The Ubiquity of Touch.

The iPad could be a complete failure (though I think that’s almost impossible given Apple’s current pedigree), but it’s guaranteed that within the next two years consumer touch computing will become ubiquitous (if the iPhone hasn’t already). It could be under the Apple brand or it could be someone else’s, but either way that ubiquity is what has gotten me excited.

— Cameron Adams, “A Missive to the iPad haters.”

Yes, yes, yes. The changing paradigm from abstract input device (mouse) to those things connected to your hands (fingers) is absolutely critical to understand. Besides the performance improvement of solid state disks, the switch from user file system control to “it just works,” and omnipresent Internet connections, the rise of touch interfaces will be one of the most important and disruptive facts of computer life for the foreseeable future.