I have a friend. Let’s call him Larry. That’s actually pretty easy because his name IS Larry. Larry has been a long time Mac zealot – perhaps the biggest I have ever met. Larry has been convinced forever that Macs are inherently better than any other technology. While I’ve been able to agree with him grudgingly on mp3 music players, I have never been able to justify the price premium for a Mac computer or iPhone. Perhaps Larry knows something I don’t. Or perhaps Larry just needs to be cooler than I do.
You see, I was brought up that substance is more important than form. It seems only logical, and it’s a pretty good thing to teach my children. In the technology world, that has equated to function over form. No matter how nice a Mac looked (and they do look nice), I could always find a PC based application that did whatever the Mac could do. And always at a lower price point. I was resigned to living my life on the non-cool side of the technology street.
But last week another friend gave me an iPad. I had actually been looking to buy one. This was one technology that intrigued me. My function over form upbringing had me a little sceptical of my friends who insisted using one was a life-changing experience, but I was still intrigued.
So I spent the weekend with the iPad. What I found was that the actual function was pretty good. I found data entry through the keyboard a little clunky, I still can’t always touch exactly the right spot on the screen and I seemed to have the display upside down quite a bit, but those are minor points. The unit browses the web, shows videos, plays music and games really well and I found some interesting apps to download (quickly and easily and install without rebooting the machine). But in terms of pure function there was nothing new or terribly interesting here.
But then I realized that I was using the iPad in new and different ways that I wasn’t used to. It sat on the kitchen table or counter, always available. Using it to check the weather or the sports scores was significantly faster than turning on the TV, radio or certainly than waiting for a PC to boot up. I read my morning paper on the iPad. My daughter and I searched for and used a recipe with the iPad at the kitchen counter. All while taking up very little room and responding with instant-on connectivity.
What I realized was that Form EQUALS Function in this case. I didn’t find that the iPad does anything new. But because of its form factor, I’m doing things in new ways. I’m still not inclined to buy a Mac, but I will be keeping the iPad.