My take on the iPad in the Apple ecosystem

I’ve had a chance to catch up on the talk regarding the iPad and have had some interesting conversations about Apple as a whole in the past few hours. Many of the things i’ve been hearing lead me to get on my soapbox again – this time on the whole apple ecosystem and how it fits into my life.

I’m already 100% bought in to the “Apple Way”.

Firstly, i’d like to point to a couple of neat things that people have been saying about the iPad.

Gruber nailed the hardware implications in his post:

Apple now owns and controls their own mobile CPUs. There aren’t many companies in the world that can say that. And from what I saw today, Apple doesn’t just own and control a mobile CPU, they own and control the hands-down best mobile CPU in the world. Software aside (which is a huge thing to put aside), it may well be that no other company could make a device today matching the price, size, and performance of the iPad. They’re not getting into the CPU business for kicks, they’re getting into it to kick ass.

Stephen Fry’s post can be boiled down to:

it’s not just a scaled up iPhone or a scaled-down multitouch enhanced laptop – it is a whole new kind of device.

Some of my peers have been skeptical on the impact of the tablet; It’s just a big iPod Touch to them. To me, this is another device that fits quite nicely into the way I run my computing experience. Most of them have no idea how the whole package fits together.

I’m already 100% bought in to the “Apple Way”. I’ve got an iPhone and an Apple TV. I’ve got a MacBook. I’ve even got a few Airport Express units. All of this stuff together allows me to have a pretty seamless experience across my home. The iPad will just add another layer to my setup.

Apple’s ecosystem extends beyond the ability to get content or have a snazzy device. It’s about how their whole media experience fits seamlessly into my computing. I can grab music from the store, copy over to my wife’s PC and then control which portions of the house it plays on using my iPhone. It’ll even play on my entertainment centre via my Apple TV.  Even the DRM on TV and Movies is unnoticeable to me, as I only have media devices that support FairPlay. Even my non-DRM cd rips are supported across the entire setup. It’s not even too hard to let my friends play their iTunes music over my speakers, all without cables.

The iPad probably isn’t as compelling a device for somebody that runs a Microsoft household, but even PCs will run iTunes, which gives you a gateway to this awesome way to run your media.