Yesterday Chairman of Apple Steve Jobs deputised the new iPad in their San Francisco conference. Having allowed myself some time to digest the new product and features, I thought I would put together some of my thoughts as to how, and if it will shape the web industry as we know it.
We are already familiar with touch technology courtesy of the iPhone and countless competitors that have been released since. It is this shift in technology that provides greater tactility and the availability of 3G networks and Wi-Fi that is changing our consumption of web content.
I must admit I am a sceptic of the iPad and am still questioning whether there is a need for such a device that neither has the functionality of a laptop nor the capacity to make calls. But I feel I may be missing the point here, it appears to be a product wishing to reinvent how we consume digital and web content rather than replacing the laptop and smartphone.
Imagine the possibilities having access to such a large touch interface will allow for web design. We are already starting to catch onto the notion of designing and building our sites to be viewed on handheld devices, but designing a website for the iPad is something else.
We will have to take into consideration how people react and use sites with their fingers. Yes you may be able to do that with your iPhone or Blackberry, but only on a small scale. Enlarge the scale to a full size screen that allows you to fully explore every nook and cranny with touch and you have what the iPad is offering.
So I open the question to you all . . .
