Andrew McAfee is a smart guy who focuses on Enterprise 2.0, including (literally) writing the book on the topic. In his most recent post, he points to recent criticisms of the iPad by Cory Doctorow, Tim Bray and Jonathan Zittrain. He takes them to task for their hyperbole, and he's right that their language is colorful to say the least. But he also asks, "What do you think? Am I missing something important and nefarious about the iCosystem? Or are you with me in thinking that it fosters innovation rather than stifling it?"
Certainly the iPad will foster innovation, in three important ways. First, it will help drive development of new types of media experiences that integrate text, images, video and sound in interactive media that we have (so far) only experienced in computer games. On devices like the iPad, you might still say "I'm reading an article" but you will also be interacting with the content dynamically, in a manner that's unique to you, your context, and your behavior patterns. I'm with the crowd that says that the iPad - and its descendants - will change the way we consume content, as well as changing the content itself. If you agree with Marshall McLuhan that the medium is the message, then you ignore the iPad at your peril.
Additionally - and just as importantly - the iPad, like all portable computing devices from smartphones to netbooks, will drive our "stuff" further "into the cloud" (or various clouds, depending on your view of cloud computing). More devices in your life means more of your "stuff" must exist as continuously updated, immediately accessible, online "stuff" that all your devices can access and synchronize with. (This, by the way, is an interpretation of "cloud" that's different from what enterprise architects and IT professionals talk about "cloud computing." So pardon the ambiguity, but please don't blame me for it.)
Lastly, the iPad, like the iPhone, will give a kick to the rest of the e-Readers, tablet netbooks, and god-knows-what-else that's coming down the pike with a screen, a chip and an antenna. Sure, the iPad is beating them all up now, but in time there will be alternatives that - for various reasons - will appeal to some folks more than the iPad (or in addition to it). No matter how good the iPad is, there will be other successful devices, and that's a Good Thing.
Having said all that, I'm also on board with the iPad's critics. As an end user, I hate the idea of giving up rights that I currently enjoy with my "old" media. Why can't I loan an item of "my" content to a friend? Oh, I see, because it's not really mine. It's Apple's. Or somebody's. Just not mine, that's for sure. Developers of content for the device have it even harder. Yes, Steve Jobs tells us that the vast majority of applications are approved, and the ones that aren't approved are almost all due to a violation of one of three very clear rules. But the Apple developer ecosystem will always have a tinge of frustration. That's not going away.
Remember when Kindle owners suddenly found "their" books had disappeared from their devices last year, and it gave everybody pause? It's one thing for HBO to end "The Sopranos" and not run it in syndication. It's entirely another thing for HBO executives to come into your house and take the Sopranos DVD collection that you bought at Costco last year. Apple knows - and you do too - that the iPad experience only works if you feel like the "owner" of the stuff on your iPad, just as you are the owner of your books, magazines and CDs. But fundamentally that's just not the case.
While Professor McAfee rightly points out that the very unhackable iPad violates a kind of "Geek Ethos" there are two other non-geeky reasons to dislike the iPad.
First, the iPad is a one-way device. It does a pretty good job of delivering the stuff we like to do on the computer that involves consumption of content. But it's worse in a number of ways when it comes to producing and sharing. Obviously the lack of a keyboard, camera, etc. are a part of the problem, but the bias toward consumption is very fundamental to the whole iPad concept. The iPad is designed for Internet couch potatoes.
This is ironic and frustrating at the same time, because Apple's first home-run technology - the Mac - is the opposite in so many ways. For non-technical users, Apple really created the first personal computer for people that wanted to just plug it in, switch it on, and start using it to organize and edit photos and video, compile digital music libraries, build Web sites and even create music. Apple's free, built-in applications on the Mac literally delight average people and incite them to engage in creative activity, with little things like Photo Booth. Have you ever put a child in front of a Mac with Photo Booth running? Better than a video game.
You might prefer tools other than the ones Apple gives you (for free) on your Mac, and you're in luck there too. Because creative professionals have used Macs since the beginning, the high-powered creative tools - and the simply nifty little things - are all available on the Mac. On the Web, the Mac is the quintessential two-way machine. We use it for consuming, sure, but also creating and sharing.
And that brings us to the second problem with the iPad. If only it sucked. But it doesn't. Microsoft's latest phone (the Kin) sucks, but nobody is angry at Microsoft for making a bad phone. But Apple, oh Apple. They brought their game to the iPad. The industrial design is awesome. The user interaction is elegant. The process of finding and acquiring apps and content is seamless. And that's the truly infuriating thing about the iPad - it's the amazingly beautiful woman (or handsome guy) that wants to go back to your place, but later you find your wallet's gone.
The iPad is so beautiful and well made, you can only hate it for intellectual reasons, because the device itself gives gadget-lust to everybody who picks it up. If you really have problems with Apple's vice grip on the content, or you resent a device that could have inspired creativity but instead encourages passivity, the iPad makes you feel like you stumbled across the best steak restaurant in town the day after you became a vegetarian. And that frustration is the emotion that drives the anti-iPad brouhaha.
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