If it is not just a different “form factor”, if it is not just old software with the “touch experience” added, then what is it? What makes the iPad so special we just had to develop Things for iPad?
For sure, the introduction of the iPad today marks the arrival of a new platform. And there is hardly anything more exciting for a software developer than the introduction of a new platform. But this isn’t just any platform.
If you want to understand what makes the iPad special, you cannot look at what it has, but what it doesn’t have. The iPad is so thin and light, it becomes the display, and the display becomes the application. No input devices. The device vanishes and turns into the application you are using. The technology is transparent.
Steve Jobs said about the iPod that “it is all about the music”. With the iPad, Apple has done the same for personal computing as it has done before with the iPod: it made technology go away. But if the device is gone, and the operating system is gone, what is left?
The iPad is an empty canvas that invites us to imagine what is possible. It inspires our imagination and it makes us want to create, because never before were we able to create software that was so close to the user.
Developing Things for iPad in such a short amount of time was exciting, it was hard work, and it was a whole lot of fun. You can see how much fun we had by watching the Things for iPad introduction video. Please enjoy it.