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The Apple iPad will be a Game-Changer
Back in August, in this blog, I explored the potential value of the Apple tablet, which at the time, was just a figment of the tech world’s collective imagination. So now that the highly anticipated Apple iPad has been unveiled, it’s time to answer my question: How valuable would the Apple Tablet be?
Well, ever since Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the tech giant’s latest product last week, there has been much debate about just that. But as David Pogue of NYTimes.com pointed out last week, both the praise and disapproval we’re hearing about the iPad are being tossed about by critics who’ve never even tried the device.
While we won’t know the real value of the iPad until we can try it, one thing’s for sure: the iPad will be a game-changer simply because it exists.
Sure, the iPad has received its share of complaints, from its lack of Adobe Flash support, to its closed source, to its similarities to the iPhone. But I have no doubt that Apple will balance the short-term complaints with their long-term view of the iPad opportunity. As my Apple-advocating Dad said last weekend, “Never underestimate the vision of Steve Jobs.” Apple is adept at taking existing technology combining it with amazing design and marketing and our lifestyle to create demand for previously unmet needs.
What Apple is doing, as it has done so well in the past, is developing a new market. As TimesLive.co.za said, the iPad “is intended primarily as an entertainment device and will fill the gap between task-oriented devices, such as a laptop and smartphone, with a far more user-friendly interface and easy-to-read display.”
“Real innovation in technology involves a leap ahead, anticipating needs that no one really knew they had and then delivering capabilities that redefine product categories,” Harvard Business School Professor David B. Yoffie told Steve Lohr of NYTimes.com.
In other words, it doesn’t matter that the iPad can’t support Flash, because according to Apple, the future of online video and advertisements doesn’t include Flash.
According to Nick Bilton of NYTimes.com, Flash currently supports nearly 75 percent of video on the Web and 70 percent of online gaming sites. Therefore, not having Flash will certainly make it difficult to view a great number of Web sites on the iPad today.
But Bilton said “concerns over the lack of Flash in the iPad and iPhone may be short-lived. Many online video sites have been experimenting with a new video format, called HTML5. Unlike Flash, which is a downloaded piece of software that can interact with a computer’s operating system, HTML5 works directly in a Web browser.”
So Apple is clearly betting on HTML5 as the future (despite the fact that it can’t do everything Flash can do), so much so that, according to Bilton, Apple is part of the group of companies that own the patents surrounding HTML5.
Furthermore, it’s not fair to say the iPad is “just an iPod Touch on steroids” until we know what it can do. According to TimesLive.co.za, “video game publishers such as Ubisoft and EA are already said to be developing games for the iPad, citing the device’s large, full-colour screen as something that sets it apart from other mobile gaming platforms.”
And Pogue said “the iPad as an e-book reader is a no-brainer. … Web browsing, painting programs, TV and movies, newspaper and magazines all seem like naturals on the 1.5-pound machine, too.”
But the iPad has the potential to go further than that. As FastCompany.com’s Kit Eaton said, “the iPad’s killer feature could be not what you view on it, but what you plug into it.”
While the iPhone 3.0 has the ability to connect to peripherals, such as a diabetes monitor and a digital point-of-sale device, Eaton said he thinks that iPhone’s screen “is perhaps a little small for some of the most inventive ways you could use the system.
“But wait … here’s the iPad. With a 9.7-inch screen and practically the same OS. Apple’s already demoed the plug-in keyboard accessory (which transforms it into almost a mini-iMac), alongside a few others like the digital camera connector. It is, in other words, totally capable of dealing with peripherals just like the iPhone, and it’s much, much more powerful. …
“Imagine the medical tech that could exploit the screen – What would you think about all your medical notes being stored on an RFID (radio frequency identification) tag instead of a paper clipboard hung from the end of the bed? Think about doctors viewing x-rays on the device, with pinch and zoom powers to check the details, and wireless transmission to the iPad direct from the x-ray suite.”
Think about what schools could do with it. My elementary school daughters could dump their 40-pound backpacks for good!
These are just two examples of the way the iPad is designed to change technology. We just have to wait to see how it does. Sure it could bomb, but it’s still bringing us a new way of looking at the Web, and that won’t soon be forgotten.
What do you think of the iPad? Do you agree with the complaints? Do you think it has potential?
– Kathie
(Photo courtesy of Gizmodo.com. Video courtesy of YouTube)
Wanted: Answers
What good has worrying ever done?
Leveraging Innovation Lessons to Keep the Aging Brain Young
Traditional theories suggest that people lose brain cells, and therefore knowledge and the ability to learn, as they age. But a recent article by New York Times Health Editor Barbara Strauch indicated that there is hope yet for the aging brain.
Indeed, Stauch said, “many longheld views, including the one that 40 percent of brain cells are lost, have been overturned. What is stuffed into your head may not have vanished but has simply been squirreled away in the folds of your neurons.”
In other words, while adults age 40 to 60 may have trouble remembering stuff they learned 20 years ago – or even 20 minutes ago – that stuff never really leaves their brains. It just needs to be coaxed out.
“Educators say that, for adults, one way to nudge neurons in the right direction is to challenge the very assumptions they have worked so hard to accumulate while young. With a brain already full of well-connected pathways, adult learners should ‘juggle their synapses a bit’ by confronting thoughts that are contrary to their own,” Kathleen Taylor, a professor at St. Mary’s College of California told Strauch.
So in order to keep our brains fresh, we need to challenge assumptions? That shouldn’t be too hard, we do that all the time to help our clients come up with fresh ideas.
“Teaching new facts should not be the focus of adult education, (Turner) says. Instead, continued brain development and a richer form of learning may require that you ‘bump up against people and ideas’ that are different. In a history class, that might mean reading multiple viewpoints, and then prying open brain networks by reflecting on how what was learned has changed your view of the world,” Strauch said.
Just as diversity of thought can help a team come up with new ideas, it seems that it can also help individuals think, learn and evaluate ideas.
According to Strauch, “such stretching is exactly what scientists say best keeps a brain in tune: get out of the comfort zone to push and nourish your brain. Do anything from learning a foreign language to taking a different route to work.”
If doing something different isn’t enough for you, here are five of my favorite ways that AARP.org says you can keep your brain in shape:
- Turn up the tunes. TV may provide a lot of stimuli, but watching too much can dull brain transmission. Instead, spend an afternoon listening to your favorite music. Music can lower stress hormones that inhibit memory and increase feelings of well-being that improve focus.
- Play Yahtzee! Whether you choose Risk, Pictionary, Scrabble, or Boggle, board games are associated with a lower risk of developing dementia. They activate strategic, spatial, and memory parts of the brain, and require you to socialize, which can help form new neural pathways.
- Savor a sensory experience. Those with the best memories take advantage of all their senses. That’s because memorization is a cohesive brain effort. So head to the garden or the kitchen and take in the sights, smells, sounds, tastes, and sensations.
- Have a chat. Instead of popping in another movie rental, pick up the phone. Talking with someone else not only gets you out of your rut – lack of activity can decrease brain-cell formation – but the socializing can also reduce potentially memory-sapping depression.
- Switch hands. It may be uncomfortable, but writing with your nondominant hand or operating a computer mouse with that hand can activate parts of the brain that aren’t easily triggered otherwise. Anything that requires the brain to pay close attention to a formerly automatic behavior will stimulate brain-cell growth.
Remember, while studies aren’t quite conclusive, according to Forbes.com, exercising your brain is believed to lower your risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease and other age-related cognitive impairments.
So get out and diversify your thinking!
– Kathie
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