October 31, 2010

When iPad was released some less knowledgeable people were shouting “it’s just big iPod touch! no biggy!” but they had no idea how wrong they were. Reason: release of iPad has convinced many developers to make iPad-only apps that, due to small screen and other considerations, would never ever be released for iPod touch or iPhone…

So, iPad brings 2 new major things: big display (9.7 inch compared to 3.5 inch of iPhone and iPod touch) and new, iPad-only, user interface elements (here: drawn by Omnigraffle for iPad):

… which are “pop-over” and “split view” and some others.

It is not apparently obvious what it means, but in fact it means: several developers, particularly those who previously were specialized in Mac software but who have not jumped on to iPhone bandwagon yet (because their apps need big display to be highly usable), started releasing iPad-only apps.

Here is one example of such app, the very expensive ($50!) app Omnigraffle for iPad:

… that in latest version even makes it possible to download many additional stencils over the Internet, in most cases the same stencils that Omnigraffle for Mac is using:

However also Apple itself has released iPad-only (not available for iPhone) apps like Keynote (Powerpoint-like, Pages (Word-like) and Numbers (Excel-like):

… where one can notice that some finger operations on spreadsheet cells would be very hard to do on small display of iPhone but are easy on big display of iPad:

Another kind of iPad-only application, that in many cases is also possible on iPhone (particularly on iPhone 4 with high-resolution Retina display), is magazine apps:

… that thanks to big display of iPad almost match comfort of glossy magazine viewing (and partly are even better than paper magazines due to many videos, audios, and interactive presentations embedded inside of these iPad magazines).

Conclusions:

* iPad not only makes it easier to use your old iPhone apps thanks to the big display but release of iPad has spawned many apps that without iPad would never ever be released for small-screen devices powered by iOS (like iPhone and iPod touch)

* while it is possible to use your old iPhone apps in iPhone simulation mode, many apps offer support for iPad either via “unviersal app” ability or via special iPad-only version with “HD” or “for iPad” in name. Using apps that are especially designed for iPad is much more comfortable so it brings new quality to app usage.

* recently several apps that can play also popular non-Apple Internet video formats like Xvid, AVI, WMV, etc have been released and while you can use these apps also in iPhone, only on iPad you get very pleasant user experience off them

* finally: iPad is the best selling non-cellphone gadget for the reason: it brings new kinds of apps not available for iPhone and new kinds of user experience… and recently Apple even announced that some iPad features will merge back into Mac OS X. If you want to see the future of Mac OS X, or the future of computing, get yourself iPad!

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