Apple and the everywhere iPad

I've been meaning to write up something on the iPad since it was announced. Not really about the technology, nor really about it being the computer for the rest of us. Those are interesting, but they've been well covered elsewhere, Fraser Spiers and John Gruber in particular cover it well.

What struck me was instead something about the iPhone. The most significant enabling aspect of the iPhone launch was the unlimited cellular and then later 3G access. It was this ubiquitous access to the internet which drove the continuing demand for the device. This allowed you to check your email, the web, twitter everywhere, plus allowed every app to assume the internet would be there. Imagine an iPhone where you counted every byte you used, I had plenty of phones like that from Nokia on Orange, grim and rarely used.

I believe that this is what Apple are trying with the iPad. I read a lot of science fiction and no where in the plot does someone worry about paying for access to the communal network. It is a given. Just like Apple simplified (forced) the pricing model for 3G phone access I think this is what they are driving at here. No contract, two levels a month for access, compared to 24 month fixed contracts which are the norm from telcos.

Always on, everywhere, unmetered access will change how computers are used, just the same way as the iPhone changed how phones are used, maybe not to the same degree, but it is a shift towards the computer as part of live for everyone, not just geeks with dongles.