An incomplete slice of the Apple Pie

Thu 28 January 2010

An incomplete slice of the apple pie






















Image sourced from: Gear Fuse

It’s difficult not to get caught up in all the hype surrounding the launch of the iPad. Whilst the specifications of the product have come as no real surprise (other than it not being called the iSlate) actually seeing the device in action brings with it a certain degree of excitement for most consumers.

I’m not sure I agree with Steve Jobs proclaiming that it has created a category, as arguably the Net Book has occupied this pseudo Smart Phone / Laptop space for sometime now. As one tweet suggested this morning ‘It’s a netbook in a cocktail dress’( @delic8genius). That said, it seems highly likely that the iPad will redefine a category and probably categories associated with it… Rich Content Books? Audio Visual Magazines? iPad sized Handbags/Man Bags anyone?

Probably the most frustrating part of the announcement from my perspective is a) The lack of Flash support (and therefore not a complete web browsing device) and b) That developers are still reliant on the Apple App Store for application distribution.

I have no problem with Apple wanting to take a cut of the application revenue stream but by forcing developers to use the App Store, Apple is largely forcing developers to focus on the Consumer application market and ignore the potential for Business users.

Here at Torque we are passionate about bringing our solutions to life through the development of bespoke web and desktop applications for our clients and we would relish the opportunity to put applications in Marketers hands through a device such as the iPad. It’s clear that the iPad’s primary target audience isn’t the business user, but how great would it be to put live Business Intelligence applications into the hands of employees on their device of choice (probably the iPad).

Of course, as with everything in the tech world, there are ways around this and techniques you can use to ensure that a business focused application on the app store can only be used by the intended users. However the fact remains that this closed and tightly controlled environment seems to go against the open source sentiment that has been at the heart of the development of the web over the last 10+ years.

DP

Author: Torque

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