iOS5 & friends

The IT world is moving fast towards the omnipresence of instant-on, no headaches, long battery life ARM-tablets. After the release of Android 3.1 and Nokia struggling for a new identity, Apple's IOS 5 re-inforces some strong future tendances:

PC Free

While some anxious competitors have spent the first year of the iPad and the iPad-killers invasion comforting themselves in the thinking that tablets are merely content-consumption devices, many users have turned their tablet into their primary computer. For a lot of people, the large touchscreen, the weight and the availability of business features (creation of .doc, .xls documents, Exchange compatibility, FTP apps, VPN) mean that the iPad is a good enough and a lot more practical than a full-sized laptop. 

Apple goes one step further and decides to give IOS 5 the features needed to turn USB syncing to a PC irrelevant: creation/deletion of calendars, basic on-board photo editing, over-the-air updates. 

Furthermore, feature of Mac OS X 10.7 are made to look like IOS, especially an IOS-like apps view and apps folders, preparing the users for a future equivalence of devices. 

Cloud Sync

To achieve that, Apple goes boldly on a path where even Google isn't fully going yet (by lack of a desktop OS): the full reliance of the users on its new iCloud infrastructure. All documents created in an iCloud-friendly app will transparently sync with all your authorized devices whether these are iPad's or Mac's. 

Background backups will take place automatically, even versioning of documents will be taken in charge.

Two fundamental ideas here:

- The user doesn't have to know what a filesystem is. The syncing of documents must be totally transparent. Even the word sync is carefully avoided by Apple's marketing. 

- The Mac (thus... the PC) is demoted to being "a device" instead of the unavoidable pit stop. Therefore, using a laptop becomes merely a matter of choice for those looking for a full-sized keyboard, a larger screen or needing the power of a portable workstation for video and graphics. 

API 

One mostly overlooked detail is the fact that iCloud has an API open to apps developer for files and/or applications settings syncing. The API will increase the ubiquitous presence of iCloud but will probably solve a lot of issues as, so far, developers had to invent their own different syncing solution. Omnifocus uses a complicated method based on slicing its database into multiple iDisk folders, Pocketmoney runs its own ad-hoc WiFi sync server as an optional plugin and Cultured Code (the excellent "Things") has tried and rejected unsatisfaying strategies since the beginning. They finally started a beta for Things' proprietary synchronisation... a month ago. iCloud's data will be handled outside the realm of the developers but they win an access to that engine and the time to concentrate on the core of their apps. 

However, some of the needs that iCloud addresses are caused by Apple's pledge to keep its platform safe and file management transparent: the strong inforcement of sandboxing of files and functions between applications. This is where Google keeps the opportunity to differenciate Android Honeycomb and Ice Cream Sandwich in areas where Apple doesn't want IOS to go: a locally accessible filesystems that allows files sharing between apps, even files upload from the browser (impossible from IOS), apps giving access to their services to other apps and a customisable GUI with widgets, even some practical dashboard-like widgets in the case of Samsung's UX interface for tablets. Also, Google has simply refused to deal with record labels to license music streaming, meaning that Google Music will probably arrive faster in small countries (i.e. Belgium) than Apple's country by country negociated deployment. 

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9

Very soon, one of the only potential iPad2-killer, Samsung's Galaxy Tab 8.9, will be on the market. It features a high build quality and comparable thickness but a much lighter weight (470 grams), a screen size that some will feel to be more practical than the iPad's 9.7" without compromising on usability, an identical price and, course, runs Android 3.1. The battle becomes more interesting every day. 

Pictures courtesy of Apple Inc. and Samsung.