It's the experience, not the specs

Three years ago Apple announced the iPhone. While people were generally speaking impressed, there were the naysayers. Competitors, people who generally dislike Apple and so forth. Usually their arguments regarding the crappiness of the iPhone related to some features it was missing. Nokia famously quipped that iPhone is not going to get anywhere because it does not have 3G. Others complained that the camera had too little megapixels. The complaints about the iPhone have continued to this day, but the arguments change as iPhone becomes more capable. But all the time there are some features that the iPhone is lacking, and therefore the device sucks.

Yesterday Apple announced the iPad. iPad is thought to be Apples answer to netbooks, the small and inexpensive laptops. And the complaints have already started: the screen-resolution is too low, it's just an oversized iPod touch, no multitasking etc. etc.

What all these complaints fail to understand is that Apple and the devices they make are not about the specs, they are about experience. Every Mac-user is familiar with the pointless comparisons PC-users do to show how much less equally equipped PC would cost when compared to a Mac. Yeah, maybe, whatever. But fact remains that I'm more productive on a Mac, and I get more enjoyment from my computer than I would get from a PC. Even if that PC might have few megahertz more than the Mac had.

Same thing with the iPhone. So it didn't have 3G. What do you use 3G for? Well, MMS-messages and web-browsing. Fact was that no-one used MMS, and iPhone had world-class email-client instead. Web-browsing? Web-browsers sucked on phones, so 3G went more or less useless. iPhone was order of magnitude better at web-browsing than those 3G-phones were.

But, instead of focusing on the actual web-browsing experience, the nay-sayers focused on the feature (or, lack of it).

iPad does it again

It seems that the cycle is repeating with the iPad. Nay-sayers are focusing on some indivual specs, as opposed to thinking about the experience as a whole. Yeah, the screen-resolution is pretty ordinary. But still, early comments regarding the screen in actual use are overwhelmingly positive. Words like "crisp" and "stunning" are being thrown around. What would higher screen-resolution give? It would mean that the CPU and GPU would have to push more pixels around, and that would mean either that

a) performance would suffer
b) battery-life would suffer since CPU and GPU would have to be more powerful
c) size and weight would suffer, if they wanted to have more powerful GPU and CPU while retaining the battery-life

and in addition:

d) the price would be higher

And we need to remember that the device will be running apps designed for that screen (or for an even smaller iPhone-screen), as opposed to the situation we have with netbooks, where it runs software designed for apps that will use all the screen-real-estate they can get. iPhone and iPod touch manage just fine with screens that have a lot smaller resolution that the iPad has.

One common complaint is that iPad is "just an oversized iPod touch". Maybe, but is that a bad thing? As Scott Forrestall said: "The bigger screen allows use to have apps that are not just a little bit more powerful, but order of magnitude more powerful". And looking at the product-video available at apple.com, the apps that run on the iPad are A LOT more powerful than apps running on the iPod touch or iPhone. Hell, they have iWork running on the iPad! The performance and the screen of the iPad really make it possible to run apps that would simply not work on the iPhone. iPad can really replace a laptop for many people.

One other complaint is that iPad does not multitask. Now, how would you use multitasking? The most common use-scenario seems to be apps that stream audio, like Spotify. So you can't run Spotify on the iPad, while doing something else with it. But the solution to this is really simple: iPad is not a replacement for iPhone or iPod touch. So why not run Spotify on your iPod or iPhone, and use iPad for the other task? I mean, you will most likely have your iPhone in your pocket, am I right?

The problem Apple has

The thing is that people are Apple's competitors are used to discuss technology in terms of features. Computers are sold by underlining the amount of megabits and megaherts they have. And in many ways that applies to really personal technology as well, like phones. Sure, Apple does the same where they have to: they talk about the specifications of their computers, because in there they might actually mean something. But that does not really apply to these "post-PC" products, like smartphones and iPad. Who cares how many megabits or megahertz your phone has? Notice how Apple never tells details about the amount of RAM or the CPU that is inside their phones?

Same thing is happening with the iPad. Apple does not talk about those things, because they are irrelevant. What matters is how well those products actually work and how much use and enjoyment the user gets from them. And THAT is the area where Apple really delivers. But the problem is that many people, and even many journalists and experts are still stuck at the idea of staring at the specs, and using them to determine the quality of the product. iPhone sucks because it didn't have 3G, and iPad sucks because some netbooks have higher-resolution screens. People, you need to look beyond the specs! The product-video Apple posted tries to get their message across: that the actual use is what matters, not the specs. It just happens that "better user experience" is not a feature that you can really list in a spec-sheet...

Apple has been trying to change the rules in this area for years, and while they still have a long road ahead of them, I think they are making progress.

The exception to the rule

There is one exception to the "let's not talk about specs"-mantra that Apple is repeating: The iPad's CPU is designed by Apple. Now, they aren't really shouting this from the rooftops either, but they surely are not keeping it a secret. The message is clear: Only Apple can deliver an unified product. They have for years talked about how only Apple creates the hardware and the software. Apple is now taking that to a whole new level by designing their own CPU's. The CPU inside the iPad is designed for this product, and the software on the iPad is written for that CPU. That allows Apple a level of freedom their competitors simp0ly do not have. They use chips made by one company (usually Intel) and they use software written by some other company (usually Microsoft). Only thing they do is slap those parts together and call it a day. There's very little product-differentiation between PC-manufacturers. When you have seen and used one PC, you have seen and used them all.

Same thing will happen with these "slate-PC's". Steve Ballmer already demoed few in his bug-ridden CES-keynote. Those devices were running Windows 7, an OS that was designed primarily for normal computers. The UI was not smooth, and the product was to be released in 6 months or so. They used CPU's from Intel, CPU's that have to cater to lots of different markets and products. iPad is running an OS designed for the iPad, using a CPU designed for the iPad. And the iPad will be available in 2 months. And even though the iPad will be available before it's competitors, it did not feel like a half-baked product, quite the contrary! It was smooth, refined and finished.

I feel sorry for Steve Ballmer and his customer.