Unlike many, I think the Apple iPad will be a revolutionary product.
As I said in my summary on the iPad on it’s announcement, I think it will change the way many people / organisations function. Here’s a wonderful (and very cool) example – putting a DJ mixing desk into an iPad, the iPad Mixr DJ App. This App is bloody lovely, and if they give me a free copy, I’d happily review it on an iPad (when I get one).
To think that instead of carting milk crates and heavy equipment around, DJs will now be able to turn up to gigs with just their iPads and headphones, and play sets from there. Nice.
Looking at it from another perspective – it’s another great example of a technology undermining the current business. In the same way emails have undermined Australia Post, the way digital cameras have undermined Kodak, the way that Skype is undermining business travel, this app may well undermine Technics, Vestax, Pioneer and other manufacturers of DJ equipment. What these manufacturers should do is create high quality apps of their own, bringing in their experience and customer base and ensuring their relevance within this changing environment.
Kudos to Apple.
Kudos not for technical innovation but kudos for business direction.
Kudos for developing machines whose main purpose is content access, not content production. Apple does not sell machines that run, they feel; Apple does not sell programs, they sell Apps; Apps are not cold and jagged, they’re round and warm.
Apple’s journey into consumer content is perhaps the direction most envied. Pay per view or access is a well travelled path that could not have been undertaken before the PC and its related technologies burdened the average consumer with equipment better suited to engineers. Apple’s iPad is not the crowning achievement of technology; iPad is the viewing window to a world created by technology. iPad owners need not construct sights, sounds or moods because the iPad will deliver all these.
The iPad, to paraphrase this forum, is simple.