When I read the live blogs of Apple’s announcement last week, I kind of thought that the device has pretty uninteresting to me as an individual. I did, however, think that it had great potential for vertical markets. Medical records and pre-hospital emergency care come to mind immediately. There are, of course, lots of other potential vertical markets for it. At $500, the device is quite cheap for a vertical market.
A day after the announcement, I went to Apple’s Web site and after watching Apple’s video, my view on the device for a consumer, has changed dramatically. The device looks very cool and I could definitely see myself using one for surfing the web on the couch or reading books (I sometimes use my ancient Sony eBook reader).
As pointed out on the MacBreak Weekly podcast, Apple has basically created a device that people didn’t think they needed into a device that lots of people will believe they need. Only time will tell if this is true, but I would not be surprised if it was.
As someone who has written iPhone applications and has been a long time Cocoa/Objective-C developer, I’m excited to start developing applications, even if they are not my own ideas. I love writing code and a “new” platform will make things very interesting.
Now I just have to figure out how to justify purchasing one or find someone to buy me one!