The Post IPad Effect

Posted by TheDigitized on April 2, 2012 01:03 am 3

(Disclaimer: I wrote this because I want to practice writing for the SAT, So everything is open to comment)

A long time ago before the original IPad (relatively) both Steve Jobs and Bill Gates thought tablets were the future of personal computing. They were correct, The sheer ability to take a full-fledged computer with you and for it to be ‘sociably acceptable' is something that didn't exist four years ago. Although many companies tried to create the tablet device that was supposedly the future but all but one failed to reach the consumer in the way Apple did. Fortunately (or unfortunately) Apple had a huge audience with the recent success of the iPhone and its predecessors which of course led to a vast more people interested in Apple. Therefore people were craving the ohh-so delicious taste of a new product, which was the IPad, at first people made fun of it (alot) but very soon people realized that it was brilliant. The battery lasted much longer than any laptop and the familiarity of ios and the ease of use was very enticing.

So now three years later, what has changed. Well for starters the IPad was a huge success and has come out with its third iteration. Second Microsoft has announced show cased and is currently beta testing Windows 8, which has arm support and is very tablet friendly. Third, almost every company now is creating a tablet, trying to compete with Apple. Although nobody has come even close to competing with them, why you may ask? it's because of the IPads' ease of use and familiarity. The IPad is a device that your grandma could pick up and learn. Point is Apple changed a lot with the IPad and continues to do so.

Now both Windows and Apple are converging their desktop os with their tablet/mobile os slowly making one tablet os to rule them all. This could be considered good or bad. Its good because its less coding and porting for developers, its good for the general populous because its making everything simplified into one os. Some people (including me) think that there should a a docking station in every house for the tablet of their choice, that way they could do excel spread-sheet or type out an email really fast. But that's not what i'm talking about.

The point is that if we are to move to a tablet world we should have a modern os for when you want to work and a mobile os for on the go. The tablet world should be easy, for instance, it should be able to CONTROL your thermostat, security pad, lights, fans and kitchen appliances. But it should BE your workstation, gaming console and media device (airplay and such).

Hopefully the "tablet word" is a safe, fun and joyful place because it is inevitable that desktops, laptops, media devices and gaming consoles become extinct. So lets make the best of this situation.