MARCH 2020 MACWORLD 41was clear: Build iPad apps and a flood of
users will come your way. You’ve got three
months.
Forstall was also quick to point out that
good iPad apps were more than just
blown-up iPhone versions. Several
compliant developers were brought out to
demo how they’d already begun work on
reconceptualizing their iPhone apps for a
larger screen, including MLB At Bat (go.
macworld.com/atbt) and the New York
Times.
AND TO TOP IT ALL OFF,
iWORK
With a bunch of built-in apps as examples
and an App Store Gold Rush stoking
developers, the iPad was already set up
for a solid launch. But Apple had one more
revelation to make during the launch of
the iPad, and it’s one that has had lasting
effects on the iPad ever since: The
announcement of iWork apps on the iPad.
Apple bringing Keynote, Numbers, and
Pages to the iPad on day one sent a
powerful message. While it might be
difficult to conceive of using an iPhone
3GS to edit a spreadsheet or make a
presentation, the larger screen of the iPad
made it possible. This was Apple
declaring, from day one, that the iPad was
going to horn in on areas traditionally
served by laptops. How can you dismiss
the iPad as a big iPhone if it has a suite of
office apps?
Even one of Apple’s first wave of iPad
accessories reinforced this message.
People forget about it now, but Apple
made a keyboard dock for the original
iPad. It locked the iPad in portrait
orientation and was ergonomically
questionable, but it sent the message that
this was a device you could do work on.
(Jobs said, somewhat dismissively, that
you could “write ‘War and Peace’ on it.” I
don’t think he was excited about the
prospect of tying his beautiful iPad down
on a desk, attached to a keyboard.)