Yesterday, I wrote about how I believe that today’s release of the Apple iPad represents a revolution in Information Technology.  Reviews continue to be outstanding with negative reactions seeming to have more with politics and long standing Apple hate than anything factual.  Today, I want to continue the discussion of the revolution… and write about its one-of-a-kind media access.

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Again, in the interest of full disclosure, I tell you that I have not touched an Apple iPad yet.  If Apple wants to give me access to one, I promise to fairly and rapidly review it and post my thoughts.

There is no peer in the computer world to the media that is accessible from the iPad.  Here is just a short list of its capabilities.

  • Full web access.
  • Full iTunes store access to all of its movies to buy.
  • Full iTunes store access to all of its movies to rent.
  • Full iTunes store access to all of its songs and albums to buy.
  • Access to all of your audio content on any computer.
  • Full iTunes store access to all of its applications to buy.
  • Access to iPad specific apps like a word processor (Pages), a spreadsheet (Numbers), and a presentation tool (Keynote).
  • Full iTunes store access to all of its TV shows to buy.
  • All Amazon Kindle content – books, magazines, blogs
  • Any electronic book format in the world – including the millions of public domain ones.
  • Streaming of Amazon and Netflix TV shows and movies (Mobile Computer First!)
  • Marvel Comic books (Mobile Computer First)
  • RSS Feeds of any site
  • The Wall Street Journal Digital Edition (Mobile Computer First!)
  • The New York Times Digital Edition (Mobile Computer First!)
  • Zinio Digital Magazines
  • National Geographic Magazine (Mobile Computer First!)

My point is simple – This is big.  There has never been a digital media content consumption device that has managed to get it ALL.  Every e-book reader, iPod, iPhone, slate, tablet, laptop, and palm computer that has come before has had compromises.  Either the screen, processor, form factor, or increasingly lack of access to copyrighted content from major publishers has limited it in some way.  The Apple iPad breaks down ALL of those doors for the consumer.  If the media exists in a digital format, then you can enjoy it on an Apple iPad .  It represents the first separation of hardware and software in the mobile space.  This is a sea change.  One that I warmly welcome.

Later this week, we will look at the Apple iPad Application store and discuss what it means to the computing world.

Please go to Apple’s Official iPad site and see for yourself, on the eve of the Tablet Age on Information Technology, what all the news is about!  Welcome to the future of computing.

That is my Information Technology Thought of the Day (ITTOD) for April 3, 2010 by Scott Coughlin.

Image Credit: The Huffington Post