Looking at the iPad Not as a Device But a Solution

Posted by Tom Foth on February 01, 2010 in Innovation

So as to stay with the fashionable “in” blogger crowd, I’ve elected to comment on the new Apple iPad.  But rather than looking at the iPad as a device, let’s look at iPad as a solution.

A little history is in order…  Let’s go back to 1980’s and the development of the original Mac. It was Jef Raskin and then Steve Job’s vision to create an easy-to-use and  affordable “information appliance.” One of the edicts they made about about the first Mac: no fan. (see Salon’s account and their reference to Steven Levy’s “Insanely Great”)

Why no fan?  I suspect it is because they wanted an appliance device that wouldn’t SOUND like a computer.  Appliances generally only make sounds when they are doing something useful for someone.  Your coffee maker doesn’t make sounds unless it is making coffee. Your TV only makes sounds when you turn it on to entertain you.  Why should an idle computer make sounds?

Moreover, the Macintosh pioneered the “appliance” concept of “nearly instantly on” by having it an incredibly short boot time… making it all the more like a TV.  You turned it on when you needed it and you turned it off when you didn’t need it. Most importantly you didn’t suffer the penalty of having to wait to use it just because you turned it off.

In creating the first Mac, Raskin and Jobs left their paradigm of what a computer was and entered into the paradigm of what their typical users might want a computer to be.

I suspect the iPad is full embodiment of the appliance computer that Jef and Steve always saw people needing and wanting.  Many things have changed since those early Mac days to help make this realization now truly possible:

• affordable high resolution color LCDs,
• sufficient and affordable computing power for multimedia,
• microminaturization to make a form factor that is pleasing and accommodating,
• modern “right-sized” operating systems,
• networking,
• the internet
• … and the App Store.

Some pundits may be surprised by the large number of typical people that will find the iPad all they need. These iPad users will browse the internet, send and receive email, listen to music, watch videos, read books, newspapers and magazines, and write the occasional document. They’ll play games.  They’ll use Quicken Online Mobile or PocketMoney (or lots of other alternatives) to balance their bank accounts. And if these users want to get really “wild and crazy” they’ll even put together a spreadsheet or two.

Unless I’m missing something, that’s what typical people do with their computers.

The surprised pundits may be those that talk about the lack of multitasking on the iPad.  In my (albeit non-quantitative) observations of typical computer users, they use one program at a time and switch between them. Do power users multitask?  Sure.  Are power users typical? No.

And then there’s the lack of a camera.  One might first ask is “Which side would you put it on? The front (only useful for video conferencing) or the back (impractical for taking pictures because of the size and weight of the device)?”

It seems to me that video conferencing is the obvious choice, so let’s go with that. Have you noticed that people have virtually stopping talking on their cellphones? (Case-in-point: Verizon’s price drop on their “all you can talk” monthly rates)  If talking is not a common communications modality anymore, why should we believe that video conferencing will be?

In spite of these shortcomings, the iPad and the mostly benevolent dictatorship of the Apple “i” platform (and in particular the App Store) will allow typical users to be productive. They won’t have to worry about viruses, firewalls, or failed hardware or software installations that require a visit from the Geek Squad to figure it out.  They’ll turn the iPad on and it will just WORK for them, like their coffee maker, or TV… or iPhone, or iPod.

Some of those things they’ll need to buy apps for. Apps that are far cheaper than typical Mac and PC apps are today (another case-in-point: PocketMoney, a Quicken clone, is $4.99.  Quicken 2010 for Mac or PC is $24.99).  They’ll buy it when they need it and it will paid for, downloaded, and installed in less time than it takes most PCs to boot.

What lessons does this all teach?

It is the job of  innovative companies to:

• understand the trajectory of their users,
• with their users, imagine where that trajectory might take them,
  
• take risks to provide products that allow their users to exercise that future.

Apple does that. The Newton (in essence, Apple’s first “iPad”) and  Lisa are examples of taking risks and losing (and learning). The Mac, iPod, and iPhone are examples of winning. The iPad is an example of them continuing to try.

As innovators, we need to stop projecting our “world view” onto our users. It is imperative that we provide products that provide solutions to our users in their reality.

I’d love to hear from you: do you have stories of product failures because the users’ paradigm was disregarded?  How about home-runs when a company nailed the user’s paradigm?

Am I an Apple fanboy or have I pointed out what Apple hast wrought?
Image attribution: cattias.photos on Flickr.

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Tags: Apple, customer-centric innovation, Innovation, iPad