Putting the “Custom” Back In Customer

The reaction to the iPad has been wildly varied. It has been criticized widely as being a blown up iPod. Antonio provides a more nuanced view with his chief critique being that it is a content consuming device, rather than a content producing devices. One of Apple’s biggest critics is excited about the device’s potential. My take is similar to O’Reilly editor Edd Dumbill who calls it “Real Life Social“.

The iPod touch changed computer usage by making it fit in the hand and by proxy the couch, bed, bathroom, and many other places 1 and 0’s were never intended to go. This trend is going to continue and explode as entrepreneurs continue making software, but more importantly, develop accessories for the iPad and its tinier cousin. I look at the iPad less as a stand alone device and more as a computational module that can be inserted into a variety of environments. Accessories might be simple holders or electronics that augment the iPad’s capabilities, but the computer is going to become integrated in places that were impossible with previous form factors.

The Kitchen

Photo Credit: LifeHacker

A computer that works in the kitchen has been the subject of many weekend projects/concepts that painfully port the keyboard and mouse experience into a bustiling and dirty environment. The iPad will be a smooth solution. Imagine being able to watch cooking instruction videos in context. Cookbook creators, gourmet food retailers, and culinary content providers all have a new opportunity for interaction.

The Game Room

Smart toys like Lego Mindstorms are handicapped by the realities of retail. $300 is the upper boundary for a toy. The retailer needs ~$150 of that, and the manufacturer has marketing expenses and margins to maintain, so the costs are driven down leading to crappy products like those made by Wowee. The “iPlatform” has the capability to change this equilibrium. By utilizing the computational power of an iPod or iPad, toy manufacturers could forgo the need for embedded electronics and focus on accessories that tap into the pre-existing hardware. Instead of buying the Mindstorms with their expensive processing brick, you can buy the wheels, sensors, and structural elements which are far cheaper and pair them with an iPod. Parents can amortize one electronic device purchase over several toys

The Art Studio

Some frustrated and talented designer is going to make a pen accessory that gives the iPad true tablet capabilities. It will transmit pressure data via Bluetooth or dock connector and then it is game time for artists/designers. Stand by apps like Brushes or Sketchbook Pro will be fine, but we will also see instructional apps that teach people to draw, or animate, or paint. They will create on the iPad and share to the web. A simple input device could lead to a Renaissance in artistic instruction.

The Workbench

Crafts and hobbies are a $30B market in the US, compared to retail sales of music which are worth ~$9B. We have hundreds of start ups and purpose built devices dedicated to  listening/storing/enjoying music. The iPad is the iPod for the workbench. Instead of having a wrench laid across an issue of Make: or a laptop open to an Instructable, now you can have a special screen for displaying content in a dynamic fashion. This will be the perfect platform for companies like 5Min or HowCast. Laptops and television are both imperfect solutions for this opportunity, but the iPad fits perfectly.

The really exciting opportunity will be hooking the iPad up to popular personal fabrication devices like CNC sewing machines that are driven by digital designs. The iPad will enable a true meeting of bits and atoms.

The Gym

FitBit, Nike+, WakeMate, and many others are trying to augment exercise with contextual data and instruction. While each has a proprietary dongle to collect data, there needs to be a central dashboard. The small (and easily cleaned) iPlatform is the best solution available.

The Classroom

The iPad is going to allow publishers to reinvent books. The first wave will be simple translations with some embedded video in place of a static picture. However, think of what the possibilities are just a few years on. Text books created with open ended curriculum in mind could be incredibly powerful tools. Apply the editorial guidance of professional publishers and the hypertext capabilities we love from the web and there is tremendous opportunity for learning.

The Doctor’s Office, The Trade Show Floor, Training Programs…

There are dozen of other markets that the iPad could serve. Any interaction not yet mediated by the computer is fair game. Wherever there is paper or a sales brochure the iPad can probably improve the experience. The device has a lot of intrinsic faults, but luckily they are less bothersome than the  annoyances and missed opportunities found in the physical world.

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