All I Wanted was a Faster Horse
Disappointment. That was how I felt on January 27th, 2010. The iPad did not come close to living up to my expectations. This wasn’t some new technological AWESOME. It wasn’t a new computer that would change the World. It’s an iTouch with an injection of growth hormone. How could Steve Jobs get something so wrong? #FAIL
It’s now been 6 days and 4 solid hours that I’ve owned an iPad and been forced to reflect on how wrong my initial impression was. Between January 27th and Sunday, April 11 I developed a different perspective on Apple’s newest information device that allowed me to stretch my mind and consider a different viewpoint. For many, including me, the iPad seemed to miss the mark. This was not what people wanted or were asking for. How would this device make their lives better, easier, more complete? It wouldn’t it was simply lacking too much of what everybody expected. How can less equal more?
When Henry Ford created the Model T he was asked about what his customers wanted. His response was, “If I would have listened to what my customers wanted, they would have asked for a faster horse.”
What I wanted and was expecting on January 27th was Apple to unveil a faster horse. I did not realize however that what I needed was a more convenient device to connect me with the content I use and consume daily when I’m away from my computer. The iPad delivers that convenience. It’s small enough to not be a hindrance. Big enough to deliver impact. Portable enough to be taken anywhere and useful enough to be used in spare moments when you don’t want, need or have access to the full power of a computer or laptop.
For photographers the device provides some great out of the box functionality. Loading your visual assents onto the iPad is flawless and the Photo Application allows you to deliver dynamic presentations to clients effortlessly. The fact that they can hold the device and interact directly with your artwork delivers an intimacy that is sorely lacking in any laptop or computer interaction. The tactile interaction delivers an experience with no comparison except for traditional album page flipping or the loose photo shuffling experience when you used to bring your 3″x5″s home from the drugstore photo counter.
When your customers hold the iPad they are holding their pictures. The psychological difference is substantive over simply viewing them on a computer screen. Emotionally they have bought in. Powerful stuff and part of the reason a car dealer wants you to test drive a vehicle and the pet shop allows you to hold that overly affectionate puppy or kitten.
If you have not had an opportunity to play with an iPad or like me if you are in Canada and have just heard the news that the iPad has been delayed an additional month then take the time and make the effort to go to your closest Apple retail outlet and spend an hour wrapping your head and hands around a device that was never meant to replace your computer. It was created to provide a different way for you to interact with the information and content that we want, need and consume every day. This could be the single most important shift in how we interact with information since Gutenburg rolled the first book off the press.
It isn’t the simple fact of the information being available on a new device that is important it is how we now can gain access to and interact with that information in such a natural way that will revolutionize how we move forward.
In retrospect, I am glad that I was not simply presented with and sold a faster horse.
