By now, everyone has heard of Apple’s new iPad. Google quickly followed up with an announcement that they would bring the ChromeOS to a tablet. Tablets are really nothing new, since even Apple in the 1990s had the Newton, which was far too large to be considered a PDA by recent standards. Even touchscreens, the darling wonder of the iPhone and iPod Touch, have been in use with restaurant and checkout point-of-sale systems for years–sometimes in conjunction with computers running DOS! Sure, everyone wants colors and games and music, but are ebooks really the defining feature of tablets?
One thing is for certain: without innovation on the part of the greater community, tablets will remain a static way to consume information, and serve as an entertainment kiosk. One Lifehacker editorial pointed out the Achilles’ heel nicely–the iPad is a completely closed system. Gone are the days of kids at home programming apps and hacks for their computers. All roads lead to the app store, and sure you can sign up for the developer’s program with a little help from your parents and a lawyer, but you still have to program apps on a separate computer and sync constantly or use a simulator to see what you’re getting. In order for tablets to bring something new to the table, innovation needs to continue outside of a closed system.
It’s true, the closed silo of Apple is the antithesis of Jobs’ own roots. Gone are the days of every local haker putting software in a brown bag for sale at the local electronics stores. While I’m not sure the world needs the 2010 version of Miami Ice givign free access to a platform inspires gifted developers and brings loyalty to the new.
Perhaps in the days of rapid iteration nerd loyalty is no longer needed to build a credible developer base. Programmers aren’t working out of their garage and users aren’t the developers themselves but the general buying public.
Maybe Apple isn’t so far off after all.