editors note (july 15, 2010): this article was written before the arrival of the iPad, when the product was being referred to, among other things, as the iSlate. thus, the iPad in this article is referred to as the iSlate as well. seems quaint and hopelessly out of tune right now.
for those of you who are anticipating the arrival of the iSlate, i have a few questions.
what is the islate trying to be? is it really going to bring about a new wave of innovation, as many predict?
is it an iphone on steroids? or is it a smaller, more useful version of the macbook air? or is it a kindle-crusher because it can do more?
from what i can tell, the islate will incorporate many aspects of the iphone, using a similarly designed interface and many of the iphone’s core functions. furthermore, it will look like a larger iphone but will boast the computing power of a macbook. it may have some additional functions, like being useful as a tablet (so that one can use a stylus on its interface – which i would welcome) and i’ve heard that it’s going to be useful for teleconferencing. great. built-in camera too. maybe it will be good for games as well – bigger screen than the iphone, feels more substantial… nice. and, i suppose, it will also be a nifty e-reader, which is one of its core selling points.
in terms of size, it will be thin like a kindle, and about ten inches across, right?
are people really going to carry around with them their iphone, their MBP and their islate? three devices that do many of the same things? that seems a bit silly. who would carry around all three, especially all the time? when you travel long haul, will you have all three with you? when you commute?
perhaps one takes it completely for granted that consumers will happily haul around all three but i’m not so sure.
does anyone today carry around a kindle, a laptop and a phone? anyone outside of the social media vortex?
if not, then which device gets fired? which one becomes less significant? it would seem like one of the three needs to go.
one can’t get rid of the iphone because it’s small and handy and works kinda nicely as a phone… if i ditched the iphone, would i carry around this tablet-device as a de facto phone, propping it on my shoulder like a boom box while i had voice conversations? (i mean, if i was walking and talking, where else would it go? i can’t hold it front of me and talk into it, i’d bump into things… so, i’d want the speaker by my ear… oh great, headphones)
i don’t know if i’d get rid of the laptop, because i’m used to sitting down at a desk, doing work with a keyboard and my stylus, and it’s pretty darn portable so that i can work anywhere… but not so portable that i’d take it out on the subway and work on something…. besides, isn’t the iphone there for just that kind of need?
so, where does that leave the islate?
it will be the third device that i leave at the office, and when i want to do a show and tell, i might grab it… and if i want to take notes in a meeting, i might grab it… maybe i’ll take it with me to lunch, which i wouldn’t do with the laptop (i’d read magazines just like in the mag+ video by the berg boys)…. but when i go home at night, i think i’d take the laptop over the islate… that’s my guess. i wouldn’t lug around all three…
i’d leave the islate behind because if i left the laptop behind, then what’s the use of keeping a laptop around? might as well get a desktop then.
now, if the islate can be set into a keyboard (like the old palm pilots were top mounted onto an external keyboard – which looked really funny but i loved them…) then, i suspect that it’s the laptop that becomes a bit clunky and less useful.
i might be overlooking something substantial, but the arrival of the islate reminds me a bit of that skit by eddie izzard in regards to the spanish inquisition. cake or death? nobody wants death, but choosing cake isn’t really getting to the heart of the issue.
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