Howard Oakley
Silva also exemplifies many of the problems that ‘new media’ and tablet devices such as the iPad, have to address. The book succeeds because of its gorgeous photos that integrate with expertly crafted text. Yes, it might be even better with the rich strings of Vaughan Williams’ Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis, and high-definition video panning around and tracking through woodland could be useful adjuncts. Even so, like many of our best books, it puts regular electronic readers such as Amazon’s Kindle to shame and is in a different league to anything that you’ll find on the web. Whether your particular bag is natural or art history, militaria or mountaineering, there’s much more to really good books than torrential text or wistful wikis.
Industry responses to Apple’s success with the iPad here seem mystifying: a timid trickle of me-too products. Dell’s Streak (Android) claims entertainment, social connection and navigation on a screen half the size of the iPad’s. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab (Android 2) is also aimed at entertainment and communication on a slightly larger screen that could work for some periodicals and more basic books. RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook (QNX proprietary) is vaunted as ‘multiprocessing, multitasking, uncompromising browsing’, but apart from filling in the specification gaps in last year’s iPad, it looks a little lost for purpose, with the same size screen as the Samsung device.
Meanwhile, Microsoft may still be dithering over whether Windows Phone 7 or yet another version is destined for tablets as its phones try to make up nearly four years of lost ground. Google’s Chrome operating system, in addition to running the risk of shooting its own Android foot, is avowedly web-centric and so is set to bridge the anachronistic gap between the netbooks of the past and the tablets of the future.
This year will make or break the tablet market. It’s shocking that an industry once founded on innovation failed to formulate even vaguely novel ideas when rumours of the iPad were rife. To have taken nearly a year to come up with these answers should be deeply embarrassing to the boards of Dell, Samsung, RIM and Microsoft. Others who haven’t yet announced a tablet could have reasonably decided not to compete in this nascent market, and over the next year will get a better idea of whether this was prudent or foolhardy.
Those who are offering tablets, though, must have laid off any visionary designers and engineers they once employed, or they would have at least come up with something different. Their products might try to compete in presentation, form or process, but lack imagination in content, function or purpose.
So far, only Apple has tried to put clear water between its smartphone, tablet and laptop products, and deliver a full range of content that justifies the additional purchase of an iPad. Although there’s nothing quite so lavish as Silva just yet, of all the products that are likely to be on offer this year, the iPad is the one that will appeal to those who value fine books, and are either younger or older than the prime smartphone user. I hope that proves a lucrative market.
