subject: iPad 2 will end rotary dial days [print this page] iPad 2 will end rotary dial days iPad 2 will end rotary dial days
Uncovering an ancient artifact today got me thinking about the impact the iPad 2 will have on the evolution of the tablet era. Packing up is when you come across possessions you haven't seen in awhile, and in my case today that was my first generation iPod from back in 2001. I can't make up my mind what's more impressive: that the iPlatform has evolved so astoundingly in just nine years, or that we were so deeply into the technology dark ages back then that we ever thought the first iPod was high tech. And so with my first generation iPod now sitting on my desk next to my first generation iPad, it occurs to me that even as absurdly primitive as that first iPad now seems, give it another nine years and I'll be pulling out this here iPad and wondering how we could ever have thought it was high tech either. The remarkable part is that with the technological an innovation curves accelerating, it won't take anywhere near nine generations for the first iPad to look like a mere artifact in comparison. In fact, we could see that happen as soon as the iPad 2.
As primitive as the first generation iPod was, it's surprising in hindsight that it didn't evolve more quickly. After all, the first iPoddid have a rotary wheel on the front which you had to spin in a circle with your finger (try getting you teenage kids to believe that today, as they tap away on their ninth generation iPod known as the iPod touch 4). The iPad, as it stands now, has no such obvious deficiencies to overcome. No interface borrowed from the nineteenth century. No low resolution black and white screen. No physically gigantic hard drive inside which didn't hold much of anything. And yet when you look at the iPad as it is, this is a would-be computer which still can't easily print, has no real document management, and up until last month had trouble handling more than one email account. So it's easy to see which directions the iPad 2 is apt to run in, and yet what's fascinating is just how much of that list of obvious next-gen iPad advancements comes in the form of operating system development.
