The iPad: Is It an "Innie" or an "Outtie"…Only the TSA Knows for Sure - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBloggers

I was given a vision of what I think may be the most critical question every citizen of the communications ecosystem must answer in the next few yearsAre tablets going to make laptops obsoleteWe all know that what comes next in technology means life or death for many companies products services and agencies and can transform what we think we know in an instant So what39s most intriguing about the advent of the digital tablet is not only what it does but what it portendsThe epiphany began innocently enough After the conference wrapped I went up to San Francisco on business I was at the security checkpoint at the San Francisco Airport doing the antiterrorist polkashimmy out of your shoes take off your belt empty your pockets and keep your ID clenched between your teethand putting my bags on the conveyor beltAs it happened Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg and Survey Monkey CEO David Goldberg the former top music man at Yahoo had also gone north after attending the Palos Verdes event and we found ourselves at security at the same timeAs we shed articles and clothing at the checkpoint we realized none of us knew what to do with our tablets Are they to be treated as computers or like smartphones when one is doing the antiterrorist shimmy Should we decloak them like we do our laptops hold them in our hands or just leave them in the bagIt turns out that tablets are so new nobody39s made that call We were told that whether or not to require passengers to unpack and display their iPads is up to the discretion of the local TSAs around the countryIn San Francisco at least they didn39t see iPads as PCs More like a big iPhone really The call there was quotif your bag is full take your tablet outquotAnd as I watched our luggage jiggle its way into the darkness of the xray machine the epiphany hit me like a runaway luggage cartamp8212are tablets going to supplant personal computers All sorts of important stuff and a lot of jobs hinge on the answerThe question inevitably was posed to Apple CEO Steve Jobs at last week at quotAll Things Digitalquot Not surprisingly he thinks the tablet will supplant the laptopquotThe transformation of the PC to new form factors like the tablet is going to make some people uneasy because the PC has taken us a long waysquot said Jobs quotThe PC is brilliantamp8230and we like to talk about the postPC era but it39s uncomfortablequotNot so argued Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at the same sunkissed gathering 36 hours later The PC39s form may morph a bit he said it may shed a couple of ounces here and a keyboard there but it won39t give way to tablets because not everybody can afford five electronic devicesUsers need one computing machine to do everything they need done on a computer Ballmer contended and the iPad doesn39tamp8212during his interview in fact Jobs was put on the defensive a bit when it was noted that some people don39t think the iPad works well for content creationquotI was in a meeting the other day and someone tried taking notes with it That was kind of interestingquot Ballmer joked during his session In any case the tablet won39t consume the personal computer he added because the iPad already is a personal computerquotCalling the iPad something other than a PC is just marketingquot he claimed and alluding to Microsoft39s own tablet plans said quotthe race is on between our two companiesquotClearly consumers expect more from a tablet than just being able to read a book with it or rotate a picture So the Apple czar39s argument does sound a bit disingenuous Maybe more than a bit disingenuousAnyway imagine what a strategic challenge the question must pose for the good folks who work for TSA at the San Francisco airportamp8212where no doubt everybody who passes through owns at least five electronic devices probably per pocketThe same policy they employ in Northern California was in place at LAX when I got home to Los Angeles God knows what they do in the airport at Kenosha Wisconsin no doubt they39ll face the question soon enough as wellBut the fate of the transportation business doesn39t depend on the answer Ours does And really the public will be the final arbiter of this issueStill if the industry cannot or will not come to a tablet consensus I do have a suggestion Let39s leave it to the TSA to decide in the meantime and the rest of us can all go get a nice bagelMichael E Kassan is Chairman and CEO of MediaLink LLC a leading Los Angeles and New York Citybased advisory and business development firm that provides critical counsel and direction on issues of marketing advertising media entertainment and digital technology Michael can be reached at michaelmedialinkllccomRead all Michael39s MediaBizBloggers commentaries at Michael Kassan MediaBizBloggersCheck us out on Facebook at MediaBizBloggerscomFollow our Twitter updates MediaBizBlogger

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The iPad: Is It an "Innie" or an "Outtie"…Only the TSA Knows for Sure - Michael Kassan - MediaBizBloggers

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