On The Cusp...

As one of the business’s worst-kept secrets, virtually everyone knows that Apple will announce a tablet computer tomorrow. Virtually everyone also knows that there won’t be too many surprises. It’s going to be, for all intents and purposes, an iPod Touch with a 10.1” screen, despite all the wishing for Amazing Things. (And, for the record, I’m fully prepared to redact this post the minute the announcement is made, and monkeys ride unicorns right over the rainbow that is shooting out of Steve Jobs’ ass.)

Why am I posting this? Well, in addition to Apple, virtually every major computer manufacturer is releasing a tablet in the next two quarters. Acer, Dell, HP, Asus, and a slew of OEMs all have keyboard-less tablets of some form planned, ranging in size from 7” to 12”. This form factor is going to be the Next Big Thing for the next year or so. I, for one, am fairly pleased with this event as I believe it is a useful form factor, both for music and real life.

We don’t get to witness many major sea changes in the computer business (which is, for all intents and purposes, the music business these days). The original Mac, Windows XP, OSX 10.3, the iPhone, and that’s about it. All else are variations on a theme. (One could make the argument that this tablet is just a variation on the iPhone theme, and thus a continuation of that theme.) When these things occur, they change the way we think about computing, and thus the way we think about making music. Of course, a guitar and an amp and a fair amount of time alone in your bedroom to practice will still get you the furthest in this business, but we all know that.

Anyhow, we’re going to see some exciting shit in the next year, as all the tech companies take advantage of this new form factor. I predict that Jazz Mutant needs to port their shit promptly or they’re gonna go out of business. I also predict that we’ll see the mid-size music software companies taking the most advantage of this new form factor. But what I hope to see are some really intriguing new ways to make music on what is, for all intents and purposes, a new instrument that nobody knows how to play yet. I’m no Apple Fanboi. I generally like their computers and dislike their software. But in this one instance, I’m going to make an exception, because their ability to push the entire industry in a certain direction is going to lead to some exciting new shit for us as musicians.

EDIT: Matrix has an interesting bit about this very same subject on his site. There are polls and stuff. You can go there, then click to get back here, and thus enter a circular world of gear wankery.