To be honest, I’m struggling to fall in love with it. I have an iPhone since Xmas 2008 and I love it to bits. I’ve since bought my first MacBook Pro and the love affair in terms of design and user experience continues to grow.

This however, I find difficult to get my head around. Maybe it will change when I eventually see one ‘in the flesh’ but from pictures and videos it looks a bit awkward and as someone said on Morning Ireland today like you had taken a rolling pin to an iPhone.

Aside from the lack of love at first sight, I am excited by the way it will probably change how we interact with the web and with each other. No, scratch that, it will change all that.

Here’s what I think…

• It’s going to affect many industries and what they offer:
  • Telecoms: optional 3G but no voice support means new opportunities for mobile operators and good times for Skype
  • Web design and development: another new set of screen dimensions with full multi-touch and still no Flash support means HTML5, CSS3 and JavaScript will be doing the tricks for now
  • Gaming: a large portable screen with compass and GPS – delicious opportunities for interactive immersive gaming
  • Advertising: no Flash support so traditional interactive banner ads won’t be appearing on an iPad near you – time to cook up the alternatives and embrace the new format
  • TV: if you haven’t been doing so already you’re going to need to start outputting your video clips using H.264 compression
  • Publishing: iBookstore is to books as iTunes is to songs – e-books are on the up
• Those who decided to learn Objective C and got into iPhone/iPod app development will be delighted and continue to be hot property
• It’s another foot in the grave for bulky sluggish netbooks

Now, when do I get to play with one?