iPad has transformed from a tool to consume content to something that can be more useful for content creation
Sure, it did start as a content consuming device initially, with all the “sit in your comfy chair, watch a movie, read a book, post to facebook you’re sitting in your comfy chair” babble. But with releasing a much powerful iPad2, and an upcoming retina display iPad3, more and more companies are making add-ons and apps that can actually do a lot for the creatives. Sure we don’t have photoshop yet, but there are plenty of CSS/HTML editors with FTP support and preview, there are tools for sketching layouts, for UX designers, VJ’s, DJ’s and regular musicians.
More and more DAW apps are appearing in the app store, a trend started with FruityLoops, expanded by GarageBand. These are for now simplified, but more and more things are bound to appear. Remember this – 4 to 5 years ago computers most people used for recording their albums were about the power of the iPad. And if the iPad3 will be significantly faster it’ll encourage bigger DAW’s to come to the platform as well. Ableton Live for iOS anyone?
NAMM this year was actually dominated by iOS – we’ve seen external sound cards (some quite robust), guitar and drum effects, and even an akai dedicated MPC interface (the MPC FLY). This all proves that it CAN be used to create things, and maybe that change is needed to switch from the old ways of thinking and jump into the new. New possibilities await us right ?