Software.
The intertubes are awash with speculation regarding Apple’s big product announcement next week. Will it be the fabled tablet? Will it be some other paradigm-shifting innovation of earth-shattering, elephantine proportions? Maybe. But, let’s be honest here, none of us know for sure what it’ll be. But, if it is the tablet, it’s not like it’s something new. So, for the sake of this blog post, let’s assume it is.
Tablet-style computing has been available for a while now. From the nascent days of Apple’s own Newton (pictured at left), through the Palm Pilot and the briefly popular UMPCs, to today’s touchscreen laptops, it’s not a new technology. What’s going to sell Apple’s tablet will be the software. In order for Apple to succeed with a tablet, they need to come up with something that you can’t do on any other form factor.
The problem with tablet computing is, nobody’s managed to actually make it make any sense. What would you actually use it for? Why would you use it instead of a regular laptop? As any iPhone owner will attest to, using a touchscreen keyboard to actually do any work with isn’t easy. In fact, it’s downright frustrating. Ever tried writing a blog post on an iPhone? I have. No keycaps to feel, so no touch-typing, no tactile feedback… so, let’s assume that it won’t be targetted at the word processing or blogging fraternity. What if you’re just a regular Joe or Josephine who only wants to browse the Web? Again, as the iPhone has proven, a multitouch-enabled browser can work well, but again, what additional utility would a tablet have in this regard over a netbook with a proper keyboard? And then there’s media. A tablet would work very well as a video player – the screen’s big enough to actually watch a film on without hurting your eyes. But there are dedicated devices for that already, or you still have the option of a netbook or laptop. Same goes for e-reader functionality, and so on.
If you dare to think outside the box, there’s loads you could do with a multitouch interface that would be difficult or impossible with a regular keyboard/mouse combo. For instance, a 3D interface controlled by both hands, where you can grab, move and manipulate objects onscreen. Or even a game that works like this? Or, for classic productivity applications, a document processor program that fully supports manipulating page content with multitouch controls. How about a file manager (in Apple parlance, the “Finder”) that functions like a real-life set of document folders, where you can use multitouch gestures to actually manipulate them? This could even be the ideal interface for navigating the mythical 3D Web that we’ve heard so much about over the years but never actually seen. I mean, to date, has there been a computer-based touchscreen program that can actually contribute to your productivity over and above what you can do with a keyboard and mouse? Short of using a Wacom pad with Photoshop, not really.
It’s not that the technology doesn’t exist for something like this, it’s more that nobody has built an operating system to take full advantage of it. No other device, with the exception of the iPhone (or, perhaps, the Microsoft Surface), has been built around this kind of technology. Windows 7, while supporting multitouch, is still built around the notion of being used with the traditional keyboard/mouse combo. Even Apple’s own Snow Leopard OS, while supporting multitouch gestures via the funky trackpads on the MacBook range, or, more recently, the even funkier Magic Mouse, doesn’t have any intrinsically useful multitouch functionality to offer, since the Mac still has to work within the familiar WIMP paradigm, not to mention that most Mac legacy software doesn’t support it. If you have a new computing device built around the whole concept of a multitouch touchscreen, with no considerations of having to support legacy software, all of a sudden your boundaries open up.
Apple has proved, time and time again, that they can innovate like no other technology company out there. Look at the Mac. The iPod. The iPhone. They’ve all set the standard for virtually every other device that’s followed them. Every mobile phone nowadays is compared to the iPhone. Every portable music player is compared to the iPod. Every computer is compared to a Mac. Apple isn’t afraid to “think different”, and, come next Wednesday, us fanboys aren’t going to be let down, whatever it is they announce. But will it be the game-changer we’re all hoping for? We’ll know on January 27.
