History's Take on Steve?

Since Steve Jobs’ resignation as CEO of Apple last week, the tech press has gone completely wild with retrospectives. Being the Apple fanboy that I am, I spent an inordinate amount of time reading, watching and listening to all the media had to say. From favorite Steve quotes and reporters’ personal anecdotes to complete synopses of his life and career, the tech world was literally abuzz covering what was arguably the biggest technology story of the year. Frankly, the tone ranged from playful to funereal and everything in between. Amongst all this noise I came to the the realization that the real story here has hardly been touched: How will history judge Steve Jobs?

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And Now, A Real iPad Prediction...

I’ve spent the last couple of days combing through all the fuzz and digesting Wednesday’s iPad announcement.  I probably listened to 8 hours of punditry on top of watching the recording of the event itself.  I’ve read Mossberg, Pogue, Doctorow and the like to see what their vision of the iPad looked like.  My last post questioned whether or not Steve Jobs had another homer in his well-worn bat and after all this pondering I think I’ve come to a moment of clarity concerning the iPad.

This is rev 1 of a true game-changer!  The iPad is the device I think Mr. Jobs has always wanted to make.  It just took until now for the technology to catch up to his vision of a ubiquitous computing appliance.  Something powerful, something easy, something beautiful, something fun.  A computing device that is as comfortable on a coffee table as it is on a boardroom table.  A device that does 90% of what anyone would want it to do and as easy for my grandmother to use as it is for me.  In short, this is a device that will appeal to everyone.  People who would never consider sitting on a sofa with a laptop, people that can’t bear dragging out a computer while sitting in coach on an airplane, people that skip a step while making a new recipe because they didn’t want to stop and look up an ingredient list, people that prefer pen and paper to take notes in class because a laptop is too bulky, too distracting or just too inconvenient, people who are intimidated by computers in general plus people like me.  You know, geeks.  I can’t think of anyone who would not want an iPad, especially at $499!

For us geeks the realization of a truly functional device like the fictitious ones wielded by the Enterprise crew is almost a dream come true.  We would buy one just to fulfill our fantasies.  For Apple fans, all the iPad needs is the logo.  Done deal.  For everyone else, the iPad’s potential for practical use and unparalleled convenience will eventually win them over.  It may take a while, but sooner or later applications will be written that pull everyone’s particular chain.  The possibilities are truly limitless.

For all these reasons I predict iPad sales will make even the astronomical iPhone numbers pale by comparison.  Some day we will look back on January 27^th, 2010 as the day everyone became part of the technological revolution.