Resolutionary: Is the New iPad Display the Beginning of the End of Paper?

By Rob Scott
March 12, 2012

“Since tablets arrived a couple years ago, they have seemed the natural replacement for the printed page, whether it represented a computer document, a book or a magazine,” writes analyst Steve Wildstrom for Tech.pinions. “A tablet could be held like a book or magazine and its software often presented text as pages rather than streams of scrolling text. Their long battery life let you use them without thinking much about the need to recharge.”
What held up this potential shift has been the readability of displays. However, Wildstrom suggests Apple may now have the answer.
“The new iPad, whose display has to be seen to be appreciated, marks a dramatic change,” he writes. “For the first time, type looks as good on a screen as it does on paper. Photos pop in a way they never have before on a tablet, matching high quality printing on good paper.”
Earlier displays for tablets and phones, despite their advances, have been limiting — but the new iPad display may impact how we look at tablets.
“The super high-resolution introduced on the iPhone 4 looked spectacular, but had limited impact because the 3.5-inch display, and even the 5-inch high-res screens turning up on some Android phones, are too small for serious reading,” writes Wildstrom. “Bringing similar resolution to a screen the size of the iPad will change things in much more fundamental ways. The days of printing on paper may finally be numbered.”

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