Apple, the 'Boomer' Tablet and the Matrix (Guest Post @ O'Reilly Radar)

I have written here, here and here about Apple’s inevitable assault on the Tablet market. What I hadn’t factored until recently is how symbiotic such a device would be for Baby Boomers.

Why Baby Boomers? Well, for the same two reasons that this demographic is unlikely to embrace the palm-sized iPhone en masse.

One, such a bookish-sized tablet device – I’ll call it the Boomer Tablet – would be tailor-made for home Wi-Fi setups, thereby obviating the mobile access costs associated with iPhone, a significant barrier for a generation that is programmed to keep mobile bills within a tight spending range.

Two, because a larger-form factor device would offer Boomers a bigger viewing screen and “lifestyle” settings, like fatter keys and a more forgiving keyboard to ease input, and wizard-like shortcuts to simplify recurring tasks.

This is key, because with the onset of age, Boomers’ motor skills have become less precise; their vision has become poorer; and their eyes get tired easier.

As such, the premise of them plugging away on tiny keys and peering into the tiny screen of a mobile device like iPhone/iPod touch is a non-starter.

By contrast, the Boomer Tablet offers a superior input, viewing and playback environment for accessing your iTunes library, personal media, syndicated content services, iPhone Apps and presumably, Mac Apps; something that the 70M+ Baby Boomers in the US who are aged 53-73 would likely find compelling.

Moreover, if Apple put a video camera in the device – not a stretch since they are doing it in the iPhone GS – it could make video conferencing and VOIP ubiquitous in a relatively short time (Skype already has a client for the iPhone/iPod touch). What better way to stay connected to distant loved ones?

Read the rest of the post HERE (at O'Reilly Radar).

UPDATE 1: Good Article in Fast Company looking at how Amazon is attempting to play its cards right with respect to Kindle.  Check out 'Amazon Taps its Inner Apple.'

UPDATE 2: My post on the (baby) Boomer Tablet computing device was referenced in today's New York Times. Very cool.  P.s., yes, I noted that the author misspelled my name.

UPDATE 3: AppleInsider is reporting that it has confirmation (from a trusted, reliable source) that this device will be coming to market in Q1, 2010 (versus Q4, 2009).  I wish it was the earlier date, but as my post underscores, this is a BIG undertaking.  Meanwhile, over at Seeking Alpha, Jason Schwarz argues 'Why Apple's iTouch Tablet Will Become It's Flagship Product."

Related Posts:

1. Start in the Middle: The "Jobs," "Outcomes" and "Constraints" Innovation Model
2. Apple, TV and the Smart Connected Living Room
3. iPhones, App Stores and Ecosystems
4. Is the iPhone Platform Destined to Disrupt the Packaged Software Industry?
5. Analysis: Apple WWDC Keynote - Punishing the Wizard, Part Two

Comments

[Jeremy Geiger]

Hi Mark,

Not sure you heard about this: http://www.techcrunch.com/2008/07/21/we-want-a-dead-simple-web-tablet-help-us-build-it/

Jeremy

[Mark Sigal]

Hi Jeremy,

Well familiar with the project but hadn't ever read the post. I guess my knee jerk is that while it's great the Arrington is trying to kick start this, to think that the solution will come from someone other than Amazon, Google or Apple seems unlikely (yes, it shocks me that I don't even include Microsoft in this list).

Why, because while everyone says, you just need email and web browser, then they quickly shift gears to their favorite 4-7 apps, which then of course must be integrated, are probably not open source, and then there's the whole media piece, the SDK question (you want developers building around this new design), distribution, etc.

My only point is that while I believe that eventually there will be a space in the market for an open source design like this, it aint going to be a real customer solution until one of the big three come out with the winning approach, it has it's 36-60 month cycle of unfair advantage and then the inevitable path to commoditization begins.

Food for thought.

Mark
--
READ: Innovation, Inevitability and Why R&D is So Hard
http://thenetworkgarden.com/weblog/2008/06/innovation-inev.html

[kevin]

Apple may be keeping its iChat videoconferencing app as one of the key use-case differentiators for the tablet's debut.

And I would think I would like it. But I do have two usability concerns with the 9" or 10" display tablet form:

1. When the tablet is put down on a table (or other surface that is not your lap), it will be hard to see if it's flat flat. If one gives it a 10 degree tilt then either the tablet needs to be tapered or have some sort of latched feet (something that Apple just doesn't too). If it's tapered, is it tapered in the landscape or portrait direction? It doesn't seem like it can be tapered in both directions because then it would be prone to rock when typing on its virtual keyboard.
2. When the tablet is held, can it be held comfortably for reasonably long periods by one hand in the portrait direction? ...and in the landscape direction? If the landscape direction requires two hands, then it needs to be small enough so that the middle (virtual) keys can be reached by the thumbs, even for people with smaller hands (like most women). Also, the tablet can't weigh much more than iPhone, otherwise people are going to have wrist problems.

Those usability problems coupled with the needing-a-bag-to-carry problem gives me pause that an Apple tablet will ever make it to market.

[kevin]

Oh, meant to say this but forgot: adding weight is one way to keep a tapered tablet from rocking when flat, but added weight makes it more difficult to hold.

[Mark Sigal]

@kevin, I think that you raise very valid points, and while the goodness of apple suggests that they won't settle for a nebulous composite solution that addresses all needs but thrills no one, it does frame that this is a non-trivial piece of the problem to solve.

Ironically, I find myself doing a lot more one handed input on my blackberry than I ever have on my iPod touch, but the weight versus orientation versus usage (in hands, flat, tilted) conundrum is an interesting one.

Thanks for the thought-provoking comments.

Mark

[Timothy]

Hi Mr. Sigal,

I think there needs to be more convergence of devices and lifestyle rather than the creation of one more device. See what I mean here... look at the third image down on www.barbrand.wordpress.com/misc

It's a thought experiment on where a really useful multi-environment tablet SHOULD go. Just my thoughts.

Regards,
Timothy

[Serendipity Seraph]

Ageism twaddle. It must be a really, really slow day. I am a boomer and I embraced iPhone the minute it came out. I can also hack rings around you young "whipper-snappers". :)

I don't want "simple". I want a full blown computer that is a solid lovely touchable screen. I have wanted that form factor for at least 15 years now. So I also want it to have magnifiers for some content. That doesn't mean this boomer is ready for the rocking chair nor that I will put up with patronizing BS.

[David Poteet]

What amazes me, as a RN and consultant for the VHA with its ubiquitous electronic medical record, is how everyone seems to not connect Apple with the commercial potential of a tablet device. Nurses on the floor would give their right stethoscope for a portable tablet, but it would have to be bigger than the Touch... so, Mark has it right on readability in my estimation, if only partly bc the nursing workforce (especially at the VHA) is an aging workforce with a demographic squarely in the late 40's to 50's. The current crop of portable devices used in hospitals are unbelievably small and under-featured and simply pathetic (read iPaq and a few old Palm-style devices). Most nurses are tethered to a desktop PC or a cart with a mounted laptop. A tablet running Yelp or one of the reality apps could do face recognition on a patient, display the latest labs and health status, any patient-related messages and probly also serve as a bar code scanner for the automated medication admin system (called BCMA in the VHA). What with all of the $$$ in the stimulus package for the EMR and the trend toward paperless, I wonder if this is Apple's big foray into business?