What is the iPad, really?
I could just tell you but where would the fun be? If an Agatha Christie novel started with "The butler killed the Lord of the Manor" you would be dealing with a "Columbo" situation and not a murder mystery. Maybe you like "Columbo" and the ceaseless repetition of "One last question ..." but I don't and I'm writing this.
My thought process started at the time that Apple decided to ban 3rd party adverts in iPad/iPhone applications gathering "analytics". They also banned applications from gathering "analytics" as well. "Analytics" are statistics on when and how many times something happens. For example many application developers like to know how often their application is used, which parts are used the most, which parts the least etc. If a part of an application is not being used the developer then needs to determine why? Is it because that bit is too complex or too hard? Or is it because it really isn't that useful? Advertisers like to know how often their advert is clicked and as much data about the person doing the clicking as possible so that they can target adverts as accurately as possible. With newspapers an magazines advertisers have no idea how many people actually read them - online stats are like mana from heaven.
I read an article on Daring Fireball regarding the war between Google and Apple, the author stating that Google started the war when it launched Android. Apple's latest salvo in the war is basically banning Google from displaying adverts within applications on the iPhone/iPad or any company whose sole business is not mobile adverts.
This got me thinking about open competition. At first is seemed silly and anti-competitive for Apple to ban third party companies from advertising in third party applications. Before a developer can can get an application onto the iPhone/iPad they must first sign up for the developer program at a cost US$99 even if the application is to be given away for free. The developer can submit as many applications for their $US99 fee and if they get through Apple's bizarre acceptance process they then join the other 220,000 (mostly worthless) applications vying for public attention.
Apple are also very restrictive in the tools that developers can use to build applications on the iPhone/iPad. Basically you can only use the tools that Apple supplies - no one else's.
The top man at Apple, Steve Jobs, recently wrote a piece that claimed the iPhone/iPad were "open" because they came with a web browser. The reality is that the system is closed except via a very narrow corridor that has an entrance fee and hefty bouncers standing should to shoulder making sure you follow the dress code to the letter - no trainers!
And it was at this point that the penny dropped - the iPad/iPhone are in fact portable games consoles. Just because the iPad looks like a personal computer, it isn't. It is a closed system with a web browser - just like the PSP, PS3, Nintendo Wii/DS and XBox. All these systems are basically closed - you have to use the software on offer, developers have to pay to enter and the parent company will decide on all matters - important and trivial.
As both a nerd and a geek I want my computers "open" in both terms of software and hardware. I want to be able to install whatever software I want, when I want. I want to be able to update my hardware as well. I don't though, feel the same way about my microwave. It has 12 programs, although I only use one - full power and I would never dream of taking it to bits in an attempt to "upgrade" it.
So actually the iPad is a domestic appliance - like a washing machine or a microwave, albeit a very advanced one. When you think of it in those terms the closed nature of the product becomes self evident. Also the spin of Steve Jobs and Apple is shown for what it is. Calling the iPad "revolutionary" is all well and good, so was the microwave oven when it first came out.
Apple products are still superior to those made by other companies simply because the user comes first. It will take many years for other companies to catch up due to the simple reason that most tech companies haven't worked out why we love our microwaves - they just work and they are really simple to use. In the technology field the only person who has the vision is Mark Shuttleworth of Ubuntu.
P.S. The games console thing was a red herring. You don't get red herrings in "Columbo"!