The iPad was built and sold as a product that is used alongside a
Mac or PC. This positioning made sense, as people saw the device more
for consumption than creation. Apple was able to continue selling Macs
without the iPad destroying its computer business.
It was a win-win strategy for Apple.
But what happens as more people buy the iPad and find that it is
good enough? They will want to replace their PC completely. For many,
dropping your Mac or PC and going only with an iPad is not possible.
Designed into the iPad are self-limiting features. These make it
cheaper to produce, and they also created a distinction between Mac
OS X and iOS devices.
Even as the power of the processor and video chips grows, these
shortcoming are not going to be fixed anytime soon. It will require
competition from outside Apple to create any motivation for change.
(Hint to Dell, HP, and Samsung - this is what you call an
opportunity.)
1. Multiple OS Support
Today my Mac can boot into Mac OS X, Windows 7, or Linux. If I don't
want to reboot, I can launch a virtual copy of Windows or Linux. This
is possible because of the shared hardware and the hard work by
Parallel,
VMware, etc. Their job was made
easier because all of these operating systems are designed to work on
similar hardware.
The iPhone, and later the iPad, broke from the common hardware model
and started using ARM processors. This allowed Apple to drop the need
for any compatibility.
Today we cannot even imagine that Apple would offer anything like
Boot Camp for iOS. It would be awesome to dual boot into iOS or
Android, but it will never happen if Apple continues to lock down the
device. It will be years before we get compatibility between Apple's
own operation systems, Mac OS X and iOS.
2. Local Storage Is Important
Hard drives have grown from MB to GB to TB sizes. Each major jump is
a 1,000 times increase is size. This boom in storage allowed for
practical encoding of music, and later movies, on personal hard drives.
Today, when I fill up the flash card for my camera, I need to store
another GB of data on my hard drive. With a dual 500 GB RAID setup in
my Mac, I can store years of family photos and videos.
The iPad isn't so lucky. It has been stuck at the same 64 GB limit
since it came out. Apple clearly sees 64 GB as a sweet spot for its
devices. This limit also promotes other Apple products. Either you have
to sync with a Mac or you can use Apple's Cloud storage.
While cloud storage is all the rage, not everyone is comfortable
turning over all their data to someone else. Security failures,
draconian user agreements, and servers going offline are a risk with
cloud storage.
With an iOS device, what choice do you have? The limit is built into
the machine, and only Apple can give you more onboard storage or allow
convenient external drives.
3. Multitasking Is Essential to Being Productive
I constantly switch between reading emails, typing up reports, and
designing equipment. I constantly have 4-5 windows open, and often this
triples if I'm editing or pulling in referenced information.
Multitasking on the iPad is a joke. You can't even buy an app
without being kicked out of the App Store so it can download. The
operating system is tuned to work with a small screen and a slower
processor. It has focused on doing one task well.
With more processing power possible every year, the restrictions
will likely become relaxed. It may require a painful transition on the
side of app development to implement a new windowing system.
4. Multiple Screens Go Hand in Hand with Multitasking
Dual screens offer twice the viewing area to keep track of all that
you have going on. It is one of the reasons I don't like the iMac
design - it's limited. One huge screen is better than a small one, but
two smaller, cheaper screens are a better bargain and just as
productive.
Dual screens are such a great idea that developers have written
software to turn your iPad into a second screen. The trouble is that no
one is inventing a way to split the iPad display over two separate
screens. Apple only offers a way to mirror the same information to a
single larger screen.
Since you can't really multitask, there is not much demand to even
try. If the iPad is to be a PC replacement, it needs to add this
feature.
5. A Touchscreen Is a Great Way to Have a Dirty Screen
It's true that you can lose a stylus, but it's not so easy to lose
your fingers. Apple has also done a wonderful job of adding multitouch
features to instantly make specific things happen. Despite all of this
creativity by Apple, the truth is that touch input isn't particularly
accurate.
My cheap $2 mechanical pencil has a 0.5mm tip, while my finger tip
is about 15 mm in diameter. That makes my pencil capable of being 30
times more accurate. With my finger and lots of practice, I could
accurate pick out an object about half the size of a dime. With a
pencil and no practice, I can pick an object the size of the period at
the end of this sentence. Controlling a cursor with a mouse is about as
accurate as a pencil.
There was once a joke on the Internet about a person who had their
fingers surgically narrowed to become more accurate using the iPhone's
on screen keyboard. Luckily you can buy a wireless keyboard to work
with an iOS device, but you can't use a fine tip stylus or a mouse.*
This leaves the iPad functional at text, and there are a few artists
who draw like Picasso using an iPad. But for me, I'll never be able to
use my fingers to design like I can with a mouse or stylus.
Not a Mac Replacement
In spite of these shortcomings, which got plenty of attention when
the iPad first came out, it has been a top seller. I own an iPad, and I
like it, but it is not even close to replacing my MacBook for getting
work done.
Since Apple appears to be willing to accept these shortcomings, the
only change is going to come from competition. The problem is that the
competition is scared to do anything that doesn't imitate Apple. This
scenario means we are going to be stuck with future tablet computers
that can't do many things that today's computers can.
