Why the iPad matters more than anyone understands. (except for Bill Gates)

Many are indifferent to yesterdays news that Apple has launched its long-awaited tablet computer. Many more are having a poo-poo party claiming the product it a bust, a failure, an unnecessary toy that no one will buy... I have read multiple blogs and tech articles discussing the fact that it's too big to fit into your pocket but too small to use effectively as a laptop replacement. Others complain that it is just a giant iPhone and that it's useless because of the virtual keyboard not being as good as the real thing.   Where's the mouse?  How do I hold it?  Does it have a CD-Rom?

I am telling you right here, right now, that Apple's iPad will cause an irreversible shift in the technology zeitgeist.  And ironically it was predicted by none other than Steve Jobs' arch-nemesis, Bill Gates.

Bill Gates has been carrying a tablet computer everywhere he goes for eons, and in fact, back in 2001 Gates told CNN, "...within five years I predict it (the tablet PC) will be the most popular form of PC sold in America."

Now while his timing may have been off by a few years, he was right. Sadly for him, the platform that would make the revolution finally stick was not to be PC/Windows based - Steve Jobs has again taken the cigar out of Bill's mouth and dropped it into his brandy snifter...

Truth be told, the launch of the Apple tablet was not yesterday at all - it was launched in June of 2007 under the name iPhone/iPod Touch. While Apple had already successfully revolutionized the way people buy and consume music thanks to the original iPod franchise, iPhone and iPod Touch opened the door to the idea of pocket-mobile software, games, movies and television.

Just 30 short months later Apple has sold well over 100 million iPhone/iPod Touch units.  Over 125 million iTunes accounts are open and 3 billion Apps have been downloaded from the App-store.  While touch-screen multi-touch interfaces were unproven and new, Apple executed the technology perfectly, stylishly and delivered it to the masses.  And more significantly,  their faithful community backed it up with innovative and limitless content in the form of media, software and games.  (Light-saber app anyone?)

And this is the key to the importance of the iPad - iPad is not a "gadget," but like iPhone it is a platform - a whole new realm open to developers and designers.    And just as important, it will once and for all break through the conventional thinking in UI (User Interface) design.

Hard to imagine a world without mice and keyboards?  Get used to the idea...  

The coming years will be alive with incredible new ideas in the form of software apps, peripherals and accessories that we never imagined possible.  Minority Report-style interfaces powered by pico-projectors and word processing  powered by voice recognition are surely not far around the corner. The content will evolve just as rapidly as the interfaces making the marriage of man and machine more natural, more human.

And while iPad is busy introducing all kinds of new ideas and experiences into our living rooms, cars, offices and public transit systems, it will inevitably influence the way humans interface with all machines.

I sure hope Bill Gates sends a thank you note to Steve for finally getting the message out about tablet computing...

That's my opinion, should be yours too.

(PS - I missed Michael Pollan on Oprah today...sure would be nice if I could just grab my iPad and log into my cable provider to download it...  think my next blog will be completely devoted to the long overdue demise of the traditional cable-TV distribution model)