I’m going to be bold and predict that within three years time Apple will have released a multitouch desktop computer running a much evolved form of the iPhone OS. Why? Well because it’s the next logical thing. Computers have remained fundamentally unchanged for the last 30 years and no one apart from Apple seems to have any interest in moving things along.

Currently when we interact with a desktop computer, we grab hold of a large movable chunk of plastic and move it across a tabletop. This causes a virtual pointing device to move around on the computer screen. Pressing down on the chunk of plastic causes the virtual pointing device to press down on whatever interface element is currently underneath it on the computer screen. It works this way because when the graphical user interface was conceived, touchscreen technology was nonexistent.

Fast forward now to 2010, a time when touchscreen technology is plentiful and the 2 biggest operating system manufacturers are battling for market share. Microsoft has released Windows 7 with claimed ‘Tablet PC’ support featuring handwriting recognition and, well, nothing else at all. Don’t believe me? Take a look at this – http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windows-7/features/tablet-pc.aspx. So, there we have it. Microsoft says we should all try and use regular mouse interfaces with our giant fingertips.

Apple on the other hand decided to take a few minutes out of their day to come up with the following realisation: “A finger is not the same as a mouse.” It’s a simple realisation, but it’s one that forces you to redesign every single user interface you’ve ever made. Not a small feat by any means, but it’s exactly what Apple did when they introduced the iPhone in 2007.

The iPhone showed the world how touch screen interfaces could be designed by using all new finger specific interface elements. The text loupe, scroll picker, toggle switches, flick scrolling, slide to unlock. All these design ideas started out on the iPhone and are now finally finding their way onto numerous other touch screen devices.

It makes sense then that Apple would incorporate most, if not all, of these interface ideas in the iPad. And yes, it does in many ways resemble a giant iPod touch, but that’s the point! The iPod touch is a miniature multitouch computer and the iPad is just a slightly bigger multitouch computer. Of course the bigger screen size allows the interface to be more advanced, but since it’s still specially designed for human fingers, it works in a very similar way to the iPod touch.

Multitouch has the potential to revolutionise computing, but for that to happen we have to throw away all our preconceived notions of how computers are supposed to work. The iPad is simply a stepping stone to help us on our way.