Personally and in my conversation with folks, I find that as a productivity device, iPad users fall into 2 buckets.
Bucket 1: Creators: developers, designers, writers and such - folks who need to create documents and other work product. Broadly speaking, in terms of available apps, and interconnectivity with apps (eg leaving Photoshop to go research something in a browser and coming back, copy paste workflows etc) the iPad is simply not there yet. For stand alone workflows, it goes some of the way there (Eg if all you're doing is writing, you can probably get away with it), but if your role involves using several tools, the tools simply arent there yet.
Bucket 2: Decision makers. I know a few successful CEOs who only work on an iPad. For them, most of their workflow is digesting data and decision making - they arent writing code or making slide decks. They just process emails, do product review and look at data and conclusions. For them, the iPad is perfect because all those workflows are easily completed on an iPad.
I think the iPad will get there eventually - the type of creation that is done will shift somewhat, and the tools will get better, but for now, even the most dedicated folks have a hard time using an iPad exclusively.
I don't think we'll get to a point where professional or enterprise level creation happens on an iPad, outside of typing text or filling out forms (if that even counts). Apple's direction with the iPad is purely as a device for buying and/or consuming data, and will maintain as much control as they can.
Let's hypothesize a 25" tablet, suspended from a monitor arm, with support for keyboard commands, mouse, and multitasking. That is effectively a desktop. The downside is processing power, which I am assuming will continue on an exponential upward trend in addition to seeing CPU intensive processing offloaded to remote servers (compiling, rendering 3D images, converting video, stuff that already is often done remotely today.) The part of this vision I find hardest to believe is a 25" tablet, so I assume it will have to wait for an advance in display tech leading to lightweight/fold-able/roll-able/etc.
Sure, Apple is going in one direction today, but if iOS falls too far behind the feature/usability curve their tablet dominance will fall.
I agree with a caveat; professional/enterprise level creation looks the way it does today partly because of the tools we've had available (Word, Excel, etc). Where I disagree is that I think professional/enterprise level creation will look different in a way that benefits the iPad (this is really hard to quantify which is why its so vague) but, put another way; creation tools for the iPad will be developed, and their outputs will be some alternative (to word docs, powerpoints etc).
The big limitation is the number of unique single-step interactions that can be performed by the user. With mouse + keyboard, you have ~100 keys, >=2 mouse buttons, and enough screen real estate to afford at least several hundred unique clickable areas. On a touchscreen, our fat fingers limit the number of unique tappable/swipable areas to, depending on screen real estate, maybe 50. There just isn't as much information that can be expressed in one interaction, and breaking the task into multiple interactions causes cogitive overhead and discomfort for the user.
I wish we all had really small hands so we fit an appropriately scaled keyboard in the footprint of a smartphone, or something. But that ain't gonna happen. So, I guess... Innovate or die! But here I have a fear that modern keyboards have so much lock-in that when better input devices arise, people will be afraid of switching to them.
It was awkward, but good enough to GetShitDone.
I later bought both an Air and an iPad Mini, and the Mini is small enough to be a substantial improvement on the Air when doing short trips to conferences. I can edit my presentations, take notes, and do all sorts of other things on the road or in a coffee shop.
Now my Air sits at home.
Disclosure: I started programming on punch cards. It's all amazing to me, so when comparing an iPad Mini to a desktop computer, I can logically tell you I'm way more productive on the desktop, but at the same time I'm emotionally satisfied either way.
- It doesn't make a great laptop; the awkward kickstand-and-lightweight-keyboard setup feels unbalanced and doesn't really work on your lap, for example. The keyboard, by virtue of being a cover, is not awesome and the attached trackpad is pretty terrible. The screen is small enough that coding feels cramped.
- It doesn't make a great tablet; the aspect ratio is too tall for reading and the extra weight really does make a difference when holding it for even a few minutes.
I really like drawing with the pressure-sensitive stylus, though.
A huge plus for me that differentiates it from both laptops and iPads is the Wacom stylus, which has replaced all my (paper)notebooks at home and work.
To anyone considering to buy one I recommend going to a Microsoft store or Best Buy to try it out. Seems like a love it or hate it kinda product.
If you have a laptop and smartphone, chances are you don't "need" an iPad -- but once you figure out exactly what you CAN use it best for, it quickly becomes your "go to" device for certain tasks. I have all three within easy reach, but when I need ebooks, Facebook, Reddit or other leisurely entertainment, the iPad experience is far superior to that available on either of the other two devices. Meanwhile, my wife, who couldn't care less about Reddit or ebooks, finds it's the best platform for recipes, Pinterest, etc.
The goal was to understand, if we are there yet with respect to the readiness of iPad software. Bucketing iPads as a consumption and leisure device is short selling its potential.
Next experiment: To consume content primarily on a non-tablet non-phone for a week. (It will fail a comparable way.)
No matter how much you squeeze an apple, no matter how tasty the results, you won't get orange juice.
