In April 2010, Apple took the world by storm when they announced the release of the iPad. Quite a few people, including myself, did not get the tablet’s function.
If you have a laptop and a smart phone, why would you need an iPad?
It wasn’t until my family purchased one that I was able to fully understand the device’s unique purpose.
For decades, the late Steve Jobs, the man behind the sleek machines, built his business on erasing old-fashioned technology with technology that makes life easier.
He was known for creating products that jumped the gap. After all, Apple’s business model was built on two things: release products that look “irresistible,” and to release products that are “practicable” and “portable,” wrote David Carr in his New York Times article, “Steve Jobs Saw What Media Titans Missed.”
Through this business model, Apple makes consumers’ lives easier.
Take, for example, the new iPhone 4S. Apple’s new “Siri” app allows you to talk to your phone to request to have a text read, reply to a text, call someone, set reminders, play a song, etc.
This obviously makes for saver driving conditions.
In an article for the Washington Post, “Steve Jobs and the Idea of Letting Go,” Hank Stuever asks, “Where did record stores go? What happened to letters that come in the mail? Where did movie theaters go? What about the books? Where is my Main Street?”
Apple has, essentially, put Main Street at your fingertips — there is no longer a need for leaving the house to buy books and CDs, go to the movies or Blockbuster. With an iPhone, all of this rests in the palm of your hand.
The iPad, in particular, is innovating the student experience in the classroom. Several iPad apps enable students to buy digital versions of their textbooks, making the device multiple books at once.
At the ASU Bookstore, my microbiology textbook is $78, but in “Kno textbooks” for iPad, it’s only $45.
Plus, I don’t have to lug around a 400-page textbook, and I can easily highlight and append notes to the “pages” of the book.
I also don’t have to worry about returning rented textbooks, or making that dreaded trip to the bookstore every semester.
Students can also use the iPad to take notes. Many teachers run their lectures by PowerPoint, and expect their students to print out all 70-plus slides so they can follow along, and take notes.
An iPad allows you to upload PowerPoint slideshows and write on them with either your fingertip or a stylus. This technology has a “green” benefit — it virtually extinguishes the need for tangible pieces of paper.
Sure, the iPad is a pricey $500, but it may replace the need for a fancier laptop that costs twice as much. Tablet computers may soon be the third generation of personal computers.
However, the iPad’s only drawback is that it doesn’t run Flash, making online homework impossible to do.
Nevertheless, the iPad is clearly changing the way we learn. Students can now easily consolidate notes, textbooks and learning tools.
It is replacing paper the way the iPod replaced CDs, the way iMacs replaced bulky computer towers, the way Apple TV replaced Blockbuster and the way iBooks are replacing bookstores.
Perhaps President Barack Obama made the best point about Job’s death: “There may be no greater tribute to Steve’s success than the fact that much of the world learned of his passing on a device he invented.”
I can only imagine how many ASU students learned of his death on their iPhone, MacBook, or iPad.
As long as these valuable products are in our lives, Steve Jobs will forever live through the illuminated Apple logo that rests on each of his products.
Reach the columnist at obrunaci@asu.edu
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