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I wish the title of this submission had been better. I'd have read it much sooner. I've taken to calling iPad-esque ideas "Internet Appliance" (I'm sure I got

I wish the title of this submission had been better. I'd have read it much sooner. I've taken to calling iPad-esque ideas "Internet Appliance" (I'm sure I got that from somewhere else and I doubt it's original). I think the article misses one important point though - businesses. As far as consumer products I don't see my mom (metaphor) buying a standard desktop PC again assuming similar devices to the iPad come from other makers. Businesses, OTOH, I expect to continue to use traditional PCs for many years to come. People who work in front of PCs need lots of screen real-estate even those doing accounting-and these businesses have tons of legacy SW that it took them years to migrate to new systems (many of them still haven't). This will be a boon to geeks. As businesses hold onto the traditional computers we will all benefit and continue to get much of our hardware fairly cheaply.

misuba 17y ago
The average business today would fall apart if people suddenly got that time back that they spend dealing with IT. They'd fill the time with political machinations and end up eating each other alive. More seriously, I predict that we'll see official support products for linking multiple iPads together in a workstation capacity within a year. Well, probably just two iPads at most, but third-party products might go for more.
- olefoo 17y ago
  You just know someone is going to make a display wall out of them.
- pyre 17y ago
  > More seriously, I predict that we'll see official support products for linking multiple iPads together in a workstation capacity within a year. Well, probably just two iPads at most, but third-party products might go for more. Are you talking 'iPad-like devices' or actual iPads? If you're talking actual iPads, I see the price as a barrier to these becoming ubiquitous devices. If the 'pad' market follows the PC market, Apple will just be at the luxury end of the spectrum.
raganwald 17y ago
Odd, but I see business users as having more in common with Eric's "Mom" than with hackers. There are jillions of custom business apps that don't give people files to manipulate: There's a client app or a web page and a database on a server somewhere stores the data. Salespeople and customer service reps and what-not just use the apps just as an iPad owner might 'just use' a program.
- pyre 17y ago
  I think that point is that those apps already exist and need to run on PCs. Porting them over the 'simpler' devices takes time and money that most businesses won't be eager to spend.
  - derefr 17y ago
    But they already have existing PCs to run that existing software. We are, I think, talking about new businesses that have a choice—of course those that have locked themselves into a paradigm will still be locked in when a new one is invented.
jackfoxy 17y ago
Larry Ellison was touting the concept of "Internet Appliance" back in 1995. I don't think think his were ever mass manufactured.

misuba 17y ago

The average business today would fall apart if people suddenly got that time back that they spend dealing with IT. They'd fill the time with political machinations and end up eating each other alive. More seriously, I predict that we'll see official support products for linking multiple iPads together in a workstation capacity within a year. Well, probably just two iPads at most, but third-party products might go for more.

olefoo 17y ago
You just know someone is going to make a display wall out of them.
pyre 17y ago
> More seriously, I predict that we'll see official support products for linking multiple iPads together in a workstation capacity within a year. Well, probably just two iPads at most, but third-party products might go for more. Are you talking 'iPad-like devices' or actual iPads? If you're talking actual iPads, I see the price as a barrier to these becoming ubiquitous devices. If the 'pad' market follows the PC market, Apple will just be at the luxury end of the spectrum.

raganwald 17y ago

Odd, but I see business users as having more in common with Eric's "Mom" than with hackers. There are jillions of custom business apps that don't give people files to manipulate: There's a client app or a web page and a database on a server somewhere stores the data. Salespeople and customer service reps and what-not just use the apps just as an iPad owner might 'just use' a program.

pyre 17y ago
I think that point is that those apps already exist and need to run on PCs. Porting them over the 'simpler' devices takes time and money that most businesses won't be eager to spend.
- derefr 17y ago
  But they already have existing PCs to run that existing software. We are, I think, talking about new businesses that have a choice—of course those that have locked themselves into a paradigm will still be locked in when a new one is invented.

jackfoxy 17y ago

Larry Ellison was touting the concept of "Internet Appliance" back in 1995. I don't think think his were ever mass manufactured.