Cory Doctorow wrote a scathing critique of the iPad. Well, not so much a critique of the iPad as a critique of the future of sealed-box, sealed-ecosystem computing that it portends. We should have seen this coming with the iPhone, but somehow we didn’t grasp the impact of making the screen roughly six times bigger. It all seems obvious in retrospect.
Much of what Cory says resonates with me. But I disagree with his conclusions. My reaction to the iPad went in stages: meh, horror, acceptance.
Meh
The iPad announcement was underwhelming. It suffered from vastly inflated expectations, and so much of the device is derivative of the iPhone. It looked like 2007’s state of the art, except that it wouldn’t fit in your pocket.
Horror
Then I “got it.” This is something that people will use in lieu of a computer, and eventually in stead. I spent a solid day in a state of horror. I grew up with computers that you could open, and fix, and build yourself, and write programs for that would run instantly and you could send to your friends and they could run them instantly. I did all of those things. That freedom to tinker helped me discover a lot about myself, and now I’m a Lead Developer on an Open Source web publishing platform used by tens of millions of people to publish content that is viewed by billions of people. The iPad seems like an attack on the cornerstone of my career and my very constitution.
Acceptance
Not everyone needs a computer they can service, and upgrade, and program. Full stop. This was my first breakthrough. My second was this:
There will always be computers for tinkerers.
Cory calls the iPad infantalized, and talks about its “contempt for the user.” That’s one way of looking at it. I suspect that most people without a programming background or who are not expert computer users will just call it “easy” and “intuitive.” We had a nice couple of decades where we thought that the future was a powerful $3,000 expandable, upgradable multi-function machine on everyone’s desk. We were wrong. People don’t want something that is capable of doing anything. They want something that does what they want to do, does it well, does it reliably, at a low price, and makes them feel clever. General purpose computing devices failed them. We were never going to live in a world where everyone is an expert user of traditional general purpose computers.
That may be cynical, but it’s true. This is the part where you start crying and I hug you and tell you that everything is going to be okay. Queue piano crescendos to mark the emotional turning point. But seriously, it’s going to be okay.
The kids are still tinkering, and if I know anything about tinkerers, it is that they find a way to change their world, no matter what hurdles you put in front of them.
You can also take courage in the fact that the main barriers against fusing the user’s paradise that Apple offers and the tinkerer’s paradise about which we wax nostalgic are legal in nature. Software patents and the DMCA are the real enemy. Apple is only playing the game according to the rules of the board. Bring down those travesties, and Cory may avoid having to pay for an expensive and painful Apple tattoo removal.
westi says
I agree wholeheartedly with this.
The only thing I would add is – why can’t they make a tinkers version of the device available?
I know you can in theory pay the $100/year to join the dev program and add as many apps to your own device as you like but it would be great for us tinkers for something to be made available that suited our needs – I know Apple are going for the mass-market because that is where the volume is but I would have thought the tinkerers are the people who are going to end up writing the killer apps which will take the platform to the next level.
As a tinker I would have been much happier with the walled garden on the iPad if I could have tinkered easily with in it – as an on the road wed development environment an iPad could have been a killer device.
Mark says
They could probably win me over by having an approved “jailbreak” procedure. Apple stores could refuse to service jailbroken devices (so the user would have to restore to factory state first). That’d deter regular users, while still allowing power users and tinkerers to take the device further than Apple’s walled garden permits.
I was really hoping that they’d turn a blind eye to the jailbreaking scene, and not actively try to thwart them, but such is not the case. I guess that’s understandable… most jailbreaking procedures are actually security vulnerabilities being exploited. They can’t just let those sit.
Rob says
For all Doctrow’s outrage about Apple’s condesencion…he comes off as awfully condescending himself.
Why should the products on sale meet Cory Doctrow’s standards. If people will buy them then they’re good. And if they’re buying them that means they find the products useful, etc.
And as you point out, Mark, I wouldn’t count out the tinkers. I mean, they jailbroke the iPhone no? My guess is that they’ll soon be finding awesome ways to use the iPad too.
Mark says
Agreed about condescension. It would seem as if he thinks that anyone who likes the iPad and finds it useful is a simpleton.
