Hoping The Apple Tablet Pushes The Envelope So Far — That It Looks Wrong
More nonsense speculation on the presently, still non-existent Apple Tablet from a slightly different angle.
Specifically referring to the Apple Tablet’s GUI — I hope it’s revolutionary enough that we have a litany of pundits predicting it will fail.
After the iPhone was announced, I recall an endless January of nay-saying articles harping on physical keyboards, and the touch screen as too radical for the masses. I think with tens of millions of iPhones sold, we can put this complaint to rest.
But I’ll go a bit further and share some personal instances where I saw a new technology, personally thought it was doomed to failure — and was eventually proven wrong.
The Mouse
The first was as a kid, used to the keyboard and joystick of the Apple IIe. My parents took me to a friend’s house who had one of the first Macs. While I thought the graphics were cool, I found the mouse hard to use and not suited for games. I was doubtful it would ever catch on.
Well, what does a kid know?
The Web Page
Almost a decade later, a college buddy showed me a web page on his UNIX terminal, coded using HTML, viewable using a browser (probably Mosaic). The page had info about himself plus a few pictures. I thought this was all amusing, but pretty ridiculous. I was used to using Pine for email and accessing stuff on the web via a text interface seemed sufficient to me, and what was the point of a page where you post stuff about yourself for other people to look at?
Today I earn a living as a web designer — who tries to ignore, but recognizes the world-wide appeal of Facebook.
The iPod
About ten years ago, I recall sitting in a Silicon Valley cubicle, reading online that Apple was making an MP3 player, called the iPod. Not retaining the lesson from earlier doubting — I thought this was ridiculous. Why exactly would Apple, a great computer company, be getting into the low-brow arena of portable audio and consumer electronics?
We’ve gone through five or six iPods on an annual basis, have spent hundreds on iTunes for music, television shows, and movies, and I go nowhere without my iPhone.
Looking back at each instance, I didn’t see the future potential, too mired in the past or the present to see the paradigm shift at hand. But I can see today, Apple at the nexus of a paradigm shift with tablet computing — about to take a touch interface to the next level.
One rumor that suggested this new tablet would have a multitouch interface that would place a “learning curve” on the user. That’s what I’m hoping for. Bring it on.
I hope Apple’s Tablet is so future-reaching that my first reaction will be “this looks ridiculous” and doubt its success. But this time, based on past experience, I’ll swallow that initial feeling, buy one — and start learning.
Nice post. So I have a favor to ask. If you ever think some new product/trend looks “ridiculous” let me know so I can invest in the company!!
I thought Twitter was pretty ridiculous at first. Now I use it all the time. That’s a tip to chew on…
[…] reminder: I asked for this. When musing on what a Mac Tablet would look like (pre-iPad) I hoped Apple would eventually present […]