Impact of the iPad on the internet/society

Hi Michael,

Though we do not yet have an ipad in our household (I predict we will have 3 or 4 by the end of the year) I can tell you that the ipad is going to have a huge impact on computing, and hence society.

It is and will continue to change the way we access the world and store our stuff.

Businessmen and women will use them instead of a Franklin planner.

Students will carry them to class, able to look at text books, take notes and instantly access the greatest library in the world.

Which yes, can be abused, but what can't be.

If you read these forums, you can see people asking for ways to do things on their new ipads, they want folders in their operating systems, they want dvd players, on and on. The ipad will continue to morph and change and become a bigger part of computing in general.

This is just the beginning.

Good luck on your project.

Regards,

Tom

Hi Michael,

I think currently at the moment the iPad won't make much of an impact on society, but I think that it has a gratuitous amount of potential for the future. I can imagine students loading up textbooks, copying and pasting sections then swapping back to Pages to paste it in their essays (with iPhone OS 4.0), and small businesses using it to keep up stock checks among other things.

Once the iPad has opened up to a larger audience of people, I think that's when we will see the change.

I hope this has helped you out Michael.

Justin

Good luck on your project. As I read through the thread I began to wonder how much of technology has had "potential", but said potential never took off. Take all the futuristic products we've learned about and all the promises we've heard throughout our lives that never came to fruition, and try to determine why they failed and will the iPad follow suit. A slight twist on that would be an examination of examples of technology that have impacted our lives significantly but were never prognosticated to be game changers. Might be an interesting twist to your original thesis.

The iPad will eventually come to be recognized as one of the most important computer products ever released. The iPad has destroyed the eBook market and single-handedly KO'd the Kindle, a product that myself and many others awaited anxiously. Now the iPad is kicking dirt all over the once wildly popular PC-netbook market... and Nintendo just announced that Apple and the iPad is their newest, most dangerous source of future competition now that they have beaten Sony.

One product, so well designed that it is dominating or taking control of 3 (if not more) computer markets... and this is just the 1st gen iPad. Just wait...

quantum003 said:

...and Nintendo just announced that Apple and the iPad is their newest, most dangerous source of future competition now that they have beaten Sony...

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That was a rumor, and if true their target would be the iPhone OS, not the iPad.

Hey

I think the most important change could well come from apples new found war against adobe. The battle against flash on the web has really started to gain pace with the introduction of the ipad - it will be interesting to see what is going to happen there, but many sites are turning their back on flash in favour of html5 based technologies.

Check out this blog, and the comments of all the followers (from another thread)... cool project btw.

what-ipads-did-to-my-family

Never liked flash anyway lol.


As far as the iPad goes, the ease of being able to remote in to a distant computer is worlds better than doing it on an iPhone due to the larger screen size.

Reading a book is better

Watching video is better



I just might have to go with 3G though and so far 16gb is ok

darngooddesign said:

That was a rumor, and if true their target would be the iPhone OS, not the iPad.

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Respectfully disagree... which games have you tried playing on the iPad? The Resident Evil 4 game in particular makes me wonder why anyone would ever want to purchase a Nintendo DS or anything else...

I went to play with the iPad several times in the store. Each time I left the store not sure what I would do with it if I bought one.

I bought one anyhow.

Within an hour it was obvious that, while not perfect, the iPad is a game changer.

It's not a netbook, which tries to run a full OS on limited hardware. It's not a cramped phone on a limited screen and limited hardware.

It's basically a fast, responsive screen connected to the internet with a fantastic touch screen trying to usher in the era of cloud computing and the death of files and folders.

It's going to take a while to realize that vision, but I see where they are going with this and I like it.

Well my signature pretty much tips my beliefs.

And my experience with my iPad completely galvanizes my thinking. The ipad can already do 80-90% of what people currently use computers for, in a lighter, more enjoyable overall package.

Even people who didn't intend from the outset to replace their computers with an iPad (as i have done) are posting how little they've used their computers since embracing the iPad. It's simply swamping peoples expectations once they actually use one and feel firsthand how much more enjoyable an experience it is.

Put another way, everyone that touches one for more than a passing moment seems to want one. I am exaggerating of course but I think it's clear where all this is going...

