Of iPad and the elusive "third category"

Apple's chief says iPad will sit comfortably in the space between smart-phones and laptops -- except that such space probably doesn't exist | IslamOnline.net

Whenever Steve Jobs takes the stage, he’s guaranteed to amaze and disappoint, regardless of what he has up his sleeve.  The Wednesday uncovering of Apple’s long-anticipated, feverishly-rumored tablet-like iPad was no exception.  Almost immediately after Apple’s chief took the wraps off the new gadget, the blogosphere was humming with mutterings: too expensive; no slot for memory expansion; no removable battery; no physical keyboard; and no camera either.

As for the other camp, the immediately-amazed — judging by the volume and tone of comments on popular technology websites such as Engadget and Gizmodo — they’ve plenty to appreciate in the iPad.  That includes the expansive 10-inch brilliant screen, the familiar interface (resembling, but not copying, that of iPhone and iPod Touch), the compatibility of the whole repertoire of iPhone apps, and the new iBooks app that draws books from five major book publishers in an iTunes-like interface.

The immediately amazed and the (temporarily) disappointed, however, have a lot in common despite appearances to the contrary.  Both camps have extremely high expectations from Apple.  The difference is that the former get dazzled by what they see and fall in love with Apple’s new gadgets at first sight, whereas the latter persist in demanding perfection or near-perfection.

Most gadget-enthusiasts are unlikely to fall into either category.  They weigh, with cool heads, the merits of each new computing device in light of its price and its “added value” (the specific addition, in terms of productivity and/or entertainment, to be gained from the new device).  And it’s for this “weighing” majority, the “middle-class” of technology-enthusiasts social structure, that analyses and reviews are written.  The immediately-amazed and perfection-demanders often buy the stuff anyway.

Clearly, there are no hard and fast rules as to the value of any new gadget.  The productivity-entertainment equation varies from user to user.  Still, the unveiling of iPad offers hints with respect to the direction that personal computing devices are taking.  Shedding light on those hints may prove useful to the cautious and the out-and-out gadget enthusiasts alike.

The Third Category

Like its peers in the major league of computing (think Google and Microsoft), Apple has a special status: it can simultaneously predict and help determine the direction of personal computing.  For  instance, by making its search engine widely available on all kinds of devices, from phones to computers, Google responds to predicted demand, and at the same time reinforces it.

IPad appears to follow that pattern. It comes in the wake of two years of spectacular success for the so-called “netbooks,” laptops with small displays (10 inches or less), and modest processing power, but light-weight and with higher-than-average battery life, all in a package usually priced under $500.  In this sense, iPad, which is poised to compete essentially with netbooks, answers an existing demand, a demand likely to continue into the future.

On the other hand, iPad is potentially aimed at establishing a touch-based device (or more broadly, the touch interface) as the new norm in computing devices.  The searing success of Apple’s iPhone and iPod Touch renders such endeavor less a risk than a logical next step.

Identity Crisis

A logical next step, perhaps, but with plenty of question marks.  Chief among these is where to fit the iPad in the grand food chain of computing devices.   There is the smartphone, with displays of three to four inches, through which one can check email, browse the Web, update calendar, and occasionally make phone calls.  And there is the laptop, which can do all the aforementioned tasks, plus composing documents and editing pictures, along with a whole host of other functions.  And suddenly Asus and Acer,  a South Korea-based and a Taiwan-based companies, respectively, discovered that users have an appetite for low-priced, light-weight computers that do the things that phones  do, but more efficiently. 

The only opening for iPad, thus, is the “netbook” slot, the middle-of-the-road device that is more powerful than the phone (even the now-legendary iPhone), but more affordable, weight- and rice-wise, than regular laptops.

In front of this positioning question, Apple’s chief was not subtle.  “Do we have what it takes to establish a third category?” Jobs asked, rhetorically, as he beamed with broad smiles to the uninterrupted stream of camera clicks, before he himself quickly answered in the affirmative.

The only problem is that the “third category” (the intermediate device between phones and laptops) has proved particularly elusive over the past decade.  Microsoft, for instance, has for several years now been struggling to popularize the ultra-mobile PC concept, or what it dubs the Origami Project — with little success.  Nokia too has the Linux-based N900 ‘mobile computer,” which, like Origami, has an
identity crisis.

Part of that crisis is that users didn’t seem interested in a middle-of-the-road device.  If it’s neither a smartphone nor a laptop, it’s largely unwanted.  Or so the situation appeared until two gadgets (or rather gadget concepts) emerged over the past two years: the netbook and the book e-reader Kindle from Amazon. The Kindle proved that users were willing to pay for a computing device that is neither a smartphone nor a laptop because of its eye-friendly e-ink display (which, unlike regular LCD screens, does not strain the eye) and its built-in link with the Amazon gigantic book store.  The “netbook” proved popular, apparently, because it offered good enough features at significantly lower prices than regular laptops, as low as $250.

As iPad splashes on the scene, with the ability to (dis)play everything from books, to video, to music, to pictures, to text documents and spreadsheets, it may indeed stand a chance of capturing that elusive third-category mantle.  But not without a fight with competent competitors.  Amazon’s Kindle, despite its backward design, remains superior to iPad by its text-friendly e-ink display and the backing of Amazon’s bookstore.  Netbooks --  from the likes of Dell, Acer, HP, among others -- still have the price and familiarity advantages, all of which often sell in the $350 range, while iPad’s entry model is priced at $500 and can go into the vicinity of $900.

On top of that, iPad does not have the same pioneering advantage that iPhone enjoyed.  The touch-based interface of iPhone shocked competitors, from Nokia to LG and Research in Motion (of the Blackberry) into catching up on the touch front.  Now many, including Google, have touch-compatible operating systems and devices that can, with little tweaking, quickly mimic whatever Apple may offer, at lower prices.

The third category that Apple’s chief claimed he has locked up for his iPad thus remains an open field.   The future of that category will hinge on whether certain types of content (like books or newspapers) will prove more at home on those devices than elsewhere.