Counterpoint on iPad angst: usability makes tech geeks nervous

For years we've all held to the belief that computing had to be made simpler for the 'average person'. We have totally failed in this effort...

Real Work is not formatting the margins, installing the printer driver, uploading the document, finishing the PowerPoint slides, running the software update or reinstalling the OS.

Real Work is teaching the child, healing the patient, selling the house, logging the road defects, fixing the car at the roadside, capturing the table's order, designing the house and organising the party.

If the iPad frees people to focus on what they do best, it will dramatically change people's perceptions of computing from something to fear to something to engage with enthusiastically.

This isn't a computer for geeks. It's a tool for humans.