Response: who cares about the iPad?

Picture this: it’s 2015. You turn on the morning news. Anchors reveal that Sarah Palin and Donald Trump have been engaged in a torrid affair since her first vice-presidential campaign. American Idol just announced that Sisqo, Gloria Estefan and MC Hammer will be the judges for the show’s 14^th season. And finally, Apple just released statistics reporting that more than half of American households depend on tablets for their primary computer needs.

Is this the future of our culture? Is it possible that tablets could rule America four years from now, forcing desktop computers into early retirement?
The Missouri School of Journalism’s magazine sequence hosted an iPad Conference on Monday at the Reynolds Journalism Institute. Dozens of industry professionals from media outlets ranging from ESPN to Better Homes and Gardens attended to share their experience with developing and designing apps for the iPad.

I sat in on two sessions, both of which made developing iPad Apps seem extremely feasible for any designer who requires minimal sustenance and REM cycles to function. Matt Bean, the associate vice president of mobile, social and engineering media at Men’s Health, mainly spoke about the logistics developers need to know while brainstorming content for an app. David Griffin, executive editor in charge of e-publishing for National Geographic, explained why images, videos and interactive graphics are so important to the publication’s iPad App.

Despite all of the inside tips that revealed how to develop beautiful apps that are easy to navigate, I couldn’t help but wonder just how much the average American really cares about the media’s current obsession with tablets. David shared some statistics that predicted tablets will be the default computer for 50% of American households by 2015. However, Matt revealed that so far their data shows that only 1% of those who use Men’s Health apps turn into long-term users. That’s a fraction of a fraction of a fraction (whittled down from the number of people that own a tablet to the number of people that have downloaded a MH app to the number of people who actually use it regularly).

So what’s all the brouhaha about?

I’ve personally never used any tablet. Ever. (Can I even call myself a "real" journalist?) Outside of my J-school comrades, I don’t know anybody who actually owns a tablet. I’m not saying that tablets don’t offer an innovative way to consume media, but I am pretty skeptical about how quickly it will catch on and how far it will reach.So far it seems to be pretty indisputable that the iPad leads the tablet pack.

From what I’ve observed over the past few years, most businesses outside of the media maintain PC operating systems. I’m not sure how willing these professionals will be to abandon their lifelong relationships with PCs for a product that neither resembles nor functions nothing like anything they’ve used before. That probably goes for a lot of the tablets out there.

I’m not saying the product’s price and simplicity won’t attract an audience. I am, however, skeptical about the general public’s willingness to invest in such a product and then pay for individual apps. I know there’s definitely money to be made, and more importantly, advancements that could help preserve the currently uncertain print industry. I just think that consumers are going to be slow to jump on the bandwagon. Especially when you consider the fact that our generation assumes that paying for media is a thing of the past.

But who knows, maybe the tablet will become the new cell phone. Shoot, maybe I better go buy some stocks. But in all actuality I’m probably just going to sit here and wait until the iPad's price falls below $300. In the meantime I’ll be reading my hard copies of Spin, BRM and MOJO.

Feel free to check back in with me in four years to see whether or not I'll need to eat my words.