Why the iPad just might be for me

When Steve Jobs took the stage in January and introduced the iPad, I balked. “It will be too hard to read on the backlit screen.” “It is too large to hold comfortably.” “The battery life isn’t long enough for me.” “A reader should be a reader, not a little TV.”

Then it happened, somewhere over Newfoundland at 40,000 feet, after travelling for 10 hours with another 10 to go, I hit a wall. I had just finished a book on my Kindle and was trying to start another one, and it just wasn’t happening for me. It was a mixture of exhaustion, boredom and recycled air that forced me to put it down and struggle with the antiquated personal video device offered up by Swiss Airlines. Then I got it. I understood what Steve was shilling – with an iPad I could have responded to a few work e-mails, shot a note and some pictures out to my family, played a game or caught up on a neglected TV series. Suddenly, it was clear why the iPad was an improvement over what Amazon and Blackberry had previously provided. Here is a multimedia device that I can use at home, in the office, on the road and even stuck back in 29C on a long haul flight.

I can not only consume content, but I can create it as well. It is this desire to create that compels me to turn over stacks of greenbacks to Apple on April 3 and purchase an iPad. Not only can I take my favorite books, magazines and web clippings with me; I can also kick-off a PowerPoint presentation, mind-map a new initiative at work or even spend some time on the 1s and 2s.

Am I a skeptic converted? Yes. I believe, along with a few other influential types, that the iPad will be a big enough shift in the way we consume content that it is necessary as someone who works in media for me to storm the tablet beaches on day one.