Regarding Future Shock

Last night I read this piece by Fraser Speirs. He asserts that the negativity about the iPad can mostly be attributed to what he is calling Future Shock.

The skeptics don’t realize what they’re looking at. It isn’t an Apple netbook, or a big iPhone, or whatever the MSNBC tech reporter thinks Apple should make next. Apple (read: Steve Jobs) does not care what analysts think they should be doing. Steve is only interested in advancing the interface, simplifying the user interaction, enhancing the enjoyment of the product. This is the very quick and simple reason that Apple products are just more fun to use.

Steve Jobs wants to get the human computer interface to the point where it is completelyintuitive. He doesn’t believe that you should have to learn artificial ways of interfacing with the computer (the keyboard, the mouse). Why can’t you just point, touch? Why can’t the computer just get the hell out of the way and let you do your work?

Spiers states:

The tech industry will be in paroxysms of future shock for some time to come. Many will cling to their January-26th notions of what it takes to get “real work” done; cling to the idea that the computer-based part of it is the “real work”.

It’s not. The Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.

The Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table’s order, designing the house and organising the party.

The iPad is the the next step, and a big step, towards that better, more intuitive way of interacting with our computers. Maybe soon we can stop worrying about the tool and start focusing on the job.