Dan got a chance to call into NPR today; the discussion was quite lively, and he had a good time explaining why he disagreed with their “expert”.
Watch for him at the 6:50 mark.
Some notes that Dan sent after the fact …
In all seriousness I’m a little bit surprised to hear so-called experts still making claims that the iPad is simply a media consumption device. The whole point of the iPad is that it’s pretty much a blank slate (sorry for the pun). The device is going to be what you make of it.
What I mean by that is if you load a tremendous number of games and video onto it, you’re going to have a device that is a media consumption device. If, however, you load whole lot of productivity applications on it, then the iPad quickly becomes a device for serious productive work. I’ve only loaded two games onto my iPad so far. The other applications that I’ve loaded are apps that are often going to be useful for getting work done.
For example, I’m writing this piece of the post using Dragon right now. I’ll then go back and put it into the pages application and get it over to Judie. The “so-called experts” who are looking at this from an old paradigm bar going to find criticisms and continue to make them. The real power of this device is that it’s a paradigm breaker. It will become what ever the want it to become based on the applications loaded.
It’s not limited by physical buttons, it’s not limited by a locked-down hardware design. Just like the original iPhone, as Steve Jobs said, it can evolve and change with the applications. That’s the power of having a device that only has one button, a volume control and two other small toggles on the side.
That’s not a media consumption device, that’s a productivity device that is doing exactly what I would’ve done on my notebook only better and often faster.
