A little over three decades ago Bill Gates introduced to his dream of “a computer on every desk in every home”. Yes, the dream came true… but as more of a nightmare. We all have computers and we all hate them. They freeze, they crash, they are hard to use, they never work right the first time, they spy on us, steal our information, and never think they way we do. Now, after years of living like abused spouses with our technology, Steve Jobs has come to save the day. The iPad is going to start a revolution to such a magnitude that, in my opinion, Steve Jobs himself may not even grasp.

Geeks everywhere have logged their protests at the iPad lack of revolutionary technology. It is criticized as an oversized iPhone, and an less functional netbook. I think the point that people are missing is the iPad isn’t a new toy for geeks, it is a computer for non-geeks. The iPhone has gained so much popularity because it is so easy to use for the average consumer, so it just makes sense to expand that platform to a larger platform.

The fallout from the iPad won’t be felt right away, but it will be something we look back on in 5 years a monumental shift in consumer technology to the same degree, if not more so, that we now look back on the iPhone as a breakthrough for smartphones and PDAs. Once consumers get their hands on the iPad, and start using it for Internet, email, and multimedia, they won’t ever want to go back to traditional computers ever again.

Computers today do one major thing wrong… they do everything. When you buy a computer you presented with an open environment upon which the computer demands that you figure it out from there. Having a “customizable” operating system is just another way of saying “your on your own”. For geeks, like me, this is great. There are no rules, and we can make our computers do whatever we want. For consumers, it sucks. They stare blankly at a screen full of options, icons, and artifacts until their brain pops and they call me asking me to come over and set their computer up for them.

The iPad, like the iPhone, works the moment you turn it on and guides you, ever so cheerfully, through whatever task you are trying to perform. The only buttons you see are the ones you need to see, and there is little room to get lost. Beyond that, Apple has a done a great job of encouraging (read “forcing”) developers to mimic their user-friendly design when making new apps. All this making each task simply a new button on your screen, all working with a touch of your finger.

So three decades after the first so-called “personal computer”, Steve Jobs has given us the real first personal computer with the iPad. As “that guy you call when your computer breaks” I personally can’t wait to replace every computer my friends and family own with an iPad. I look forward for 5 years from now when only geeks and developers like me actually buy open platform computers, and the everyday consumer finally has a no-hassle window to the Information age.