Bijan Sabet

The future of the tablet

It’s a well known thing that when television came into the world, the initial televison programs looked like radio but with the camera on.

Namely, it was the news delivered by a person standing still in front of a microphone.

The content and the interaction was the same even though television had the power and difference to offer something completely different.

Obviously, shortly thereafter, television programming changed and moved well beyond “radio and a mic with the camera on.

The same thing happened with PC. Computers started in the workplace and apps like Visicalc drove PC adoption in the workplace.

When personal computers were initially imagined for the home, the response from some/many/most, was, “what the heck am I going to do with this thing?” I don’t need to do spreadhsheets or prgramming at home.

Shortly thereafter, things changed dramatically.

The iPad has arrived. It’s selling more than anyone can expected. I love mine and most people love theirs. It’s a thing of beauty. The battery. The display. The browser. Networking. Ease of use. It makes a magazine look like a broken ipad.

But in many ways, our iPads and other tablets look like big a iPod Touch. The apps that exist for the ipad are for the most part bigger versions of their iPod Touch sibling.

That to me feels like the guy standing still with a mic in front of the camera.

There is so much more that will be possible with these tablets. Today, many feel like tablets are consumption only devices.

I believe next year will be the start of the tablets coming into their own with apps that are native to how we might use these things in new ways - either to learn (individually or in groups), entertain (indvidually or in groups) or create.

Consumption only and big ipod touches? Nah, there’s gotta be more.

Let’s do it.