Apple has come a long way in making the iPad a much more palatable device to get real work done. Most companies live and die by using Microsoft Excel and the new 13” iPad Pro has enough screen real estate to finally make spreadsheets doable. For the iPad to ever be taken seriously by the enterprise market, it had to grow in size. That’s not to say that it will definitely be an enterprise success, but at least Apple has given it a fighting chance. Phase I is complete.
But there is an equally large piece still needed to make spreadsheets on a tablet more comfortable. I’m not talking about the frivolous stuff that most Mac users opine for. I’m talking about a suitable replacement for the right-click menu in Microsoft Office. Unlike a file system or multiple window support, the right-click menu is used by the majority of people who use laptops to get work done, not just a tiny minority with esoteric jobs. Phase II of the iPad’s assault on enterprise has not started yet.
When I first envisioned using an iPad to do my work, I figured that Apple would have to add either Mouse or Touchpad support to iOS. Coming from Windows PCs where everything originated from the right-click menu, using spreadsheets on a tablet seemed cumbersome. To get around the lack of a right-click, pop-up menu in iOS, Excel uses a variety of work-a-rounds that needed multiple touches. Selecting ranges, writing Formulas, and formatting text all take a lot longer to do on a tablet than they do on a laptop.
I made the assumption that Apple would need to do the unthinkable--allow mouse support in iOS to make spreadsheets just as efficient on tablets. But I was like a medieval knight who is unable to imagine that what he really needs is aerial drone surveillance to spy on the enemy. I can’t request what I can’t imagine.
The whole concept of 3D Touch took me totally by surprise. I couldn’t have fathomed that Apple would create a whole new dimension of interacting with your information. Who needs a separate device tethered by a wire when you can simply use the screen itself as one giant right-click button? Brilliant. Apple doesn’t really get enough credit for thinking outside the box on this one.
The Samsung fans love to say that it looks like Samsung copies Apple because the whole market was headed in that direction anyway. But I have a feeling that if Apple hadn’t done 3D Touch on a smartphone that no one in the industry would have done anything like it for ten years. Samsung was too busy fighting the spec war even if they were killing their SoC performance by adding more pixels to their resolution. They were also working on gimmicks like curved sides, the smartphone equivalent of adding 22” spinner rims on your car. Visually interesting but of little practical value.
When I first envisioned using an iPad to do my work, I figured that Apple would have to add either Mouse or Touchpad support to iOS. Coming from Windows PCs where everything originated from the right-click menu, using spreadsheets on a tablet seemed cumbersome. To get around the lack of a right-click, pop-up menu in iOS, Excel uses a variety of work-a-rounds that needed multiple touches. Selecting ranges, writing Formulas, and formatting text all take a lot longer to do on a tablet than they do on a laptop.
I made the assumption that Apple would need to do the unthinkable--allow mouse support in iOS to make spreadsheets just as efficient on tablets. But I was like a medieval knight who is unable to imagine that what he really needs is aerial drone surveillance to spy on the enemy. I can’t request what I can’t imagine.
The whole concept of 3D Touch took me totally by surprise. I couldn’t have fathomed that Apple would create a whole new dimension of interacting with your information. Who needs a separate device tethered by a wire when you can simply use the screen itself as one giant right-click button? Brilliant. Apple doesn’t really get enough credit for thinking outside the box on this one.
The Samsung fans love to say that it looks like Samsung copies Apple because the whole market was headed in that direction anyway. But I have a feeling that if Apple hadn’t done 3D Touch on a smartphone that no one in the industry would have done anything like it for ten years. Samsung was too busy fighting the spec war even if they were killing their SoC performance by adding more pixels to their resolution. They were also working on gimmicks like curved sides, the smartphone equivalent of adding 22” spinner rims on your car. Visually interesting but of little practical value.
If, or I should say when, Apple adds 3D Touch to the iPad, this ushers in the exciting possibility of Microsoft incorporating Peek and Pop into Microsoft Office. You could press on your selected cell with your index finger to “peek” at your right-click menu. Then you could select your menu choice by pressing harder to “pop”. This would make working on a tablet just as efficient as using a Mouse, arguably even more efficient. No longer would you have to tap multiple touch targets in different parts of the screen.
But the introduction of Peek and Pop into Excel goes beyond just matching simple speed. For a younger generation of office workers who may be exposed to a 3D-Touch-enabled Microsoft Office before they ever use the laptop version, this could become the preferred method. You could make the case that this direct touch interface is actually more intuitive and superior to the mouse point and click.
For 45-year-old office veterans like me with twenty plus years of experience with a mouse, this would be heresy. I remember back in the mid-90’s when the industry standard Lotus 123 was being upended by Microsoft’s Excel. I heard about a large study that tried to quantitatively answer the question of which spreadsheet program was better. They pulled a large group of both Excel and Lotus 123 users and had each group switch and use the other program. The results? The study found that whatever program you cut your teeth on, you viewed that program as superior after having used both programs. My point is that once you get used to a certain way, your history colors your assessments of new options.
But guys like me will be gone in twenty years.
Past Posts
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Why a larger iPad is long overdue - Jan 2015
But the introduction of Peek and Pop into Excel goes beyond just matching simple speed. For a younger generation of office workers who may be exposed to a 3D-Touch-enabled Microsoft Office before they ever use the laptop version, this could become the preferred method. You could make the case that this direct touch interface is actually more intuitive and superior to the mouse point and click.
For 45-year-old office veterans like me with twenty plus years of experience with a mouse, this would be heresy. I remember back in the mid-90’s when the industry standard Lotus 123 was being upended by Microsoft’s Excel. I heard about a large study that tried to quantitatively answer the question of which spreadsheet program was better. They pulled a large group of both Excel and Lotus 123 users and had each group switch and use the other program. The results? The study found that whatever program you cut your teeth on, you viewed that program as superior after having used both programs. My point is that once you get used to a certain way, your history colors your assessments of new options.
But guys like me will be gone in twenty years.
Past Posts
----------------------
Why a larger iPad is long overdue - Jan 2015
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