5 ms·

I still don't get the iPad.

by duairc 16y ago

JMiao 16y ago
Steve?
cstross 16y ago
It's quite simple: the iPad is Steve Jobs' second attempt to create the UberShiny, after the Macintosh, which was version 1.0. (Ignore the Newton; that was not a Jobs program.) It's got the same core ingredients as the Mac: utterly, shockingly new user interface paradigm that is easier to use, a machine which at launch is locked down tighter than a bank vault (and dismissed as a toy by people still wedded to the old paradigm), plug-in-and-go computing. This time, he's added a couple of new twists: the app store (so Apple can veto apps that don't mesh with their vision of where the platform is going, the smaller portable gizmos (phone and ipod touch), syncing to a mothership for backup. I expect in the longer term, (a) the sync hub will migrate from the (dying) Mac platform to the cloud and/or Apple's MobileMe service, and (b) we'll eventually see some opening up of the platform -- I'd love the iPad equivalent of the Mac II, but that's probably a couple of years away. For now, Apple have got their pure and shiny platform back, better than before and not liable to being cloned by Microsoft in the short term (unlike the Mac platform, which was visibly losing its UI lead over Windows with Win7 and facing parity as of Win8). I don't think this one will keep them ahead anything like as long as the Mac did, but it's got to be good for 5-10 years.
- Tamerlin 16y ago
  It's his 3rd, actually -- his second was a dismal failure in spite being a promising idea, mainly because the execution stank (NeXT -- with a black and white display, and even slower than the aging contemporary 68K-based mac with a color display , it cost 3x more).
Shorel 16y ago
I'm one of the few that wanted a foldable Air with full OSX instead of a bigger iPod. So, I do agree with Ballmer, and probably my next portable computer will be a Windows7 foldable laptop.

5 ms·

I still don't get the iPad.

by duairc 16y ago

I still don't get the iPad.

JMiao 16y ago
Steve?
cstross 16y ago
It's quite simple: the iPad is Steve Jobs' second attempt to create the UberShiny, after the Macintosh, which was version 1.0. (Ignore the Newton; that was not a Jobs program.) It's got the same core ingredients as the Mac: utterly, shockingly new user interface paradigm that is easier to use, a machine which at launch is locked down tighter than a bank vault (and dismissed as a toy by people still wedded to the old paradigm), plug-in-and-go computing. This time, he's added a couple of new twists: the app store (so Apple can veto apps that don't mesh with their vision of where the platform is going, the smaller portable gizmos (phone and ipod touch), syncing to a mothership for backup. I expect in the longer term, (a) the sync hub will migrate from the (dying) Mac platform to the cloud and/or Apple's MobileMe service, and (b) we'll eventually see some opening up of the platform -- I'd love the iPad equivalent of the Mac II, but that's probably a couple of years away. For now, Apple have got their pure and shiny platform back, better than before and not liable to being cloned by Microsoft in the short term (unlike the Mac platform, which was visibly losing its UI lead over Windows with Win7 and facing parity as of Win8). I don't think this one will keep them ahead anything like as long as the Mac did, but it's got to be good for 5-10 years.
- Tamerlin 16y ago
  It's his 3rd, actually -- his second was a dismal failure in spite being a promising idea, mainly because the execution stank (NeXT -- with a black and white display, and even slower than the aging contemporary 68K-based mac with a color display , it cost 3x more).
Shorel 16y ago
I'm one of the few that wanted a foldable Air with full OSX instead of a bigger iPod. So, I do agree with Ballmer, and probably my next portable computer will be a Windows7 foldable laptop.