I don't see how anyone allows Apple to get away with calling the iPad a post PC device when the first thing you have to do is connect it to a PC.
A Cursory High-Level Overview of the Current Status of Cloud-Based Syncing and iOS Devices
After Apples iPad 2 introduction event last month, I ran into Josh Topolsky, and, of course, we talked about what we thought of it. Topolsky made an interesting observation: that the iPad 2 epitomized how Apple seems to be a generation ahead of its competitors on the device side both hardware and software but a generation behind on the cloud side.
Ive been thinking about the iPad in this context ever since, and I think its a perfect synopsis of the state of iOS. There will be no tablet this year from any competitor that matches the iPad 2 in terms of elegance, battery life, or build quality. No competing OS will match iOS in terms of on-the-device user experience.
But most iPad competitors have little-to-no reliance on a connection to a desktop PC, the way an iPad does. Even RIMs PlayBook is, in some sense, ahead in this regard. The PlayBook, as it is going to ship, is not a standalone device. It requires a tethered BlackBerry phone in order to do email, contacts, calendaring, or messaging but it doesnt require a PC.
Michael Gartenberg has a good line: Post-PC does not mean Sans-PC to wit, that just because the iPad requires a tethered PC doesnt mean Apple is wrong that the iPad is a post-PC device.
People arguing the other way arent hard to find. C.K. Sample: Dear Apple: Youre Not Post-PC Until You Cut the Cord. Paul Hontz: If iPads Are Post-Pc Devices Why Must I Sync With iTunes Before I Can Use One?.
Fair question. Chad Olson, following up on Gartenbergs piece for Macworld, proffers an answer:
For the sake of argument, lets assume that Apple is working on a way for the iPad to exist on its own. To cut the cord so to speak. (And to clarify, every time I say iPad I mean to say any iOS device)
In order for Apple to do this they would have to have an answer for three key iTunes functions:
getting your stuff onto your new iPad
updating iOS
backing up and restoring your iPad
To Olsons list Id add one more: device activation. Those are the four reasons iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches require you to sync with a Mac or PC running iTunes.
I think its worth considering these as discrete problems, rather than thinking about this as a single Apple should eliminate the dependency on tethered syncing to desktop iTunes issue.
Apple TV 2 shows the way forward. Its an iOS device that works independently. Take it out of the box, plug it in, turn it on, enter your iTunes Store credentials done. But Apple TV 2 doesnt store content; it only does streaming. And because it only does streaming, theres no initial sync for music or video, and theres no need for anything to be backed up. If your Apple TV goes belly-up, you dont lose any data.
So of the four reasons why other iOS devices require tethering to iTunes running on a Mac or Windows PC, Apple TV only tackles and admittedly only needs to tackle two of them: device activation and software updates.
I suspect those are the first two desktop iTunes dependencies that Apple will eliminate for iPhones and iPads. If Apple TV can activate itself and update its own software, theres no reason iPhones and iPads couldnt do the same. Im not saying its an easy technical problem to solve see, for example, the problems Microsoft has had with updates to Windows Phone 7 devices but clearly, its technically feasible.
One obvious problem: what to do if there isnt enough free storage space on the device? Perhaps, in that case, the updater would suggest either freeing up some space or plugging the device into iTunes on a Mac or PC to update the software the old-fashioned way. A less obvious problem: even if/when over-the-air software updates are enabled for iPhones and iPads, should Apple still present tethered-to-a-computer updating as the preferred update mechanism? The reason: iTunes backs up the device before installing the update. An iPad thats never been synced to a computer is an iPad thats never been backed up.
Thats important, because I dont think over-the-air backups or media syncing are coming soon. Wireless networking just isnt fast enough. Im not talking about Wi-Fi syncing over a local network to iTunes running on your Mac or PC that may well be coming soon, but it wouldnt solve the how can these devices be post-PC if they require a PC? problem. Were not talking about why the iPad needs a USB cable; were talking about why it needs a PC, period.
Apple gets a rap for being bad at, or simply not caring about, the cloud, but thats not accurate. Its just that theyre moving things there one piece at a time. Its already the case that a large amount of songs, movies, TV shows and especially apps are purchased from the iTunes Store by iOS users directly from their iPhones and iPads. Thats the first step Apple took away from iTunes (on the Mac/PC) as a required hub.
So Im thinking the iPad and iPhone wont drop their connection to iTunes running on a PC in one fell swoop. Itll be incremental, with new-device activation and software updates coming next. At that point, youll be able to use them without owning a PC. If you want to sync large libraries of music and video, youll still need a PC running iTunes, but if you have a large music/video library in the first place, you must have a PC already, so thats not really a problem.
It just isnt technically feasible to have people backing up and restoring 32 or 64 GB of data to the cloud. It can take hours to download a single HD movie from iTunes over a Wi-Fi connection, and upload speeds are far slower than download speeds. iOS devices arent behind Android in this regard, because Android doesnt do complete device backups/restores over the cloud. (Android devices dont do complete backups/restores, period.1)
