Why the iPad is Important

On January 27 when Steve Jobs announced the iPad, Apple’s worst kept secret and to some worst named, the response from the technorati nation was less awe and more guffaw. Most pundits not only teased about the name, but reduced the piece of hardware to just being a bigger iPhone. While everyone was stuck on the technology specs of the iPad, I was drawn more to the idea of what this 10-inch piece of hardware represented: the future of all media.

From movies to games, books to websites, music to email, the iPad is the first true multimedia device in which the device disappears. It’s not about browser plug-ins, Flash players or any of the other inane bits of annoyances we currently have when interacting with digital content, it’s about having a pure experience with the content. The video below is a demonstration by WIRED staff of the iPad version of their magazine and the ways they integrated multimedia content along with designing a new navigation system. It’s a clear-eyed view of the potential that devices like this have in redefining content consumption.

I’m so inspired by this device that I’ve finally decided to start learning Objective-C and Cocoa, the languages behind application programming for the iPhone and the iPad. Part of the reason is to stay relevant as a designer in this new age of touchscreen UI’s, but also to give me more tools in creating content experiences. Why just watch a movie, when you could be watching a movie that you can interact with? How will this change the way we tell stories and the way that audiences experience these stories?

There’s so many avenues of exploration and experimentation yet to be done that I believe we’re on the verge of a new era. It may sound like pomp and circumstance, but I was there on the ground level of this “internet” thing and the iPad is giving me that same sense of a revolution. The only question is, where will you be when this revolution happens?