dispatches from a digital marketer

While on a recent cross country flight I sat next to a man who was enjoying his newly acquired iPad. As we casually conversed, he used his iPad to create a photo album of pictures of his young daughter, elegantly edited and burnished.  An obviously proud father, he spent nearly an hour working and reworking the photos into shape, and finally into a well arranged album. And then he picked up his IBM Thinkpad and went to work.

That got me thinking: is the iPad, at least in its current version, a tool for creativity and expression, and less a tool for work or business?  Is it more a left brain rational and analytical versus right brain intuitive and random distinction? And if so, will the iPad make the leap to become more of a work-oriented platform?

The enormous consumer adoption of the iPad makes me think its uses are primarily right brain.  And a further proof is the continuing growth of the purchase of other Apple products, especially MacBooks. So for now, iPad addresses a consumer interest in creativity and expression.  Later, particularly as the move to web-based or cloud hosted applications grow, the iPad will migrate toward a more tool-like instrument.

One final thought: my colleague seated next to me on the plane had no difficulty moving between his Wintel laptop PC and his Apple iPad. Has the distinction between competing operating systems finally been eliminated, and interoperability finally achieved a level of success?