Paul Thurrott: ‘Understanding iPad’

Paul Thurrott, yesterday:

Flaws and all, the iPad is indeed in a class all by itself. It’s a new kind of computing device.

Thurrott, back on April 3:

Anyone who believes this thing is a game changer is a tool.

I guess you can argue he was correct both times.

A few more bits from this latest piece:

When you go out and about with just an iPad, you’re sending a message that you’re not going to contribute. You’re just there to consume. This is why the iPad is, to my mind, uniquely unsuitable in the workplace.

The old “it’s for mindless consumption, not creation” angle.

And if you present the iPad as the next generation of a category of devices that previously included the Tablet PC and Ultra-Mobile PC (UMPC), someone will point out the iPad’s lack of pen input, handwriting recognition capabilities, and general PC usage. (And of course most Apple people don’t even know that Microsoft and its partners had been innovating in this market for a decade already anyway.)

Microsoft led the way to the iPad, they just happen to have nothing on the market or even on the horizon that competes with it.

★ Tuesday, 1 June 2010