It's Not an iPad, It's a Universal Remote!
The iPad may not just be a breakthrough in computer design. It may be a design breakthrough overall.
Sonos and Logitech‘s new 1100 controller looks like an iPad. It’s a metaphor of 2010. Remember when the iPad came out, and people derided it as a big phone….which wasn’t a phone, but an awkward in-between. The design look-a-likes could be a design fad. Most likely, though, they are the beginning of a re-imagining of how we interact with the digital air.
A few smart companies are starting to strategize what the tablet, and its form, means to storytelling. That’s essential, as the re-purposed news products should only be placeholders, but may well hang on too long. 2011 should be a year of real content — and design — innovation.