The iPad Might Not Have Changed the World, but It Could Save Retail

Steve Jobs' last creation and its lasting legacy

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What this device does is extraordinary,” Steve Jobs intoned to a packed house at San Francisco’s Moscone Convention Center. The date was Jan. 27, 2010 and Jobs, dressed in his standard attire of faded jeans and a black turtleneck, settled into a Le Corbusier chair with what he called the “third category device”—a 9.7-inch, backlit touch tablet that would create a market between the too-small smartphone and the too-bulky laptop. “Using this thing,” Jobs said, “is remarkable.”

The “thing” was, of course, the iPad.

When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad in 2010 (above, with background of him and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak ), its unique size and portability were supposed to transform our lives.
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This story first appeared in the Feb. 20, 2017, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.