Technology meets Liberal Arts

 photo: Engadget

Steve Jobs, speaking today at the iPad 2 launch:

This is worth repeating. It's in Apple's DNA that technology is not enough. It's tech married with the liberal arts and the humanities. Nowhere is that more true than in the post-PC products. Our competitors are looking at this like it's the next PC market. That is not the right approach to this. These are post-PC devices that need to be easier to use than a PC, more intuitive.

It is worth repeating.

 
Forget the reality distortion field stuff involved with an Apple announcement (unless adding cameras and faster responsiveness are essential for you, the new product revealed today really isn't, if you already have one.)  This isn't what all the Apple love / envy / hate is all about.

Jobs has spoken before in interviews about the post PC era but never quite so directly in a presentation before. 

For most people, computers are way too complicated.  I'm the go-to person for others' tech woes and I see this all the time.  There's still a long way to go but at least how we think about this is changing. Simplicity and ease of use wins over a feature set every time.

Modern UI / UX designers already know this. Software developers are slowly catching on. Hardware manufacturers are still not there yet.

With one exception.