The Teckki Says

In a recent article in Business Week, Can the Apple Touch Sell the Tablet?, explores the next attempt of technology (remember the first from Apple, the Newton?) to compute with the whole hand instead of just the fingers. The question may not just be can Apple pull it off, but what if they do?

The article suggests uses and losers. One thing for sure is that it will bring about transformed landscapes. If tablets become widespread, they will transform the way information is input into computing devices. Integrate a keyboard, mouse and a screen, and everything, from typing to point-and-click movements to screen viewing, goes through a transformation. It will take the new generation, those who did not grow up with the current technology, to sort things out.

However, some things won't wait. Web sites will have to be redesigned. For instance, small buttons that a mouse pointer could find with ease will have to be bigger, cutting into screen real estate, which will most likely be smaller. Animation will probably play more into web design, sacrificing maintainability and a customer's ability to self-modify their sites.

In other words, this technology has the potential to be revolutionary, taking the current-but-soon-to-be-obsolete way of doing things with it. Tablet computing will change an interaction that has been in place since Apple made the mouse widespread.