Is Apple Playing Device Leapfrog?

Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, a music player which became gradually a media player. Then in 2007 Apple introduced the iPhone which was a personal communication device as well as a media player. In 2010 we have the introduction of the iPad which is a really grown up iPod. A general purpose media player. Apple has completely wrong-footed all its potential competitors (Sony, Nokia, Microsoft, Vodafone etc) weaving between these two technology strands in building its magical consumer hold. All the mobile phone companies are massively at a disadvantage in not having a credible iPod Touch device. Notice that the jumps in the game of leapfrog are getting shorter {media-pad, five years, phone, two and half years, media-pad.....}; because development and market sophistication is following Moore's law, so we can expect the next jump to come before the end of 2011. On form the next jump will be to a next-level communications device. My money is on a super iPhone which does multi-person conference calls. At that stage Apple will be in a good position to unveil its plans for the Social dimension for all this personal, mobile, computing and media enjoyment.

The social graph was noticeably missing from the iPad introduction. So were cameras. Superimposing video on social networks is the next big step for Apple. That is the context in which book and magazine publishers should be thinking about apps...They do not yet connect, but that will be the next step.