¶ It’s Not a Computer, It’s the Future | The iPad at 10 Years
/The morning of April 3, 2010 I was in Fargo, North Dakota to visit family for Easter with my wife and son. It was a Saturday morning, and I had been thinking about Apple’s newest device for a couple months. Around 10:00 in the morning I decided to take a little field trip over to the Best Buy. I figured there would be very little stock of this new device on day one, and that it would be sold out. That would remove any impulse temptation to purchase one, right? I just wanted to check out a display unit for a bit, just to say I used one.
I walked out of the store with $500 less than I walked in with.
I walked out with an iPad.
“What does it do?” asked my sister-in-law.
Lots of things. It does a lot of what a computer does.
“So it’s a computer?”
Kind of. But not really. I think.
“It just looks like a big iPhone,” my other sister-in-law chimes in.
It is in some ways, but it’s different.
“So what is it?”
The future. It’s the future.
I spent the rest of that Saturday delving into the fresh crop of apps for the iPad, getting to know the device. Trying to answer for myself the questions my family had been asking. What is this device?
I could only arrive at one answer over and over again. It’s the future.
Back in 2010 I envisioned that in 2026 my son would take something more like an iPad rather than a laptop with him to college. A slab of metal and glass that could be anything at any time. It could be (all of) his textbooks one moment and a notepad the next. A calendar and a communicator. A window into the world’s knowledge and an escape through entertainment.
Indeed, at a technological level, the iPad was and is a computer. And for much of the past decade, at a software level, it was a big iPhone. It’s both. And it’s neither.
But is it the future? Was I wrong?
Now that we are closer to 2026 than we are 2010, it is clear to me my timeline back then was a bit off. In six years I fully expect my son will embark toward college with something that looks closer to a MacBook than that first iPad. A year ago I would have said it would definitely be a MacBook. But as of a couple weeks ago I would now say it is possible he will take an iPad that can look like a MacBook.
That first day with the iPad in 2010 I marveled at how the iPad really became whatever app you were using. The device was transformative. When reading a book, it was a book. When using the calendar, it was a calendar. And that largely stands true today.
Over the years the iPad's hardware has also become transformative. It started with being able to hold it in any orientation. It deftly adapts to fill the screen no matter how you hold it. A few years ago it gained a keyboard case that folds up to keep the iPad thin and light for carrying, and unfolds to prop up the device and allow us to type quickly and easily with familiar keys. With the Apple Pencil the iPad becomes an actual notepad or sketchbook. Now with trackpad support added in the last couple weeks, it can essentially become a laptop.
And if you take all the peripherals away, it returns to its original form. A transformable slate of glass, malleable to your needs through both hardware and software.
Every day I use my iPhone, iPad, and MacBook Air in a harmonious dance of devices. My iPhone is primarily my camera and communicator. My MacBook is my workhorse, getting work done quickly with decades of familiarity. My iPad, however, is the device I enjoy the most.
The reason I enjoy my iPad the most is its versatility. The battery lasts forever. It is thin and light. When I want to use it, it is ready to go instantly. I can write, draw, cut together a podcast, browse the web, slice through my inbox like a champ, and when I want to kick back and read for a while I can strip off the keyboard and recline in a chair, holding the iPad like a magazine. Honestly, I can even do most of my job from it these days if I want to.
It’s the best of both worlds. Highly portable, highly efficient, and highly usable.
And it’s only getting better. Next month Apple is releasing a case that includes a trackpad. By adding a new accessory to the iPad, it can become a close approximation of a MacBook, and also nothing like it. I can only imagine what it will be capable of in 2026.
All a MacBook can be is a computer. The iPad can be the future.