The Teckki Says

I went to what I will term as a geek show last week, where a content producer/developer did a presentation on how he migrated from developing web applications to iPhone apps. While most of the presentation was truly one for the geeks, the conclusions I drew from it has implications that will begin in earnest on April 3rd, when Apple ships its first iPad.

Flat out, it will be a great device. If you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, then you have a good idea of what you will be purchasing with the iPad. For those of us whose big fingers and failing eye sight wearied of the smaller screens, the iPad will be a welcomed addition. iPhone users will have to get used to the fact that they can't make phone calls, but maps, documents and websites will be much more readable. But I learned while Apple has added a larger device, the inability to do things we take for granted with web browsing, presentations and custom applications will be become more clear, limiting the device's application for business.

As a web developer, I would love nothing better than to use an iPad to show off work in front of a customer or prospect. In particular, I would like to show off the best stuff, which involves some animation using Flash animation. Apple deliberately excludes Flash from working on its products, which means that you'll see a Lego-brick like icon in the place of anything developed in Flash. This means is that many website intro screens, navigation, slide shows, forms, games, video and music, and in some cases, whole websites, will not appear on the iPad, as they do not appear on the iPhone and iPod today. If I am doing a sales presentation of websites and you see a bunch of Lego-bricks, the focus will instantly move from a cool and exciting device to thoughts of my competency. I can kiss that sale good bye.

You too, might think of using this device as a selling tool. You can take an order while you are out in the field, then email the order back to the office. This works fine if basically all you want to replace is a paper-based form with an electronic one. But eventually, you may want to tie your orders into inventory, or some other back-end database. Nothing I saw in the presentation said that Apple has changed its development environment to allow for this, or other file sharing beyond email and WiFi. This is akin to saving on diskettes and sharing between computers, very, very old school! In most cases, apps don't have the ability to share data, so if you find an order form app you like, but it does not include a spreadsheet app that you do like, the really cool apps will be the ones you wished for, leaving you with a great device, but limited functionality.

I live in a mixed environment of Apples and PC's, and it is not always pretty. Also, PC guys and gals are usually an Apple-apathetic crowd, except they love their iPhones. Enjoy them, yes, develop for them, heavens no! Apple developers are still a tiny minority of the market. Reminding you of the laws of supply and demand, they are in short supply. The iPad will ensure that they are in huge demand.

The iPad, like the iPod and the iPhone, are great personal devices. However, they are not iMacs, Macbooks, PC's, laptops or netbook replacements. Some readers will vehemently disagree with me, asserting that they can do most things that a personal computer can do, especially when there are hundreds of thousands of apps available. The argument sounds convincing until you think about the fact that all of the other computing devices are capable of operating as standalone computers. For the trio of iPhone/iPod/iPad devices the sync cord is part of the product, not an optional device.