I’m loving it already, and I’m the epitome of a power user.
Rob says
I like to think of myself as a power user as well. Not in the tinkerer sense but in that my job requires constant mobility and connection.
I’m not sure the iPad is right for me personally. I already have an iPod touch I use extensively (can’t get the iPhone where I’m at) and the iPad seems like just a larger version of that. Plus, I have my laptop too which I love.
It seems as though the iPad is a hybrid between laptops and the iPhone/iPod. Except ots too big to fit in my pocket yet doesn’t have the features (keyboard for one) of a laptop.
But maybe I’m just being short sighted. I don’t see it being very useful to me personally but I certainly don’t begrudge anyone else finding it useful.
Rob says
Thinking about this some more, WordPress could fall under the logic Doctrow’s criticism (which I reject).
As a long time blogging, I remember when hosting your own blog under your own domain and keeping it in working order was…really, really complicated. I’ve actually paid a lot of money to people like Mark over the years to host a website.
But along comes WordPress and all of its flashy plug ins…and it just works.
Now, granted, WordPress is open source and wide open for tinkerers. But for the vast majority of people who start a WordPress site (especially those starting it on WordPress’ hosting) just want their blogs to work.
Kind of like the people who buy the iPad.
I am a full-time blogger. I get paid to write things that draw a crowd. I don’t get paid to tinker with my blog. Thus, I want a blog that just works so that I can use it for my larger goal.
There’s nothing wrong with that.
Mark says
That’s the idea! Highly usable and capable core. Infinite flexibility through plugins. And everything from DIY unencumbered hosting solutions to WordPress.com with very limited flexibility but worry free scaling and peace of mind.
Karl Sakas says
You’re right, most people just want something that does what they need.
Cory Doctorow points to how Apple provided schematic diagrams to Apple ][ purchasers. That doesn’t exactly help him make his point…that was 30 years ago, when mostly techies bought computers. I’ll bet only 1% of the iPad market today would care about the electronics behind their device…they just want it to work.
If you want to be commercially successful, you don’t design your products for 1% of the market.
Tony says
I agree that not everyone needs a computer they can tinker with. However, the internet proves that those people benefit when the tinkerers have free reign to create and publish without restriction.
We tinkers are who created the rich and varied wealth of what the web is.
Mark says
I’m in complete agreement there. It’s why I’m part of the WordPress project. I want the Internet to remain as free as possible. That’s why while I’m in favor of net neutrality, I don’t want it to be mandated by the government. The government doesn’t play well with tinkerers.
Kevinjohn Gallagher says
“They want something that does what they want to do, does it well, does it reliably, at a low price, and makes them feel clever”
One of the major factors in my dislike of the iPad is actually the price. Steve Jobs in his keynote speech was waxing lyrical about how the iPad will sit inbetween Netbooks and Laptops in price, and fill the gap of people who want more than a netbook but not the fuill on functionality of a high powered laptop.
Maybe it’s just me, but the 64Gb iPad that can connect to the internet via 3G like my netbook, currently costs $1014. And thats not including whatever data plan I’m on.
With it’s difficulty in playing some valued video formats, and NetFlix (and equivalent) being North American only – what gap in the market is the iPad actually filling??
I’m someone who makes a minumum of 6 2-hour train hourneys a week, and the iPad in theory is ideal. In practice though, it’s not even close to fulfilling either my netbook or my laptop’s tasks.
And maybe it’s just me, but if Microsoft had released a closed device, and created the ultra draconian App Store, and told Adobe where to go on Flash – don’t you think we’d see more of a backlash??
Take Care!
Kev
thinsmek says
I definitely agree that the iPad concept is what average people want and need. Over here in New Zealand, the iPad is taking off, even among the more average middle class. People who purchased iPhones as status symbols are buying the “revoloutionary new device”, and others are finding very good uses for iPads. The future farmer is enthusiastically envisioned to have an iPad like device in his ute, with which he will wirelessly monitor stock, communicate with farm hands and contracters, make things happen, and do stuff.
Now I am going to be mean and snotty and say that you ought to have written “Cue piano crescendos”, not Queue, a line of people waiting at the Apple store.