The iPad isn't a computer, it's a distribution channel - O'Reilly Radar. “You don’t want your phone to be an open platform…” and with that brief statement, Apple justified the closed iPhone and then quickly followed it with the monitored and controlled app store. But Steve, the iPad isn’t a phone at all so why not open it up again? If people are concerned about the safety of their apps or need you to protect them from porn, you can do an “app store approved” program or something can’t you? And really, do we even need an app store to tell us which apps are good in an era of ubiquitous user feedback and preferential attachment? The thing is, Jobs’ argument was always a bit disingenuous. The bottom line is that the iPhone was a relatively open phone and we accepted it, but the iPad is a relatively closed computer, and that’s a bummer. Microsoft in the 1980s was the perfect business. The music industry worked the same way.
The last decade has been tough on business models like these though. In this context the iPad isn’t a computing device at all. « La tablette Apple, c’est un peu le minitel 2.0 » Marin Dacos, ingénieur de recherche au CNRS et directeur du Centre pour l’édition électronique ouverte (Cléo) (1) analyse la stratégie d’Apple. Que vous inspire la frénésie autour de l’iPad? Elle a un côté idolâtre et consumériste. Il existe dans notre société une attente forte et un suspense autour d’un objet définitif et sauveur qui résoudra tous les problèmes. Cela rassure l’industrie qui a du mal à penser le multimodal. L’édition mise sur les liseuses, comme le Kindle, un objet dédié qui mime le livre lui-même. L’édition électronique n’est pas palpable. Or, on a besoin de représentations, de savoir où on va ranger le contenu.
Pourquoi l’objet paraît-il prometteur? Les acteurs imaginent que l’iPad va réintroduire un contrôle du marché. Et concernant le livre numérique? Il faut replacer la question de l’iPad dans la problématique du trio Apple-Amazon-Google, qui constitueraient trois hubs à l’échelle mondiale de diffusion de textes électroniques. Lire les réactions à cet article. iPad: The First Real Family Computer. With the iPad’s arrival this weekend, a holiday weekend for many Americans, this new iPad owner had the chance to see the device in action. In fact, “see” is the operative word here. Not, “play with myself,” as is the case with most new tech gadgets I purchase. Instead, I simply watched from a distance as, over the course of the day, the iPad found its way into the hands of nearly every family member from ages 4 months to 87 years old. The incredible thing? After hearing the hoopla from the iPad launch, the crowd of “not-so-early” adopters has likely been left wondering if this is a case of media over-hype or if something revolutionary has truly occurred.
You already know what the iPad can do: apps, games, eBooks (or rather, iBooks), media and so on. A Day in the Life of an iPad The morning after the iPad’s arrival – incidentally Easter Sunday here in the U.S. – I spent the first half hour of my day with the iPad in one hand and a baby bottle in the other. Morning Newspaper.