Wow, so the iPad is now ten years old!

So interesting to go back and read what I wrote about it at the time, and the day after pundit reactions.  I don't think anyone was wrong exactly, but the value of a device like this halfway between a phone and a laptop was not clearly understood.  I myself thought that it would be "a computer for the rest of us", but since I already had a laptop, I would never use one.  Heh.  I use mine all the time, and very often - with a keyboard (thank you Brydge) - instead of a laptop.  And my prediction that it would replace the Kindle came true.

The one thing that has gone way off script is the value of iPad applications.  As John Gruber notes, "Apple set the standard that highly complex, innovative software that was only possible on the iPad could only ever earn 5 bucks from a customer forever."  You would not have predicted that 10 years ago, and it seems so weird.  I remember not too long ago desktop software cost hundreds of dollars, and people happily paid it.  Now seems like everything has to be "free".

Parenthetically Gruber has been writing about multitasking on the iPad and boy is that a mess.  Truly horrible UI design.  Even after you successfully get two apps side-by-side, it doesn't work the way you wish it did.  It's impossible to believe Steve Jobs would have let this ship.