The French Photographer Weblog

Like I said yesterday, 2010 should bring us new devices, Tablet computers and DSLR capable of doing video. To what extend this prediction is accurate does not really matters, I think the real question is – what are those devices going to change in our lives?
And the answer is not always as obvious as it sounds.

Let’s take the example of the DSLR first – having new devices capable of shooting video will allow photographers to… shoot video! Well, it is not that simple. It’s true to a certain extend, for wedding photographers for example, now they will be able with one device to shoot stills and video during their assignments. That’s good and convenient isn’t it?
But if you try to do so you will quickly realize that shooting video is not only a matter of having such a device. Shooting video at a professional level means at least an additional device to stabilize the camera, maybe an external screen to visualize what you are doing and some sort of focusing wheel. Very quickly your gear turn into something like RedRock Video DSLR platform, it’s not cheap and it will take 2 people to operate it. All of a sudden everything becomes a little more complicated than just having a device that shoot video.

So the capability of the device is one thing but what you really end up doing with it is an entire different story.Hence my point, the functionality of a product is not what matters. What is important is what the user do with it and how it changes our lives. It’s not because DSLR will soon all shoot video that photographers will turn into videographers overnight. There will still be people doing video and people shooting stills for ad campaigns.

Now let’s talk about the tablet computer and more specifically Apple latest products the iPod and the iPhone. Tablet computers have been on the market for a while now but never really made a hit. Similarly MP3 players existed before the iPod and smartphone had been on the market before the iPhone was released. But once released those products revolutionized their industries.
Why? Because they were done right, or more precisely in a way that made the users feel different about it.

Sure Apple’s marketing is good but that’s not enough to explain the widespread success of those products.
What strikes me is that the recipe for success is quite simple and still nobody does the same thing as Apple did.
Let’s look at that recipe. What does an iPod and an iPhone have in common?
- a great, as simple as possible user interface.
- iTunes, a companion software also with a simple straightforward user interface.
- an attractive design.
Is it such a difficult recipe?
A pre-iPod MP3 player was pretty much a Walkman without the cassette tape. Usually without a screen and without a menu navigation. The iPod introduced a new way to navigate in your playists.
A pre-iTunes software had the most complicated, heavy, busy interface. All of a sudden Apple came up with something simple, slick, easy to understand and use for everybody… and it worked.
Both iTunes and the iPod have a set of features that is rather limited compared to what other smartphone offer and still people like those simple devices better because they are easier to use and more convenient.
So why companies who have been doing cell phones for 20 years could not think of reinventing their devices? Why companies who have been doing Walkmans for 30 years could not move to the digital age? Those are simple consumers products after all!
Simply because they were still sticking to the same concepts and the same technology.
Once again what matters is not what the device offers but what we do with it. Usability is more important than functionalities.

Let’s apply this prediction to the tablet computer and my bet is that we will see a device that we will be able to use and that won’t be another incarnation of some flavor of a portable computer. A new user interface a new way to interact with a new kind of device which does not have a name yet.
More on that tablet, what is it all about and other comparisons with other Apple products.