In April 2010 the iPad begins shipping and will usher in a new paradigm in personal computing.

I’ll admit that I didn’t think this way when I first saw the iPad. My reaction was similar to many I know and read in the computing field. I shared with them a collective “WTF” moment… which I guess is what you would expect when witnessing a true paradigm shift.

The iPad just looks like a big iPhone.

The similarity of the iPad to the iPhone has been the source of endless parody on the web, but it is in fact why it will change our perception of the computer. The iPhone is the ultimate realization of computer as appliance. It works for what people want to use it for. Select the button corresponding to what you want the device to do and it does it. This paradigm is quickly reshaping the software market toward cheap yet innovative software.

Steve Jobs has unwaveringly pursued a personal vision of computer as appliance. He has always believed that you should just plug a computer in and it should simply work. Toward this end, he has also always favored retaining complete control over both hardware and software in Apple‘s product line since only then does he believe that they can create a product reliable enough to serve as an appliance.

We expect periodic malfunctions with computers. We don’t tolerate them for long in appliances.

We expect our microwave, toaster and coffee maker to just work. We don’t like having to debug our alarm clock. You have likely heard the quote (supposedly by Bill Gates) that if cars had developed like computers that they would cost $25.00 and get 1000 miles per gallon. Of course the response to the quote was reportedly that you would also expect them to crash twice per day, have to be replaced if you repainted the lines on the road, occasionally die for no apparent reason, etc.

Steve Jobs‘ stance on computers as appliances got him fired from Apple at a time when the appliance model did not seem to fit with what was going on in the industry. At that time, people were wanting to open their boxes up and find out what personal computers were capable of doing. The IBM PCs open architecture made this easy to do while the Apple Macintosh remained a closed box until Steve Jobs was removed as CEO.

But an open architecture is not an unalloyed good. This means that more care needs to be taken to make sure that hardware and software products behave well together. This leads to more complex operating system software, ever evolving standards that must take into account backward compatibility to allow for the use of old and new parts, and in the end, some expectation of product failures based on factors beyond the control of the original computer manufacturer.

Computer geeks don’t mind this complexity, in fact, they thrive on it. For those that enjoy tinkering with computer hardware and software, open systems represent fertile fields of discovery and their drawbacks only represent problems to be overcome through innovation.

But not everyone is a computer geek. The majority of people want to use software for their own purposes, not necessarily to create it. They also don’t want to spend much time figuring out what is wrong with their computer. They want it to work because we are all increasingly reliant on computers to work for us. When they don’t work, they impact our lives.

The iPad looks like a big iPhone because IT IS.

Of all our appliances, we really expect our phones to work. Most of us have come to rely on our cell phones to get through the day. The iPhone has already changed the way we look at phones. Now phones are pocket sized computers that we carry around with us, but we don’t have to spend our time figuring out why our phone software won’t load to let us answer a call. The iPhone is a computer appliance that has worked extremely well.

It seems odd that Apple partnered with AT&T on the iPhone. Back in the day, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak built blue boxes to hack the AT&T’s phone monopoly that existed at the time. His inspiration was phone phreaking pioneer John Draper (aka “Captain Crunch”) who used a breakfast cereal whistle (which could be made to produce a 2600 hz tone) to seize phone lines. In a strange turn of events, the phone phreaks have in effect become the phone company!

The iPad is the new phone.

An article came out last week that told of a new voice over IP (VOIP) app from Apple (called Line2) that joins existing VOIP applications (such as Skype) in allowing iPhone users to make calls seamlessly over a wireless network. This in effect means that the there is no need for a separate telephone line access in addition to cellular Internet access on the iPhone (or the upcoming iPad) anymore.

As the iPad begins shipping next week, it is set to provide a platform that has multiple options for free phone access over wireless networks. Phone companies do still provide cellular data access, but the iPad signals the beginning of the end of separate phone and data charges and the end of the phone as we have known it.

With the iPad, the phone and computer have become one.

The iPad paradigm is the end of the line for the personal computer as it has become a new device. The computer has metamorphosed from mechanical monolith to a simple looking rectangle that you can hold on your lap. The computer has become a window-like appliance into a digital realm where distance matters little and all the knowledge in the world is as close as your fingertips, and all this power now comes at the touch of a button.

I was admittedly confused by the Steve Jobs‘ iPad announcement, but I now feel that I see into Jobs‘ Go player mentality as he reaches toward his dream of controlling the primary technology that we use in our daily lives. Jobs likes to say that we can only see the dots connect in hindsight. Here are the dots that lead to the introduction of the device that could make this dream a reality:

Jobs and Wozniak found Apple Computer… Computer hobby kit is marketed (Apple I) … Pre-assembled PC is introduced (Apple II) … First commercial GUI introduced (Macintosh) … iMac (restyling of Macintosh as appliance) … iPod (music appliance for use with iTunes store) … iPhone (computer appliance for use with App Store) … iPad (multimedia computer appliance).

The iPad is the embodiment of the computer as an appliance and this is why its introduction will change the face of computing. It will be able to provide a one-device world-wide two-way multimedia communication medium that you can have with you all the time.

So is 2010 going to be like 1984? Or should we save that for the 2012 version of the iPad (likely code-named Orwell)?

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