Monday, May 10, 2010

Multi-touch, Apple, and the Fine Art Of Missing the Point

I probably listen to way too much tech commentary. I know I end up hearing way too much about all that is Apple, given the fact that I don't have any of their products and don't have any plans to buy any of their products in the future. I am becoming suspicious that tech pundits are paid by the number of words that come out of their mouth and not by how insightful any of those words might be. They keep blowing by the simplest, most effective explanation of why the iPhone and iPad have the popularity that they have: a multi-touch interface.

Apple was the first to market with a phone and a tablet with a multi-touch interface, and this is both the brilliance and the limitation, which is one of the reasons why I think tech pundits have a problem understanding the situation. Multi-touch isn't exclusive to Apple, they just happened to be the first to notice something others were trying to integrate into wall displays and big tables would work really well on these smaller form factors. This was a brilliant move, and a move likely to give Apple the first-to-market advantage for some time, but it isn't anywhere near as complicated, permanent, or cultic as the tech pundits would have us believe.

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