Yet another excellent overview of iPad apps used for “content creation” and general productivity by Matt Gemmell.
One thing that jumps out at me, in addition to the fact that we share quite a number of apps, is that the apps in question are truly best of breed that can go head to head with some of the best applications on traditional computing platforms. Many of them are in fact better on the iPad than on the computer. Omnifocus comes to mind here, where the clear and coherent presentation is easier to navigate and understand than in the desktop version.
The platform itself imposes a number of limitations, like the absence of drag and drop between applications, and the lack of windowing, etc. These limitations are balanced by an always connected, all day battery, phenomenal display, mono application focus and so on.
There are clearly some workflows that are not at all adapted to this environment, but there are others that benefit greatly. Anyone still banging on “the iPad is only for content consumption” drum is missing some amazing opportunities.
John Welch’s article over at Ars Technica, and implicated in the text workflow described at The Verge, show that the iPad is not necessarily a one to one replacement of a PC or Mac, but rather an additional tool in the arsenal.
Key points to retain are that while it can’t do everything, there are a lot of things that it does better. From my perspective this is another point of genius as it is truly creating a whole new market.
Imperfections
The one piece that I find still difficult is that the iCloud document syncing is too restrictive, especially when dealing with sharing files between applications and platforms. I’m constantly torn between using fully iCloud integrated apps like Byword, coupled to the desktop version, and using Elements, synced to Dropbox for a maximum flexibility when working on the desktop.
From a developer standpoint it’s an interesting question, since it permits you to construct mini ecosystems tying together the iOS and OS X environments. But from the user perspective, I’d like to have to flexibility to link my iCloud Byword markdown documents to BBEdit on the desktop, depending on what I’m working on.