Will iPad revolutionize end user computing?

Honestly speaking, I am not a big Apple fan. But in the past two years, all of my computers, including iPhone, has become Apple products. I am not unconditionally praising them, but if you are looking for a computer, unless you are really into building one yourself, or just after lower price tag, Apple offers a very reasonable option for quality, usability and a good feeling of owning one.

If you look back computer history, there was the big hit of Apple II, and Macintosh delivering window and mouse based GUI to the mass. Apple has been a key player at these turning points. There were bad times while Jobs was away, but Jobs has returned after his tough days, with his skills perfected in introducing innovative products at exactly the right time. MP3 players were already around when iPod was introduced. iPhone was not the first smartphone. But since there introduction, they have completely changed what their market segment means, forever. Not only was it the balance of timing of introduction, price, and feature, but the continuous flow of successor products replacing them at exactly the right time.

Looking back at Mac, you can realize its only a custom spec specialty PC, regardless of the number of little innovations it embodies. There were weird looking iMac and G4 Cube, etc which didn't quite live up to expectations. And MacOS has gone through many not so well received revisions until it became OS X. But apart from that, after a successful architecture switch to x86, while embracing many industry standard technology, Apple has successfully differentiated itself and became an industry top player. It has built a strong position in a commodity market that is the PC. I feel Jobs has really learned to be patient and tough.

And now comes iPad. Direct touch operated computers are pretty popular in so called "virtical" market for business use. The "iPad" trade mark itself was acquired recently from Fujitsu who was marketing that kind of a device under the name. Archrival Microsoft has been shipping TabletPC for several years. But still, I really think iPad must be the line of product with the biggest ambition to revolutionize the world of computing that Apple has ever shipped. Its not juts a big iPhone. Not a keyboard-less tablet shaped netbook. People often compare it with Kindle which falls into a completely different category. I think Jobs is intending to change the user interface of computers forever. He has started the multi touch direct operation interface on iPhone. This is a reasonable design choice for smartphones, which have a strong form factor constraint. He has polished the interface on it, and got users trained to use it. Now, isn't he trying to change the interface of "PC" all together?

Ever since the time of punch card has past, computers always came with keyboards. It used to come with type printers instead of video monitors. The monitor has gotten graphical, and mouse was added for graphical operation. Apple was in the forefront of pushing it to the ordinary people. But think about it. You don't need ergonomic expert to realize that this is such an awkward interface. Keyboards are designed to be operated with two hands. You add mouse to it, you need three to operate them at the same time. What really happens is people are simply switching between keyboard and mouse. These are two separate set of interfaces. But still, it is very difficult to escape the curse of the keyboard. Especially in the west, so many people are trained to use it, especially those computer engineers. Why would engineers who are in love with the keyboard ever design a computer without it. Both Macintosh and Windows have this unnatural crippled interface, but those who design them are the ones who are in love with it. There is no reason for them to change it.

And here comes Jobs. True, keyboard is one of the most efficient way to input alphabetical text once you are trained. But typing text is not the only computer operation. The physical separation of the keyboard and the monitor forces the user to deal with two independent interfaces. I would say changing this is a revolution to the contemporary computer culture. I am thinking Jobs has a strong enthusiasm in making this happen. But he learned patience. He takes steps in laying out his cards to move his strategy forward. He started with iPhone. iPad is a little progress now that office productivity tool, iWorks, runs on it. This should grab some number of people. Creative tools should grab the minds of artists when they arrive. They are already in love with Cintiq anyway. And long time later, not sure how long. XCode will start running in multitouch in the end. I have no idea whether its going to be a tablet, or a Mac with a monstrous touch screen. But one day, software engineers at Apple will ditch the keyboard, and will be programming through the multitouch direct operation interface. There are many technical issues to be resolved. Human habit is very hard to break. But still, the first step of the break through that will bring the new time for computer user interface, that is what I belive iPad is supposed to be.