The world stood on its toes as Steve Jobs announced the iPad in January
2010 as “our most advanced technology in a magical and revolutionary
device at an unbelievable price.”
Do you believe in magic? The iPad has that magical quality of disappearing
into your hands as you explore content with it. You have to hold one and use
it to understand that feeling of the hardware disappearing — you have the
software application itself in your hands, with no extraneous buttons and
controls in the way of your experience with the content. And yes, the iPad is
groovy — it’s based on the iPod and iPhone.
But the iPad is more than groovy: It’s a game changer for the Internet as a
publishing medium, for the software industry with regard to applications,
and for the mobile device industry with regard to the overall digital media
experience. The form factor, portability, swift performance, and software
experience change the game with all devices that access the Internet. And
we’re tickled pink to be writing about developing software for it at this early
stage of its evolution, because we know the iPad will in fact revolutionize portable
computing and Internet access.
Due to the success of the iPhone and iPod touch, the App Store has grown
to become the repository of over 300,000 applications as of this writing,
which collectively are driving innovation beyond the reach of other mobile
devices — and all these apps already run on the iPad, along with about
30,000 iPad-specific apps. Opportunities are wide open for inventions that
build on all the strengths of iPhone apps but that take advantage of the iPad’s
larger display.
As we continue to explore the iPad as a new platform, we keep finding more
possibilities for applications that never existed before. The iPad is truly a
mobile computer with a decent display. Its hardware and software make
it possible to wander the world, or your own neighborhood, and stay connected
to whomever and whatever you want to. It gives rise to a new class
of here-and-now applications that enable you to access content-rich services
and view information about what is going on around you, and to interact with
those services or with others on the Internet.
