This week, the iPad completed 10 years of life. Exactly on January 27, 2010, Steve Jobs introduced the new gadget from Apple, changing the direction of the mobile device industry.
It started with just one model; now, a decade later, the iPad has at least four different versions: the iPad mini (7.9 ″), the 7th generation iPad (10.2 ″); iPad Air (10.5 ″) and iPad Pro (11 ″ and 12.9 ″).
To celebrate the decade of invention, the magazine Input published an interview with Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, two of the top designers and former Apple employees behind the development of the iPad.
During the interview, Chaudhri and Bongiorno share some stories from even before the conception of the iPad (curiosity that we have already commented here, but it is worth remembering: the tablet was designed before iPhone) and how the team developed something that until then was new to the market, including the prospects that Apple had for the device.
One of the most interesting parts addresses the team’s regrets regarding the gadget. When asked if they would have changed anything ten years ago, Imran said:
I think the only regret I feel is that we have not been so successful in replacing the books that children use today at school. I think we started there, but we never made it. I think a lot of that is driven by business decisions and the severity of the device and the app ecosystem being so great. But I think that our vision of making sure that the children are not carrying huge backpacks and full of books is something that I wish we had done, but we were not able in our time. So, maybe now they [a Apple] think about how to go about it.
Another highlight goes to one of the most controversial decisions in the development of the iPad: the camera. Initially, Apple had also questioned how ergonomic this would be, as the tablet was much bigger and heavier than the semi-professional cameras of the time, which were also more advanced.
However, after the implantation of the front and rear cameras in the next generation, the iPad 2, Apple was “surprised” by the number of users who actually used it.
We talked about what it would be like to position the iPad correctly and thought “How are they going to take the pictures?” In fact, we didn’t believe people were walking around taking pictures with their iPads‌. It was a funny internal conversation when we started seeing people outside taking the iPad‌ with them and taking pictures on vacation. I don’t think we really thought people would use it that way – and they ended up using it.
It certainly pays to mark the story when you have free time – the rest of the questions include topics like Apple Pencil and the differences between the iPad and tablets that run Android. In addition, the designers answer what they expect for the next ten years with respect to gadget.
via The Loop
