An Application Ecosystem

But the iPad, as you probably know, has an older albeit smaller brother — the iPhone. In one corner, you have a light, small, mobile device that you can take with you — one that almost disappears as it becomes part of a user’s daily life. In the other corner, you have a device that shines at presentation and can immerse the user in content — a device you can think of as somewhere in between an iPhone and a Mac.

But often, it’s not one or the other. I would, for example, want to use an iPad to research and plan a road trip, but while I’m traveling, I’d like to be able to access all that information on my iPhone, which is a lot easier to take along as I explore. What I don’t want is one app for planning and a different app for traveling. Instead I want a seamless integration between the two, and although I may prefer to do one task on one device versus the other, I also want to be able to do either on both. It’s a function of user interface design and primary versus secondary functionality based on what the device does best.

What’s more, you should keep the laptop and desktop in the picture as well (yes, personal computers do still have a place in this brave new world). Although the PC isn’t a subject I cover in this book, don’t ignore the laptop or even the desktop. If a user has to engage in a lot of manipulation or data entry, the PC is far better to work with than the iPad.

All these devices combine to serve the user in what I call an application ecosystem. ...

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