It’s Not a Big iPhone
John Gruber in response to Marco Arment:
I would say that redefining mobile computing is exactly what happened. It is surprisingly, delightfully, iPhone-esque in many ways. But if you use it for just a few minutes, it becomes obvious that the iPad is not a big stretched-out iPhone, but rather that the iPhone is a shrunken stripped-down version of the iPad. The iPad is what they’ve been building toward all along.
This is, perhaps the reason so many people are disappointed. Do you remember that event in 2007? The iPhone OS was so revolutionary that when we saw it on a phone it was mind blowing.
So imagine for a moment that there was no iPhone (gasp!). Then, out of the blue Apple introduces a beautiful touch screen computer that quite literally redefines the mobile interaction model. Truly desktop-class computing with your hands. Now imagine that in January of 2011 they take everything you love about the iPad and put it in your pocket.
Put simply, I’m starting to think that the iPad came out second when it should have come out first. I sincerely hope that it’s fate isn’t sealed by it’s place in time.
