ericellenberg

This morning I wrote that Apple seems to be “drawing a distinct line between desktop computers and personal computers, where personal means “mobile.’” I want to elaborate a bit more on this distinction.

From 1984 to 2001, Apple basically had the Mac, a multipurpose personal computer that served as both a way to produce and consume content. In 2001, Apple introduced the iPod, a device designed and engineered expressly for the consumption of music. In 2003, they introduced the iTunes Store, a music distribution platform to feed new iPod owners with legally obtainable music. It would go on to become a comprehensive multimedia content platform just a few years later.

Now for a short digression: The 2000s were an age of increasingly vigorous information consumption. As more information and media became available to anyone with Internet access, two things happened: there became a greater demand than ever for access to that information and media; and computing technology had progressed to a point where “just-enough” computing was more than enough to consume this information anywhere.

This is just one reason why the release of the iPhone in 2007 was a bonafide technological revolution. Watching movies, listening to music, making phone calls, and surfing the web—all on one device. It was groundbreaking to see something its size do all those things at once, and not only do them, but with style as well.

But perhaps the most remarkable capability it had was you could write with it. Email and text messages proved to be only the beginning as one year later Apple would give third-party developers the ability to write applications for the iPhone and its phone-less companion, the iPod touch. It’s been a runaway success. But it is still primarily a device of consumption.

The iPad is the beginning of Apple bringing the iPhone platform back full-circle to the Mac, to be a platform of production as well as consumption. Apple is making iWork for it, and that means people will be creating documents, presentations, and spreadsheets with a touch screen tablet computer. That, I believe, is why Alan Kay made his now-famous remark: “Make the screen five inches by eight inches, and you’ll rule the world.”

It remains to be seen how the iPad will perform in the marketplace. And it remains to be seen if it will succeed. But this distinction of the personal, mobile computer from the old-fashioned desktop personal computer, and the seeds of its becoming a platform of production as well as consumption, is undoubtedly the reason Apple considers the iPad a revolutionary product.