Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by dfxm12 4692 days ago
I think the iPad will get there eventually

I don't think we'll get to a point where professional or enterprise level creation happens on an iPad, outside of typing text or filling out forms (if that even counts). Apple's direction with the iPad is purely as a device for buying and/or consuming data, and will maintain as much control as they can.
4 comments
AJ007 4692 days ago
There are iOS mods (jailbroken) which currently enable keyboard commands and mouse use for the iPad right now. Multitasking is a big weakness that other tablet OS's are addressing or moving in the direction to address.

Let's hypothesize a 25" tablet, suspended from a monitor arm, with support for keyboard commands, mouse, and multitasking. That is effectively a desktop. The downside is processing power, which I am assuming will continue on an exponential upward trend in addition to seeing CPU intensive processing offloaded to remote servers (compiling, rendering 3D images, converting video, stuff that already is often done remotely today.) The part of this vision I find hardest to believe is a 25" tablet, so I assume it will have to wait for an advance in display tech leading to lightweight/fold-able/roll-able/etc.

Sure, Apple is going in one direction today, but if iOS falls too far behind the feature/usability curve their tablet dominance will fall.

link
kunle 4692 days ago
> I don't think we'll get to a point where professional or enterprise level creation happens on an iPad

I agree with a caveat; professional/enterprise level creation looks the way it does today partly because of the tools we've had available (Word, Excel, etc). Where I disagree is that I think professional/enterprise level creation will look different in a way that benefits the iPad (this is really hard to quantify which is why its so vague) but, put another way; creation tools for the iPad will be developed, and their outputs will be some alternative (to word docs, powerpoints etc).

link
mesozoic 4692 days ago
Perhaps not the iPad exactly but I think tablet computers will eventually replace other types of computers (laptops, desktops) for most people.
link
dreamfactory 4692 days ago
Most enterprise level creation is done with word, excel, and powerpoint. iOS already has a pretty capable office suite.
link