Isn't that what most people do? Browsing share of smartphones/tablets is still not very large compared to laptops and desktops. And about 30-40% of the internet-using population in the U.S., at least, doesn't even own a smartphone or tablet.
BTW: capturing 30-40% of the internet-using population in just 3.5 years is an amazing achievement.
We already see the value in responsive web design, which is also in it's infancy. Eventually, we will have responsive operating systems, applications, and maybe even hardware.
Far from it. I've been watching major companies try to converge them for 20 years, all to abject failure (tiny niches aside). The iPad succeeded precisely because it avoided "convergence".
In the PC market there is more overlap, with pretty solid $700 minitowers, but again the minitowers imply you will pay for the electricity and performance with a cost in size and portability.
Long term ... sure maybe a 12 core tablet is possible, but that is really long term IMO.
Rather than One True Device, it may make more sense to have different devices for different jobs. For example games consoles and e-book readers are devices that sell very well despite limited use cases.
I can see advantages to perhaps having many cross platform libraries to allow developers to reuse application logic across devices.
Why? I broke my Iphone at the end of last year (dropped on floor, no visible damage, severely damaged touch sensor). I didn't repair it until March/April, and used an older regular cellphone. I did quite alright, and found that for me most of my Iphone usage is unnecessary. The old phone handled talking and texting just as it did pre-Iphone.
I did repair before a short holiday. I wanted to use it as a point-and-shoot, a gps tracker and a means to get information from the internet since I went without a computer. Therein is, for me, the greatest use of an Iphone. When I'm home I have no trouble moving from the couch to the computer (yeah, not even a laptop).
TFA lamented a tablet's shortcomings when used as a "computer": direct file manipulation, rapid voluminous text input, instant viewing of bulky data, vast local storage, raw CPU power, etc. My counter-challenge/observation as intended was that using a non-tablet (a "phone" in context being little different from a tiny tablet) would not perform particularly well at doing what a "mobile device" excels at: right-here right-now anytime anywhere calling, texting, emailing, photography, GPS, location-critical web-surfing, etc.
You proved my point by not even coming close to suggesting doing "real work" with a phone (no matter its IQ), other than to transition to a complementary (and decidedly stationary) computer when mobility-related capabilities are not needed.
The take-away from all this is there isn't a convergence point.
You've done a valid experiment, but I think it illustrates why "if I only had one" is a wrong interpretation of Ubiquity. You don't just have one. If you are like most tech people you have a few, and maybe a lot, of functioning and current hardware. You probably have desktops and notebooks you can use.
And so in that environment a tablet should be good for the things you want to do when you just grab a tablet, in a room or an environment which isn't intended for serious work. And part of grabbing a tablet should be good integration with the other elements of your ubiquitous computing network.
I was watching Netflix and an iMessage comes in. Do I click on the iMessage to reply and interrupt my flow or do I ignore it. Hey, look an mail notification came in, looks semi-urgent, should I interrupt my movie to respond? I ended up using my phone as a mail / chat client and my iPad as solely a movie player. At the end of the day, I still love my iPad despite it's shortcomings.
I've found it really helpful to separate the two domains. The separation allows my mind to know which mode to be in and thus allows me to focus when working and relax when relaxing.
Whole experience convinced me that if I was do do it again I'd get something like a Chromebook or Netbook.
There's no real way to drive the iPad using only a keyboard and you have to reach for the screen too many times e.g. flicking between document being edited and a reference PDF or presentation.
Pages on the iPad has some really weird quirks that I've not got to the bottom of e.g. copy some text from a table cell, paste it into the document elsewhere and it's still a table cell with no way to remove the formatting - eventually copied it all out an stuck with markdown (but need to port it back at some point).
Shame Apple can't see clear to adding some basic features like that for keyboard users, who while admittedly are a minority would really love to have some functionality like that.
I could just about cope with the differences between Android 2.x and iOS but since I've moved to Android 4.x I find iOS so frustrating to use so next tablet will probably be the new Nexus 7
I've pretty much always ran applications "full-screen". The only time I really ever have more than one thing on screen at a time is if I'm splitting a tmux window.
I use my iPad how I imagine people use Chromebooks (with the addition of being able to use more than just the web browser).
That makes me wonder if over time tablets will become used for more and more because they increase in functionality/complexity (mimicking how people use their PC's currently), or if they'll remain the way they are, but people will just adopt their usage paradigms.
For accessing servers, the Prompt app provides SSH and a special Linux/bash friendly keyboard.
For research, a web browser and Evernote work fine.
So, top level comment: writing works well on an iPad, programming much less so.
Edit: I hardly ever use the bluetooth keyboard: I use my MBA if I need a keyboard. The advantage of the iPad is that it is comfortable to hold while writing as-is.
Longest thing I've managed to type without going nuts so far is a five line email.
Sometimes I want to play/browse and iOS is perfect for that with its apps and form factor and touch screen. Sometimes I want to work/create and OSX is perfect for that with its keyboard and multi-tasking and desktop applications.
So, I tend to just not type.
Is the author saying that Google test documents with tables aren't displayed? I haven't tried that.
