The funny thing about the iPad's image as "just a toy" is that it has always been an incredibly powerful and capable computer, for a pretty reasonable price all things considered.
Many hospitals have been using tablet based computers for years. And think of all the touchscreen based systems out there. Kiosks. Some ATMs. Etc. I'm honestly somewhat curious about why so many people would think that removing a physical keyboard, changing the form factor, and making software easier to use would translate into a device becoming trivial in purpose. The only thing I can come up with is the concept of difficulty being inextricably linked with capability. The "REAL programmers debug memory dumps LIVE!" sort of machismo. If a jumbojet were so easy to pilot that a 4 year old could safely fly one I imagine people wouldn't take it very seriously for a while either.
What amuses me most about this is that we already went down this exact same road with the PC long ago. The PC was a toy, and not acceptable for use in serious business, until IBM started legitimizing the idea (after which Apple II sales shot up, ironically). And yet from day 1 the iPad has always been more capable than, say, the Apple II.
Many hospitals have been using tablet based computers for years. And think of all the touchscreen based systems out there. Kiosks. Some ATMs. Etc. I'm honestly somewhat curious about why so many people would think that removing a physical keyboard, changing the form factor, and making software easier to use would translate into a device becoming trivial in purpose. The only thing I can come up with is the concept of difficulty being inextricably linked with capability. The "REAL programmers debug memory dumps LIVE!" sort of machismo. If a jumbojet were so easy to pilot that a 4 year old could safely fly one I imagine people wouldn't take it very seriously for a while either.
What amuses me most about this is that we already went down this exact same road with the PC long ago. The PC was a toy, and not acceptable for use in serious business, until IBM started legitimizing the idea (after which Apple II sales shot up, ironically). And yet from day 1 the iPad has always been more capable than, say, the Apple II.