Because the concept of no keyboard and no mouse is the ‘confounding’ element – it is the common factor that the iPod and iPad both share, and gesture and multitouch is what both ‘bring to the table’ in what can only be described as the “Post-PC” – ironically, Gates’ whacky idea of replacing the PC with a complete ‘table’ just proves how the guy never did ‘get it’.

Meanwhile we have had to put up with endless media articles about Apple ‘fanbois’ buying iPads just for their ‘bling factor’ and all the ‘googliefans’ trying to prove their Android and tablet/slate creations are going to be the next iPod/iPad killers – but, like Gates, they too just don’t ‘get it’.

The point is that iOS and the evolving forms of hardware being designed for it to be projected upon need to be seen as a bold and revolutionary “Touch Transition” that the human-computer interface is undergoing thanks to the vision of Apple. It is of course a big gamble that Jobs has taken, trying to persuade people to relinquich their safely-familiar but wrist-crippling mice, and the miriad reincarnations of their so-called ‘friendly’ keyboards (that require time, carpal surgery and money to be able to really touch type properly with!). The concept of the PC is engraved in their minds and moving from the Stone Age of computing is going to be slow and tedious.

No, as soon as I saw the iPad and read articles by those who did ‘get it’, I knew instinctively that this was leading to something we had been waiting for as a much more sensible way of interacting with electronic media, especially in the realm of education and learning. Sure it has its awkward physical hitches and glitches at the moment, but so did most evolutionary devices in IT and multimedia – one glitch is still going to be the problem of voice recognition, input and control features needed to abolish typing entirely, but even that has progressed by leaps and bounds over the last decade and will not take too long to crack to an acceptable level.

The iPad is just the beginning of a longer evolutionary trend of how we should properly be interacting with what have so far been called “computers” – hence the problem people have in fitting it into the right ’slot’ between mobiles and laptops. The point is being missed yet again: it is just another reincarnation along the way that will lead to the replacement of all your outmoded devices – the iPud perhaps?

Whatever it is or whatever it is called, it does not matter – for normal people, learners and those who enjoy their technology, the PC and mobile are dead and will only be clung on to by the techies, nerds, geeks, control-freaks and ninjaneers who are desperate to cling on to their overpaid IT jobs.

Let’s move to a more comfortable, human form of learning/entertainment environment that opens up a much more exciting form of interaction for the younger generation. Why do you have a laptop instead of a desktop, Niall? – simply because it is more comfortable, moves with your person and can be shared more easily. The iPad or its successor is the next natural step.

As for myself, as one of your oft-lampooned Apple devotees, all I can say is: Bring on the bling! Or, as Leonard Cohen might say: ‘Touchocracy is coming to the USA’.

Long live the gesture/touch revolution!

PS: I shall wait for iPad 2.9 and a lower price before I hit the barricades!

Jo: that’s interesting – the Google site is definitely a mobile site rather than an app in that case but sounds like a good way to make it feel like an app. As far as the OU sites are concerned we’re working on it – it’s a major item on the roadmap.

As a developer I would suggest finding a way to get the best of both worlds. Right now web apps can’t do enough on mobile devices and local apps have to be built for each device. It’s a catch 22. It’s possible to build a website in such a way that’s mobile friendly and at the same time provides educational apps content and support.

In this way the effort of delivering a mobile site can also help the educational app. The educational app then provides functionality a website cannot at this point. the theory is that over time the two approaches merge. Apps and websites become interlinked so well we are left to focus on the learning potential in each situation.

Basically we deliver on both sides. We just figure out how much resource we allocate to each.