Posted on 05/15/2010 3:52:04 PM PDT by Swordmaker
I'll say it as plainly as I can: The iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad succeed mainly because of their user interface
No, it's not because of Apple hype, fanboy ,delusion, media gullibility, dirty tricks or anything else. Apple's multi-touch user interfaces are appealing to use for reasons most users, reviewers, bloggers and journalists don't fully understand.
Apple does understand. The company knows how, why, when and where to combine multi-touch, physics and gestures and an enormous repertoire of user interface design elements into something simple and exhilarating to use. They know this because they've been working on the problem full-time for seven years, guided by some very clear design sensibilities.
Any "iPad Killer" will have to at least approximate the interface sophistication of the iPad itself. So far, nobody has come even close. Quite the contrary. Competitors thus far have demonstrated a conspicuous lack of emphasis on user interface design. And that's why they fail.
A year ago, a lot of people thought a Fusion Garage tablet called the CrunchPad, now called the JooJoo, would take on the iPad with its larger screen, open and "cloud-based" approach, and low price. After a year and a half of development, the company finally shipped it. The device was panned by critics. It was an incredible market flop.
The next great hope was Microsoft's Courier project, a two-screen tablet that I knew as far back as September would never exist. They built some great mockups for how things should work.
But that doesn't count unless you can actually build a real product and ship it for a price people are willing to pay. I could build a mockup of a nuclear-powered jetpack with a built-in cup-holder. But my CGI wouldn't end the automobile era.
Some thought a project from HP called the Slate might "kill" the iPad, but that was another ill-fated attempt. Ultimately, the HP Slate was a Windows 7 PC with only 1 GB of RAM. Gimme a break. Worse, the tablet had multi-touch, but not physics or gestures. That's like making a blockbuster movie, but without sound. No wonder they killed it.
The latest "iPad Killer" is another project that doesn't exist. The Wall Street Journal this week interviewed Verizon Wireless Chief Executive Lowell McAdam, who said Verizon Wireless and Google are "working on tablets together." What does that mean?
Does that mean Verizon and Google have secretly formed a separate interface design company, and used their deep pockets to raid interface labs at universities to find the innovators in multi-touch design? Well, no. It probably means some suits had a meeting and decided to pursue some hasty product development based on the belief that duplicating the iPad experience looks easy enough.
(Google is also working with several hardware manufacturers to build Android-based tablets.)
Research In Motion (RIM) had reportedly planned an Android tablet for this year, but the company has apparently decided to do one based on its own operating system and ship it some time next year.
A universe of Chinese shanzai knock-offs, pen-based Windows-powered Tablet PC devices, no-name hardware-centric wanna-bes -- none of these are going to succeed until someone steps up and builds a sophisticated touch user interface with multi-touch, physics and gestures that thrills the mainstream public.
All the failures, and all the false hopes for those failures, are based on the flawed assumption that multi-touch user interface design isn't all that hard or important. It's based on the flawed assumption that specs -- USB ports, camera and multitasking, for example -- are more important than user interface design.
These panicked, cobbled together projects aren't going to compete. If we're serious about saving the world from the iPad, we've got to get the right people involved. Unfortunately, the interface innovators aren't working on an iPad competitor, and the iPad competitors aren't employing interface innovators, for the most part.
If history is a reliable guide, HP, Google, Verizon, HTC, RIM, ASUS and the rest are not going to build a more sophisticated touch interface than Apple.
Palm, which is now owned by HP, theoretically has a chance. The Palm Pre has a lot of very sophisticated interface design elements built in. It offers real multi-touch, physics and gestures. Transferred to a tablet with the right specs, I believe the Palm group now at HP has a shot.
Do women use them?
If you want on or off the Mac Ping List, Freepmail me.
lol
“What’s an iPad??????????
Do women use them?”
How’s it going Mr. Gump?
And yes, there WOULD be people who would pay for wall-mounted 50+ inch iPads.
Why kill or compete with a product that seems to be going nowhere, capable of not much? Don't make an iPad clone, make something useful.
Nobody does total product integration like Apple...period.
Close. Not wall mounted.
Think iDesk...
Yes, the MagicMouse looks pretty cool, I may have to try it when I get my next Mac. So far, my 24” iMac is working nicely enough. =:-D
Many Freepers do not even watch TV,,, we reject all the high tech crap... I figured this was something akin to Maxi Pads.........
PS, I have a 25 yr old Sony TV with rabbit ears, and I get about 3 channels on a good day.
PSS, I also have over a 1/2 mil in the bank.
“Remind me again just what is an iPad good for?”
Sure - making Apple a LOT of money.
For the consumer, providing a handheld platform for information consumption - books, movies, and games.
There’s never been anything like it before, no doubt there will be imitators but they will likely fall where the imitators of the iPod and iPhone have landed - short.
“PSS, I also have over a 1/2 mil in the bank.”
Good deal, don’t invest it you don’t understand current markets.
you are very right... I don't. I found the lowest interest bearing account I could find to keep the tax down. Screw Obama.
Oh I want one of each!
Primarily because it's an extremely profitable product that's selling as fast as Apple can manufacture it. HP, Google, and Sony already have their copiers cranked up.
MS may end up being the odd man out here. They've had little luck in scaling their products into a small light footprint. HP killed the Slate, but will probably bring it back with the Palm OS. This could be interesting. If Palm had leveraged their Pilot into a phone they could have had the iPhone quite a few years before the iPhone. HP has the ability to make it work.
I do not believe these tablets will be a fad. The head of Nintendo recently told his company engineers that the competition is not Sony. He believes they've won the battle with the Playstation. He believes the next battle for the gaming platform will be with Apple.
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