Steve Jobs was wrong about the post-PC era and the next batch of iPads should embrace this
The original iPad was important enough to get its own live on-stage introduction by the late Steve Jobs. It was such a revolutionary idea that it predates the iPhone and we might've been using Apple's first tablet in 2007 if Steve Jobs hadn't steered the technology to a pocketable format.
After the January 27, 2010 launch, the world, for a time, seemed to revolve around Apple's iPad, a silicon, glass, and metal gadget so ground-breaking it rated its own storyline on the then wildly popular Modern Family TV series (it was really like a 22-minute ad with a lot of jokes).
It's a different story for the iPads we're expecting on May 7. Instead of a big, breathless live event, Apple will launch the tablets (and probably a new Apple Pencil) virtually. That means a pre-taped, Apple CEO Tim Cook-hosted affair that will breeze through four or more new gadgets with deep dives into the new screen technology (OLED?), new designs (thinner than ever!), wireless charging (oh, please make this so), and a completely reimagined Apple Pencil.
14 years ago, I sat in the audience as Steve Jobs explained his vision for a post-PC world and the need for a device that sat between the then-popular Netbook laptops and its own wildly successful iPhone. Jobs didn't just explain this: behind him, the word "iPad" dramatically materialized between a netbook and an iPhone.
