Groundless Speculation: iLife Will Be iPad’s Killer App

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apple-ilife

Steve Jobs will never pitch a product more effectively than he did at the announcement of the iPhone. He said he was introducing three products: “A revolutionary phone, a widescreen iPod, and a break-through internet device. And they’re all one product: The iPhone.”

I thought back to that legendary pitch when I saw Steve affix one of his weakest lines ever to the iPad, a device I think actually has remarkable potential:

Image via Gizmodo

That’s right, the selling point is that it’s “Our most advanced technology in a magical & revolutionary device at an unbelievable price.” Really? Your selling points are advancement, magic, revolution, and cheapness? The best thing that line has going for is that device and price rhyme. First of all, almost no one buys magic. More importantly, Apple should never make price a central selling point; other companies can make cheaper knock-offs and then Apple has to re-convince people that that higher prices are justified. Once you try to become the price leader, you can’t really try to go premium again.

But the tagline was also a summation of the one problem that kept coming up for me as I watched the iPad announcement: the device simply does not have a killer app. A killer app, is the use that shows why a new technology is worth buying. For example, microwaves didn’t start selling until microwaveable popcorn was introduced and PCs didn’t sell until spreadsheet software was launched. The iPhone’s killer app, quite honestly, was Safari; the iPhone could certainly do a lot more than browse the web, but for many people, seeing the New York Times home page in multitouch made the sale.

The iPad? Well, I’ll say that the most impressive thing I saw today was the New York Times home page all over again. It’s even better than mobile web browsing than the iPhone. So what? That’s not enough to get me to spend $500. But not to worry. I believe the killer app for iPad is on the way, and possibly by launch. It’s called iLife.

Now, I don’t think that personal media apps are the key use for every tablet computer. The Kindle does just fine with “Amazon’s book collection from anywhere” as a central selling point. If Netflix ever made a tablet, it had better be optimizing for watching movies. But for Apple, and Apple alone, this is the way to go. The brand story, the relentless focus on usability, and most of its software development in the last 10 years, has been on letting you do more with your personal media. That was the original premise of iLife, and it’s still true today.

And when I think about relative advantages of the iPad, things that it could do better than either other tablets or existing platforms like laptops and smartphones, I think about pretty much everything included in the iLife suite (web design and development possibly excepted). Why did Macs start selling better than ever about five years ago? It was iLife. What Apple offered with iMovie, iPhoto and iTunes, in particular showed something a Mac could be that a PC couldn’t. And the reason for that is that we’re talking about personal media. My music feels far away on my MacBook — I can’t touch it. The iPad’s music player already feels more intimate, just because I could be scrolling lyrics with my fingers or looking at near full-sized album art via iTunes LP.

Now think about what could happen if the rest of the iLife suite were brought along to this standard. Take the same premise and same applications, and let me touch them The photo library app on the iPad is fine, but it’s not iPhoto, it’s a better version of a photo viewer in one of those digital picture frames they sell at Sears. How much better would it be to lay out photo books with your hands? To edit them, apply visual effects, get them just right and then e-mail a digital card to your parents or kids? Take the same use as on the Mac, and put it on the iPad.

Or take video. Apple could easily make the best version of iMovie ever. Shuffling a bank of clips around into a perfect sequence, adjusting the audio tracks, adding transitions, placing text perfectly with your fingers, and then shooting it up to YouTube. And I wouldn’t be shocked to see Final Cut Pro get even more amazing with iPad’s help.

Another Cultster has a killer take on the possible music-making capabilities, so I won’t talk about iPad’s possibilities as a live music tool (note to samplers and “laptronica”: your game has changed). I will, however, note, that this could instantly become the greatest home recording studio in history if Apple simply made Garage Band for iPad. It would in an instant become every high school band’s favorite tool.

Honestly, today I have trouble saying why someone who owns both an iPhone and a Kindle would buy an iPad, and I even have hesitations about why one would do so if they just own an iPhone. But that could easily change — and before product launch, even — if iLife for iPad isn’t too long in coming. The intimacy is the selling point here. And it’ s already where Apple has invested 9 years of work so far. Set iLife free, Apple. Send it to the iPad!

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