I have spent a lot of years working in technology.  When I was in 6th grade my best friend Jason decided to get a computer. It was an Ohio Scientific model with a 6502 processor and a a whopping 3k of RAM.  He and I taught ourselves BASIC.  He taught himself 6502 assembly language and used it to write his own Atari-style Tank game.  I played with for about 2 seconds (Jason was and is WAY smarter than me) .  That was 34 years ago and I’ve been in love with technology ever since.  I also played with Apple II computers at that time, but I have naturally gravitated toward the PC rather than the Mac for the same reasons most of us at that time did.  The PC was more affordable, had an open architecture, was friendlier to low-level fiddling and had more titles written for it.  And so, my technology hobby, which became my technology career, has been PC-centric.

I got a job with Microsoft in 2002.  As you might imagine, Microsoft is a fantastic company for which to work.  I had access to early builds of pre-release products, got to work with some of the smartest people I had ever met, and (and this is most relevant to my post) got the best Windows Mobile phones money could buy.  As a technology evangelist, I would talk with customers about building applications on Windows mobile.  I would try to show off my new devices to friends and family and was always puzzled by their remarks.  One of my younger friends in tech industry commented that my Pocket PC Phone looked like “a brick”.  He and the others at the after work gathering, openly laughed at it..  I didn’t get why they weren’t as excited about it as I was. 

Last year, I left Microsoft and started work as manager of an architecture department at an insurance company.  On a lark, I decided to get an iPhone.  It is difficult for me to state how thoroughly I was blown away.  My Windows mobile devices of the past 6 and a half years were slow and rebooting them was a regular occurrence.  Any applications I tried to use other than solitaire or basic email were not useful to me.  Even the Windows Live Search application, which came the closest, was not particularly useful because of slow response time. 

Then, I started to use the iPhone.  I was blown away.  It was fast, responsive, had an incredibly intuitive and well-thought out interface and had created and leveraged an ecosystem of creativity in the App Store that made it altogether different from any mobile device I had ever used.  I ACTUALLY USED this thing!  I used it for GPS.  I used it for texting. I used it for blogging, taking photos, editing photos, playing poker, reading news, BROWSING THE WEB (all but impossible to do on my previous devices).  I came to understand that Microsoft’s approach to mobile devices was the past and purpose-built hardware/software architectures were the future. 

So, with great anticipation, I reserved an iPad.  This Saturday April 3rd, I will be one of the first consumers to buy this new technology.  Like many of you, I’ve read the articles talking about what a disappointment the iPad has turned out to be.  Some have predicted its failure and even insulted people like me who will buy it on day one.  No multi-tasking.  No camera.  No phone capabilities.  Ugly bezel.  Did I mention no multi –tasking?

They may be right, but I highly doubt it.  The iPad will be an enormous success.  It will because it is a game changer in several markets at once.  Readers, casual gamers, people who are normally technophobes..these are all markets that the iPad will hit hard.  In other words, there are many, many people who will buy one and love it. 

I pick mine up in 7 days.  Count on hearing more about my experience with it here.