In the late 70’s, the engineering team had a rather novel thought. For their upcoming model, they decided that “4 cylinders ees too little und 6 cylinders ees too much.” So they built an inline 5, stuck a turbo charger on it, and mated it with their new 4 wheel drive system. The result? The Audi Quattro won everything there was to win in rallying and is remembered as a legend of motorsport whose innovations form the basis of every modern rally car.

The iPad is the I5 of the Quattro. There are a lot of computing needs for which the iPhone is too little and the MacBook too large. Like sitting out on the deck and enjoying the weather while catching up on news. The iPad experience is just better in this environment. I can sit outside, read the screen, and not melt from the radiating heat from the device. This hasn’t been possible since before the dot com crash.

There is another similarity as well. Audi’s I5 powered the AWD revolution. I think the iPad, more than the iPhone, will power the next wave of multipurpose mobile computing. There is a lot of room for improvement, but it still does the job very well. Everyone else will be placing catchup for some time.