“It’s Just a Big iPad”

October 24th, 2011

Neven Mrgan wonders what an iOS desktop computer would look like, if Apple decides to bring iOS to the desk:

I hope Apple has serious plans to introduce something like a “desktop-sized” (15-24”?) iOS device. I have absolutely no idea what this device might look or function like. What angle do you use it at – flat on the table, completely vertical, or tilted, like a writing desk? Does it use an external keyboard? Again, I don’t know – there are brilliant people at Apple with the passion and the paycheck to think through these problems. And they will do so, assuming iOS is to become Apple’s new platform in a complete, decisive, and final way.

P.S. “It’s just a big iPad.”

There’s incredible potential for a desktop computer that can tilt back like a drafting table—we could draw directly on the screen, just like using an iPad, use touch input for quick, less intensive uses (like browsing the web), and fall back to a physical keyboard when we need it—but there’s a large gap to bridge between relatively simple touch interfaces and relatively sophisticated mouse-and-keyboard interfaces. Do we make an interface that works well for both? If so, how? If not, are separate interfaces for both too confusing? Is it possible that a touch interface is all we’ll need?

I don’t think we’re going to solve this problem for a little while, but I do think we’re going to have to solve it at some point. Developing two separate, parallel interfaces for perpetuity doesn’t make a lot of sense, and more importantly, having two separate kinds of devices isn’t going to make sense for people soon, either. The gap between a desktop computer’s functionality and the iPad’s is shrinking at a decent clip, and at some point not too distant from now, a large number of people are going to decide it’s the only computer they need. It’s not that they’ll be able to do anything they need to on an iPad, but rather that it does enough. And when that happens, we’re going to have to figure it out.