Ryan Block on why the new iPad’s Retina display is a big deal:
The core experience of the iPad, and every tablet for that matter, is the screen. It’s so fundamental that it’s almost completely forgettable. Post-PC devices have absolutely nothing to hide behind. Specs, form-factors, all that stuff melts away in favor of something else that’s much more intangible. When the software provides the metaphor for the device, every tablet lives and dies by the display and what’s on that display.
I haven’t even seen the new iPad yet, but I have no doubt Ryan is exactly right. Think about it this way: one of the key engineering feats of iOS is its responsiveness to touch input — it’s as if you are actually moving the pixels underneath your finger as opposed to pinching or swiping and then waiting. Inasmuch as that matters, so too does the quality and realism of the screen itself matter.
Those who care about software should make their own hardware.