iPad3 Retina Display and the implications

Ok. So back before the iPad 2 launch I had a post speculating about the possibility of an iPad with a retina display. I held that it was coming on either the iPad 2 (which it didn’t) or the iPad 3. Why do I think this will happen? Numerous reasons

• The technology exists
• Apple has patented an update to their 30 pin connection to allow for thunderbolt connections which will allow them to support pushing such a gargantuan resolution to an external display.
• Rumors have not stopped circulating that Apple is in talks to buy iPad three parts and that acquiring this level of resolution display from samsung is under discussions.
• Thunderbolt can be used to run at least 2 monitors at this resolution
• As I have discussed before, getting to the 300dpi mark in a device like the iPad will eventually spell the death of the print out and make good on all those thoughts of ‘paperless’ offices
• Apple wants to change the primary computing paradigm
• iPad is experiencing one of the fastest rates of uptake for a new technology in a corporate environment ever
• Lion is showing the future of Apple by moving to a more iOS type interface and method of document handling
  • Don’t worry... there will always be a need for a more nitty gritty OS experience... but Apple is looking to pave the nuts and bolts over for real. But in order to pave the way for a universal application environment the current paradigms have to be merged (Mobile and Full Fledge OS).

Here is how all this adds up.

Imagine if you would docking your iPad (or iPhone for that matter) and running an Apple cinema display attached to a keyboard an mouse. The iPad itself could become a pallete based input device or secondary display to assist with actions on the large screen. The large screen itself could even accept touch input and be mounted on a pivot that would allow you to do so with greater ease (see touch iMac patent for how). When you are done you simply undock the iPad and go about your merry business. Your works is saved on the device and if desired on Apples (or other services) cloud servers. You didn’t have to ‘save’ anything, it just did this as you did your work. Lost documents because you forgot to save becomes super rare and generally only costs seconds/minutes of work instead of hours/days. Information is stored in multiple places by default and so the problem of losing a device becomes less critical. Distinctions between working on a document on a ‘mobile’ device or a PC have all but disappeared. Any of your friends that have such a dock setup would be an opportunity for you to run your own personal computer setup rather than having to borrow theirs. When viewing documents on the go the screens 280 DPI or better resolution would be a close match for your standard laser print out quality. Printers soon start becoming something old and stodgy people rely on like fax machines in the face of e-mail. However don’t expect that transition to take a decade or more as with e-mail and fax. As this sort of on the go computing becomes more and more ‘normal’ there will be a ridiculous explosion in how our information interacts. What Facebook has done for online social interaction, tablets are going to do for moribund business processes mired in static media.

This is in a nutshell what Jobs means when he pontificates about a ‘post PC’ world. Make no mistake, Apple is not after a niche market here. They want the brass ring they lost to Microsoft in the early war for the desktop computer market. If they keep going on like this then the late 80’s decline into almost oblivion may ultimately be a ‘blip’ in a computing history dominated by the Cupertino crowd going forward.

The iPad 3 and similar devices are not going to accomplish all of that vision in one fell swoop. But a retina display and ability to drive such a high resolution external monitor will in my opinion be the ‘missing link’ device that gets us a large step down the road from a mobile & PC world to a unified general computing world. OS X and windows 8 both mark a move by the Major OS world to align with the mobile world just as the Tablet interfaces have steadily encroached on what has been considered basic computing.

Will they pull it off? Who knows. Going to be fun to watch.