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Why Zuckerberg was right: The iPad is not mobile, but it is leisurely

By Damon Kiesow. Originally published 24/11/10 by Poynter Online. This article is republished with permission.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg set off a minor Twitter furor earlier this month when he offhandedly opined that the iPad was “not mobile.” Zuckerberg quickly softened the statement clarifying the iPad was just not as mobile as a smart phone.

He was right in the first place.

This occurred to me while, of all things, using the “60 Minutes” iPad app last week. For a fan of the show the tablet experience is a good one. It offers recent clips, iPad-only highlights, as well as a searchable archive. If you were so inclined, it would be easy to spend an hour just browsing through old interviews with a current or former president.

What the “60 Minutes” experience on the iPad is not, however, is mobile. And neither are most other major media apps on Apple’s tablet. And, perhaps to their credit they are not trying to be.

Watching Andy Rooney discuss his sleeping habits is definitely not the type of content that would appeal to an on-the-go smart phone owner. Nor does “60 Minutes” need to know my exact GPS coordinates in order to serve up Lara Logan’s interview with a Medal of Honor winner. In both cases, the more relaxed pace of a tablet session is a much better fit.

And that is just as well. Early studies show that iPad use is mostly confined to the home, the device is being shared among members of the household, and activity peaks in the evenings and weekends. In other words: leisure time, not mobile time.

Almost every media app for the iPad fits this mold: designed for “lean-back” consumption, not the active information-seeking behavior of a smart phone user.

Read the rest of this article at Poynter Online

Tags: app, apple, applications, apps, facebook, ipad, media, mobile, tech, technology, zuckerberg,

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