I think the most important thing to note, at least as far as your project goes... Is how wether or not the iPad succeeds it will change the game. It will change the way we all use computers & the Internet... Having a device like this, always on, always nearby, changed the way I use the Internet... No waiting for a device to turn on, no getting up & going to a device to do a quick search... Responding to email while comfortably sitting on my couch, without having a big device needing to be plugged in... But even more then that... It will change the way developers look at building software... When other companies start releasing their tablets & operating systems that the world will truly change, with the iPad as the catalyst...

Well, for what it's worth, the esteemed "leader" of the United States of America apparently doesn't feel that devices like the iPad are having a positive impact on our society.

GamecockMac said:

Well, for what it's worth, the esteemed "leader" of the United States of America apparently doesn't feel that devices like the iPad are having a positive impact on our society.

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Coming from the same person who admitted an addiction to his Blackberry. Apparently he granted Presidential immunity to that device.

The iPad *may* introduce the concept of paying fees or subscriptions for information and services which up to this point were free on the internet that one would access with a full powered computer. This has not been decided yet, as we are in the very early stages of this concept and it may or may not fly with consumers.

If this concept is successful, expect to see those free services and information disappear even from full powered computers. This could limit information distribution and content only to those who can afford it--again.

avaloncourt said:

GamecockMac said:

Well, for what it's worth, the esteemed "leader" of the United States of America apparently doesn't feel that devices like the iPad are having a positive impact on our society.

Click to expand...

Coming from the same person who admitted an addiction to his Blackberry. Apparently he granted Presidential immunity to that device.

Click to expand...

The same guy who gave the Queen of England an iPod?

GamecockMac said:

Well, for what it's worth, the esteemed "leader" of the United States of America apparently doesn't feel that devices like the iPad are having a positive impact on our society.

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Even though I don't necessarily fully agree, I understood the president's point.

danpass said:

The same guy who gave the Queen of England an iPod?

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Clearly, he's trying to destroy British society.

And didn't he give their Prime Minister a DVD box-set, or some such lame gift?

jrdewintheamp88 said:

I am Michael Watson, a High School student working on a semester-long independent study project. My topic for this project is researching the positive and negative effects of the internet on society. As the iPad has just come out, I know that it has not changed the internet in very many ways yet, but to everyone on this forum who has an iPad I have a question: How has the iPad positively and/or negatively impacted the way you use the internet? Does it make you use the internet more or less than you did before you obtained the device (specifically having the 3G)? And is this usage more or less influential on your life than using the internet on a laptop/desktop?

I own a iPod touch (and will be getting my iPad on this coming Tuesday), so I am already aware of mobile internet usage and how wonderful it is, but I want multiple peoples opinions on this for my project. I thank you for reading this, and have a great day!

P.S. Yes I know this is my first post here, I have been reading for a long while though. Also, if you want to know more about my project, go to http://bit.ly/InternetImpact and watch the video by Chris Pirillo. Thanks!!!

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Welcome here Michael,

For myself I was on the fence on doing the iPad after seeing on Day 2 of launch. Yet the more I read the forums here. more I saw it fitting me. And for the past two weeks I could not be happier with the choice to join in on the "magical and revolutionary" iPad.

As I mentioned in some of my replies to other threads; I am a bit of a news hound. So at work I use the 3G to get the latest news during that 30 minute break.

I am known at work as being an Apple fanboy. But will tell you that many of the folks I work with are wanting us to move to the iPad for our catalogs and being able to search the web for answers that our customers have in our camera store.

About the iPad's impact on my life so far.... I find I use the MBP and iMac much less than I use too. I will use them only when I need to edit my photos and do what I call "deep work".

For an instance of the power of the iPad was maybe yesterday. A social group I belong to did a day trip to the National Arboretum and then brunch. If I had had the Camera Connection Kit (just got that today ) we could have loaded up the iPad with the snaps that we all took yesterday and had a good time talking over the photos of the day.

A side note on that...

When we got to the meet up point, one of the guys mentioned leaving his dog at home. I then brought out my iPad to share some pics of my boy Chewey.

On the negative/positive aspects of the iPad. As Obama said this past weekend... connectivity is good as long as we are engaged.

Sadly here in the US, many people tend to get the news from just one source.

I hope this helps you in your project. Feel free to ask ANY questions...

Chip