Before this device even came out the guys over at Apple knew what a gold mine this device was going to be. With today’s results one can already see the changes in the design community to accommodate this new device. Web/iPad standards have been set this product is cross platform friendly and it is clear that it will continue to push the design community to accommodate for it to be cross-platform friendly.
Consumers of all ages are getting savvier and savvier about technology to the point where yes my parents own an iPad and yet I still have not yet purchased one. Will I? Probably it will be a present for the holidays if anything but the point is that consumers the ones who have the money and spend are buying these en-masse. But why is this news? Today, Apple doubled their profit. I am not claiming to be a financial guru but if anything is for sure this impacts the interactive design community. While Apple and the iPad & iPhone are not Flash friendly, the impact is clear it pretty much defeats the purpose of using Flash for a mass audience stand alone website or for an advertisement unless its only shown for web users or for specific mobile or specific pad devices. And that has forced businesses to design for each platform, web/iPad, Android Pads ( Flash Friendly ) , iPhones, & for all other mobile users. Designing for specific platforms is costly and timely, and the future is clear being cross browser friendly is cost effective and easier to manage.
I am going to go a bit off tangent: Focusing purely on the future, my bet is the iPad is going to launch a full scale invasion into the living room with new applications. Xfinity TV & Fios both started to scratch the surface of that by creating applications to watch and record shows. Additionally, on the business to business side it is clear that applications can help sell products and subscriptions, and the every day brick and mortar shops could clearly benefit from using them as an email/social media newsletter sign-up platform. And for college students, its only a matter of time before the publishing industry stops killing so many darn trees and just out right asks students to be able to have an e-reader before the semester begins.
What do you think is the iPad King, or is this still just a 24.67 billion dollar a quarter fad? And do you think the new Intel pads will be even capable of competing or denting the iPad demand?
Btw to those hardcore fans of Android and Blackberry, I would love to know your thoughts about the mobile, and pad markets.
Just to end with a cool new use for the iPad: I noticed Wacom just started selling high quality pens for iPad. Pretty cool, they are clearly paying attention to the 2,000,000 plus iPad users.
