat less powerful than the Kindle’s, for example. (The Kindle looks to have better annotation tools and dictionary integration, but its keyboard is awkward.) E-ink or other electrophoretic screens are easier to read in bright light, and may be easier on the eyes (and certainly offer better battery life.) But the LCD screen is more flexible and better in dark rooms. The iPad does have an ambient light sensor to automatically adjust brightness, though I’ll have to try reading a book on it to get a sense of whether it gets tiring to read lots of pages in a row on the screen.
So on the seven items Job said were key for the tablet to be better than a phone or laptops, I’d say the iPad should clearly be better at two (photos and ebooks), better in most ways on another (browsing, with the caveat about Flash video), and at least arguable on most of the others (email, video, music, and games) – all areas where I think there’s room for multiple devices.
(I don’t think the iPad is a smartphone replacement for most people – because the phone’s portability and pocketability is a clear winner. I could see some people taking tablets with them instead of laptops (albeit perhaps with a dock with a physical keyboard for email), but would expect nearly every tablet user to want either a desktop or laptop for content creation.
So to succeed in the market, this will have to be a “third device.” I’ll have to wait to try it out, but on the seven tasks Jobs outlined, it seems pretty well positioned.(pcmag.com)
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