Ort.

To a certain extent, the promise of the iPad is the precedence of software over hardware. By all accounts, the iPad’s hardware has already reached that transcendent level of speed, the one I mentioned having experienced in the iPhone’s 3rd generation. According to my two favorite Apple writers who’ve spent time with the thing (Gruber and Andy Ihnatko), touching and manipulating the UI feels like touching and manipulating objects in real time. This level of maturity of the hardware allows for unfathomable freedom in software. And from a development standpoint, consider that in contrast to the iPhone, developers already have access to the tools to extend the device in software, right from the beginning. No full year of using only Apple-made apps, the developers are already poised to take the iPad further than Apple, exerting way more influence over the transition from this iteration to the next.

And think of the device itself. It’s a piece of glass. The software is the thing.