Programming Windows: iPad (Premium)

On Wednesday, January 27, 2010, Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad, realizing his years-long vision of leapfrogging Microsoft’s Tablet PC. In doing so, he created a new category of devices that could sit somewhere between a smartphone and a laptop. And, as importantly, he positioned Apple as a mobile devices company since, by that point, its three main products---iPhones, iPads, and Mac laptops---were all mobile devices. "It turns out that, by revenue, Apple is the largest mobile devices company in the world,” he noted of the shift.

The iPad was an open secret by the time Jobs announced the product, but that had the odd effect of amping up the excitement, not diminishing it. But Steve Jobs got things off an odd note that should have triggered more questions than it did at the time.

“All of us use laptops and smartphones now,” he said at the start of the keynote. “And the question has arisen, lately, is there room for a third category of device in the middle? Something that’s between a laptop and a smartphone.”

The question had … arisen?

Actually, this question had never arisen anywhere outside of Apple’s secretive product development labs. Various startups had attempted to create computer tablets in the early 1990s, only to be derailed by Bill Gates and his vaporware WinPad announcements. And Gates himself had later championed the Tablet PC as a new premium portable PC experience that was originally based around smartpens and handwriting recognition. That latter product had first shipped in 2001 and had seen only moderate success. But as Jobs well knew, it was an irritating Microsoft executive, touting the Tablet PC at Jobs’ 50th birthday party, who had triggered his desire to create an Apple tablet that could defeat Microsoft. And that this work had been put to the side after he decided that Apple should focus on smartphones first.

The real question Jobs was asking was whether Apple could take what it had learned from the iPhone and iPod touch and make a larger, book-sized product with the same basic form factor and technologies. And by 2010, the answer was a resounding yes. And rather than justify it based on whether it could simply exist in the marketplace, Jobs at least turned to a list of things that this new device had to do as well as, if not better than, a laptop or smartphone.

“The bar is pretty high,” he said. “In order to really create a new product category of devices, those devices are going to have to be far better at doing some key tasks … at doing some really important things. Better than the laptop. And better than the smartphone.” Those tasks included browsing the web, doing email, enjoying and sharing photographs, watching videos, enjoying your music collection, playing games, and reading eBooks.

Jobs noted that “some people” thought that the Netbook was this device. The Netbook was a low-cost PC that originally arrived running Linux in order to shave cos...

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