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Next experiment: To consume content primarily on a non-tablet non-phone for a week. (It will fail a comparable way.)
No matter how much you squeeze an apple, no matter how tasty the results, you won't get orange juice.
Personally and in my conversation with folks, I find that as a productivity device, iPad users fall into 2 buckets.
Bucket 1: Creators: developers, designers, writers and such - folks who need to create documents and other work product. Broadly speaking, in terms of available apps, and interconnectivity with apps (eg leaving Photoshop to go research something in a browser and coming back, copy paste workflows etc) the iPad is simply not there yet. For stand alone workflows, it goes some of the way there (Eg if all you're doing is writing, you can probably get away with it), but if your role involves using several tools, the tools simply arent there yet.
Bucket 2: Decision makers. I know a few successful CEOs who only work on an iPad. For them, most of their workflow is digesting data and decision making - they arent writing code or making slide decks. They just process emails, do product review and look at data and conclusions. For them, the iPad is perfect because all those workflows are easily completed on an iPad.
I think the iPad will get there eventually - the type of creation that is done will shift somewhat, and the tools will get better, but for now, even the most dedicated folks have a hard time using an iPad exclusively.
Well, considering it isn't designed as a primary content creation device, not a surprising result (which so many of us have tried despite knowing this). Next experiment: To consume content primarily on a non-tablet non-phone for a week. (It will fail a comparable way.) No matter how much you squeeze an apple, no matter how tasty the results, you won't get orange juice.
We already see the value in responsive web design, which is also in it's infancy. Eventually, we will have responsive operating systems, applications, and maybe even hardware.
Whole experience convinced me that if I was do do it again I'd get something like a Chromebook or Netbook.
There's no real way to drive the iPad using only a keyboard and you have to reach for the screen too many times e.g. flicking between document being edited and a reference PDF or presentation.
Pages on the iPad has some really weird quirks that I've not got to the bottom of e.g. copy some text from a table cell, paste it into the document elsewhere and it's still a table cell with no way to remove the formatting - eventually copied it all out an stuck with markdown (but need to port it back at some point).
Well, considering it isn't designed as a primary content creation device, not a surprising result (which so many of us have tried despite knowing this). Next experiment: To consume content primarily on a non-tablet non-phone for a week. (It will fail a comparable way.) No matter how much you squeeze an apple, no matter how tasty the results, you won't get orange juice.
The convergence of the PC and the tablet is inevitable. The awkward solutions that have been presented thus far are simply prototypes. We will eventually get it right, and when we do, the resulting experience will seem like it should have been the obvious choice from the start. We already see the value in responsive web design, which is also in it's infancy. Eventually, we will have responsive operating systems, appl…
Well, considering it isn't designed as a primary content creation device, not a surprising result (which so many of us have tried despite knowing this). Next experiment: To consume content primarily on a non-tablet non-phone for a week. (It will fail a comparable way.) No matter how much you squeeze an apple, no matter how tasty the results, you won't get orange juice.
Why? I broke my Iphone at the end of last year (dropped on floor, no visible damage, severely damaged touch sensor). I didn't repair it until March/April, and used an older regular cellphone. I did quite alright, and found that for me most of my Iphone usage is unnecessary. The old phone handled talking and texting just as it did pre-Iphone.
I did repair before a short holiday. I wanted to use it as a point-and-shoot, a gps tracker and a means to get information from the internet since I went without a computer. Therein is, for me, the greatest use of an Iphone. When I'm home I have no trouble moving from the couch to the computer (yeah, not even a laptop).
The big limitation is the number of unique single-step interactions that can be performed by the user. With mouse + keyboard, you have ~100 keys, >=2 mouse buttons, and enough screen real estate to afford at least several hundred unique clickable areas. On a touchscreen, our fat fingers limit the number of unique tappable/swipable areas to, depending on screen real estate, maybe 50. There just isn't as much information that can be expressed in one interaction, and breaking the task into multiple interactions causes cogitive overhead and discomfort for the user.
I wish we all had really small hands so we fit an appropriately scaled keyboard in the footprint of a smartphone, or something. But that ain't gonna happen. So, I guess... Innovate or die! But here I have a fear that modern keyboards have so much lock-in that when better input devices arise, people will be afraid of switching to them.