Why Apple’s iPad Will Succeed

Apple’s iPad tablet announcement on Wednesday left many in awe and many more wondering, “why should I buy this?” To skeptics and jaded tech pundits, the iPad is nothing more than an oversized iPod Touch, a novelty product defining an unwieldy niche. To Apple and the many true believers out there, it’s an opportunity to break out of that niche and redefine entire industries.

Individuals in specific fields or demographics could utilize the iPad in ways others cannot (or refuse to) see, bringing their industries into a new light where pixels replace paper and fingers replace pens.

EDUCATION

The iPad will make the student experience easier and more manageable in ways standard portable computers never could. Netbooks are too small to comfortably type on and their screens don’t offer ample viewing space for large-form content, such as e-textbooks or multimedia presentations.

A laptop, while more functional than a netbook, offers its own set of hinderances that renders it less useful in a classroom setting. Laptops are distraction magnets, unknowingly encouraging users to browse the Web, play games and check email instead of taking notes. True, the keyboard and screen are bigger, but so is the possibility for missing important information.

The iPad, however, offers something beneficial to students that is frowned upon by those who only see what’s on the multi-touch surface – unitasking. The iPhone OS is constantly bashed for not being able to run multiple apps at once, but why is that so bad? Why should students be tempted by an endless Internet when they need to be reading from their e-textbooks instead?

The lack of multitasking on the iPad allows students to focus – a concept most technology ignores in favor of cramming as many features as possible into increasingly smaller devices. Students can apply their newly regained focus to the iPad’s 9.7″ screen and absorb digital content, such as e-textbooks and periodicals, specifically designed to take advantage of the device’s larger form factor.

MEDICINE

Imagine this scenario: a woman checks into a hospital with a broken leg. She gets x-rays and blood work done, then develops a massive headache and needs an MRI (can you hear the sound of a cane limping down the hall yet?). Now imagine the patient’s x-rays, blood results and MRI scans simultaneously pushed to an application on her doctor’s iPad. This app can monitor her EKG readings and IV status in real-time, while also displaying the collection of test results.

When her doctor has to move to another patient, the iPad is turned sideways, revealing a patient list next to the data. The doctor chooses a name from the list, pulls up that patient’s medical records and proceed’s to his room.

Doctors have been slow in adopting technology to their daily routines, but the iPad could push them to digitize medical records and streamline the way their industry operates. Clipboards waste paper and laptops are cumbersome – the iPad could fix both problems.

CORPORATE

When Steve Jobs first introduced the iPhone 2.0 firmware, he discussed a case-study about the pharmaceutical corporation Genentech. Certain Genentech employees were given iPhones to use in the labs and out in the field. As a result, this experiment helped squeeze the iPhone into the corporate world and proved Apple could build devices for both hipsters and squares alike.

Enter the iPad – a corporate executive’s dream. The calendar app shows a sales meeting early the next morning with a prospective client, so you pull up the proposal and email it to your team. They work well into the night, putting together a slick, persuasive Keynote presentation. The next morning, you check your email and download the file to your iPad. You plug the device into the conference room’s projector and after an hour of flashy transitions, you’ve landed that big account. As soon as the meeting is over, you unplug the iPad and email the contract to the client.

Apple has brought a sense of fluidity to the iPad that is not seen in most other devices. Application switching is not a process of flipping through windows, or memorizing key-strokes to cycle through apps – it’s about pressing a single home button, then touching a desired option on the screen. Combine this fluidity with the ability to walk and “touch” at the same time and you forget the iPad doesn’t multitask – you do.

HOME

The days of desktop family computers have passed. No longer will the children be relegated to a desk in the corner of the living room so they can “poke” their friends or watch videos. The iPad appears to be a very universal device – everyone in the family can benefit from it in completely different ways.

Father, George, can check his work email, then catch up on the New York Times. When he’s finished, Jane, his wife, can use the built-in Calendar app to manage the kids’ soccer games and music lesson schedules. Their boy, Elroy, can play the latest Need for Speed game for awhile before passing the iPad off to daughter, Judy, who can then rock out to the latest John Mayer album. Apple just needs to invent an “iRosie” multi-touch vacuum cleaner to complete the picture.

Apple’s iPad can be anything to anyone while they’re holding it. Jonathan Ive, SVP of Industrial Design, says it best in the iPad video on Apple’s website, “I don’t have to change myself to fit the product – it fits me.”

Apple’s iPad does not have to be loved by everyone to be successful. It doesn’t have to have a camera, be on Verizon’s network, or multitask to win the hearts of consumers everywhere. Those who put it down now will never buy it, regardless of the features added in future firmware or hardware upgrades. When users who work or live as discussed above realize it’s more than just an over-sized iPod Touch, the iPad will flourish and we will wonder how we ever got on without it in the first place.