I Was Right

In support of my post about the iPad and how the geekosphere was missing the big idea...Proof I’m right:

PC Magazine: Women are Key
Gizmodo: The iPad is for Old People
TUAW: A Contrarian View
To Wit: Stephen Fry
We Never Knew We Needed it
iPad App Fund Announced
David Pogue: First Impressions
Cool Concepts

iPad: A Lesson in Projection

All jokes aside, the overwhelming reaction of the geek class of pundits are missing the point: Apple’s iPad is not for them, at least not yet.

The Steve did say it was between a smartphone and a laptop, not a new device to replace them.

Geeks, powerusers, programmers, and yes, designers are all frowning on the Pad because it doesn't do anything for them. Or should I say, it doesn’t do anything more for them. I’m calling this projection, or projecting what they know, what they’re used to and most importantly, what more they want form the next iGadget.

Here's what they don’t get: It’s not for them. It’s for the un-them.

Apple’s iPad is for my wife. She loves Facebook. She loves family photos. She loves making photo albums in iPhoto. She emails, browses the web a little, shops a little, watches a movie or two on her iPhone the handful of times she travels, pay bills online and that’s it.

The iPad is for my daughter. She does just about everything my wife does (except pay bills).

Apple’s tablet is for my mom who has never figured how to use a computer let alone set one up, install software, manage all the cables, printers, scanners, external hard drives, burning CDs, backing up, viruses, connecting to the internet, email, blah blah blah.

The absence of multitasking, Flash, a camera, an always there physical keyboard and whatever else the computing class have grown accustomed to, all amount to stuff that's done on devices that the iPad is not trying to be. And though the iWork stuff was pretty amazing, it’s stuff my wife, daughter and mom don't really care much about.

So, instead of looking at what the iPad is not, the important thing to remember is what it is: (present company excluded) A computer for the rest of us.

I think I just projected back in time.

Note to Self.

Make this blog not suck.

Spotted!

I stumbled upon the Booth Ranches Black Box I drafted In the produce department at the Price Cutter in Springfield, Missouri, while shopping for ingredients for leek soup. The box is cool. The soup was hot.

Finalist!

The little chap book for Sweet Street, How to Fulfill The Demands of the Art of Pastry Chefdom, has been chosen as one of fourteen finalist in Letterhead Font’s design competition. In the immortal words of Jimmy Wilson, "Look at me now!"

Omm

I have decided to quit the business of graphic design and dedicate the remainder of my mortal life to writing. Let me be clear: I’m not going to just write, I am going to write in Ommwriter. Farewell Mr. Rand. So long Saul Bass. Good day Mr. Glaser.


Ommwriter from Herraiz Soto on Vimeo.