[NTLK] ipad

[Larry Yaeger]

At 1:07 AM -0800 1/28/10, Ryan Vetter wrote:
>I have decided now that I don't mind that it runs the iPhone OS.. it's really it's own custom version... I don't want my brain to melt anymore than it is already with all this multi-tasking.  The iPad will help us focus, and that's a good thing for usability.  Although some multi-tasking is needed, like instant messaging or email while in, say, Pages.

Yeah, I suspect multi-tasking will come, as others have suggested.

And even though I, as a programmer and power user, would have much preferred Mac OS X on the device, from a business perspective using the iPhone OS was a stroke of genius and absolutely the right thing to do.  (Darn it.)

Think about it...  How many Windows users are going to switch to Mac OS X in order to use the device?  Okay, okay, a gratifying number of Windows users are switching routinely, but not because of a specific device or a love for Mac OS X; rather, they're switching because of a dissatisfaction with Windows.  And switching is hard, at first anyway, no matter how nice OS X is, just because it's different.

But the iPhone OS, now...  Tons of Windows users have an iPhone and are completely comfortable with the user interface.  There is nothing new to learn if they now adopt the iPad.  This point was made multiple times during the keynote...  "75 million iPhone users already know this interface" or something very much like that.  I don't think they even mentioned "operating system".  I have no inside info, but I'm reasonably certain that this fact featured heavily in the decision to go with the iPhone OS.  And for Apple's purposes, I'm reasonably certain it was the right thing to do.  (Darn it.)

- larryy