Ron vs. Ron: iPad – Tool or Toy?

This month, we begin a new feature at TechDad Central; Ron vs. Ron – I will be matching wits (and tech wizardry) with my friend Ron N from San Diego.  A bit of background on him; he earned an Electrical Engineering degree from Stanford and an MBA from Harvard – despite these qualifications, he’s actually fun to be around with plenty of opinions. Most importantly, he’s guaranteed to take the opposite point of view of anything I say. That’s why we’ve been friends for 22 years! The picture to the right is Ron vs. Ron on the golf course – in our pre-Dad days.

Since we both share a first name, in order to tell us apart we will go by BosRon (me) and SDRon (Ron N). However, once we get started, readers should be able to instantly recognize our respective styles (or lack thereof). So here we go … and the first topic is:

iPad – Tool or Toy?

Is the iPad an indispensable tool or a fun, but pricey toy? BosRon, being the host gets to go first.

BosRon: So we all know what the iPad has, but I want to focus on what it left out – and I view these missing pieces as positive. First, it’s missing a CD/DVD player. Ask yourself, when was the last time you actually used the DVD drive on your laptop? All content is now downloadable or stream-able so let’s lose the wasted space and extra weight of the CD/DVD – iPad (check).

Next, the mouse and or/trackpad. I have always disliked trackpads but thought that a mouse was indispensable until trying the touchscreen capability of the iPad. The tracking and sensitivity is excellent and the user interface becomes second nature quickly (what’s more natural than poking things with your index finger)? Lose the hassle of an external mouse and the clumsiness of a trackpad – iPad (check).

Finally, Adobe Flash. Who amongst us hasn’t had Flash repeatedly crash their browser? Sure there is plenty of Flash-based content, but more modern video decoders such as H.264 are higher performance and non-proprietary. Plus, keeping your Flash plug-in up-to-date is more effort than it’s worth. Drop the dependence on Flash – iPad (check).

So we all know what the iPad has, but what I love most is what was left behind – and what remains is a sleek, low-profile personal computing device that will let you get through your critical tasks on the go – without extra baggage. For me – indispensable tool.

SDRon: First, let me thank Ron (BosRon) for the opportunity to interact in this type of a forum (and to argue with Ron, something I never get enough of).  Let me also put my biases up front: I’m a bit of an Apple anti-fanboy. Although I love much of their technology (particular their user interfaces), I hate their business practices. Particularly their habit of developing closed systems that force customers to always go through them, rather than getting supporting hardware or software through independent third parties. It’s great for their shareholders (and business student case studies), but bad for their customers.

Anyway, on to the topic.  The iPad is a spectacular device. Its design is so sleek and luxuriant, it almost begs you to pick it up. It makes accessing content so quick (no PC boot up time!) and easy that it changes the way you relate to the computer-like device.  It has all of the value of the iPhone/iTouch, now with a wonderfully large display. And I’m going to agree with Ron, that they needed to leave out a lot of things to make the design so sexy. But the reason that it’s a fantastic toy (and not a business tool): it’s built to receive and display content, but not to create and share it.

For watching movies, listening to your iTunes library, reading e-books, or accessing information on the web, it’s great. Its recognition of swipes and gestures is a wonderful way to choose what you want to see. But a tool requires a different capability: input. Unless your business needs can get by with just a few taps or swipes of your finger, you’re going to need to type and input data and that’s not what the iPad is designed for.  Any significant e-mailing, creating or editing documents (WORD or Acrobat files), or spreadsheet work can be a pain on the iPad.  Yes, you can find ways to connect a keyboard, but that defeats the design and beauty of the product.

To be effective as a tool, the iPad either needs to be the best at doing one thing (a scalpel), or good at doing a lot of things (a swiss army knife). Unfortunately, it’s betwixt and between.  For mobile e-mail it’s not as portable and quick as a Blackberry. For reading, it’s not as light and easy on the eyes as a Kindle. For web access, it’s not as universal as a laptop.

And to really replace a laptop as a tool (business or otherwise) the iPad would need another capability: compatibility.  Most PC/laptop uses are common: e-mail, word processing, web access. But many companies and individuals have a few obscure needs or legacy applications they need to support. It may involve Flash or interacting with complex JAVA programs (neither of which are supported well on the iPad), or small custom programs written for Windows, or specialized apps like blog-posting software.  Any one of these needs isn’t very common, but there are so many of them that most of us have one or two oddball relics we need supported in a tool.  The iPad is many wonderful things, but a swiss army knife it is not.

So Ron, enjoy the iPad for the wonderful toy that it is, but don’t try to deduct it as a business expense.

Ron Remy