iPad’s Productivity Problem: Where’s the Cloud Support?

I have had my iPad for a little over a month now, and in many ways I love it. Playing games, surfing the web, streaming Netflix–it’s a great thing. It’s also a pretty good device for creating things–sketching, photo manipulation, and even drafting documents like this very review. There’s one glaring problem with the way iPad works, however; one that seems (bizarrely) intentional, one that ultimately harms the ability of the iPad to become the “magical and revolutionary” device Apple wants it to be.

The big problem, simply put, is that there’s no built-in cloud support on the iPad.

This is most evident in the iWork apps—Pages, Keynote, and Numbers. Hailed at the iPad launch as a necessary trio of portable productivity, these apps are each quite impressive; but each one is seriously hindered by their utterly awkward means of moving files. Far from allowing for wireless syncing, cloud sharing, or any other on-the-go solution, the iWork apps limit us to two option: e-mail or exporting through iTunes.

Seriously, Apple?

Well, not exactly. I can also “share” a document via iWork service, but that amounts to little more than e-mailing someone a copy of the document without the convenience of a physically attached file. So, yeah–this “magical and revolutionary” device and it’s highly touted launch productivity platform basically lets me move documents two ways, one of which requires me to be physically docked and neither of which allows me to engage in shared document editing, either between my own devices or with others.

At first, I thought that maybe this was a marketing thing, and that Apple’s MobileMe service was meant to provide this. MobileMe was pushed hard when iPad launched as the best way to keep your iDevices in sync, and MobileMe does feature iDisk. But even the iDisk app doesn’t let me open, edit, and manipulate a document in the cloud. And it doesn’t let me move a document to or from iWork apps. In fact, the only way to get an iWork document to MobileMe is to e-mail it to my account, then log into MobileMe and physically move it over.

Also, the iDisk app, vital to the MobileMe experience, isn’t iPad optimized. I have to view it in 2x mode, which makes reading documents in that app nearly impossible due to the pixelation. Seriously. The app hasn’t been updated since February.

(Speaking of updates, Apple has just recently released their first major updates to the iWork apps. This was their first big chance to add cloud support. They didn’t.)

Strangely, Apple seems content to let the third party apps outclass it’s own premium productivity apps with regards to cloud computing. There’s plenty of them. Cloud-friendly file mover Dropbox (App Store), for example, has already optimized their app for iPad, making it a far better choice for doing what the iDisk app does.  And the phenomenal GoodReader for iPad (App Store), which links directly to both my Dropbox and my iDisk, lets me read those iDisk documents in an iPad optimized size, with all the great features that GoodReader offers (see our full review of GoodReader here). Both GoodReader and Dropbox also let me open files directly into Pages … which is where we hit the wall again, since, once the document is in Pages, it’s locked there, limited to e-mail or import/export.

One way to pull the transfer off is to use GoodReader as an intermediary. Because I can pull documents directly from my e-mail into GoodReader, I can e-mail a document in Pages, then download  it to GoodReader and move it into Google Docs or another service. But that’s about three steps more than I should have to take, when it would be such a simple thing to add cloud support to Pages and the other iWorks apps.

Look at all the services I can link GoodReader to. Why doesn't iWork have this?

How can I edit cloud documents directly with the iPad? Once again, I must turn to third party apps. The current leader in editing documents from your iPad is Office2 HD, from Byte2 (App Store). I’m not at all sold on it, however, as it seems to have a few significant bugs, especially as it relates to the very issue of cloud computing (such as corrupting files when working with Google Docs). It also simply isn’t as full-featured as Pages. And that’s part of the frustration–Pages is such a nice program! I want to use it; but I also want to move documents without having to sync my system or flipping between apps. Office2 is currently the only real option, however, so for those eager for cloud support now, it’s a definite  solution.

The app I’m eagerly awaiting is QuickOffice for iPad. I am a huge fan of their iPhone app (App Store), which allows for complete editing of documents from Google Docs, Dropbox, MobileMe, and other services, all from within the app, all without needing to e-mail or import/export. It’s a phenomenal app, but unfortunately it’s maker, QuickOffice Inc., has yet to release an iPad version (and their iPhone version crashes when you try to edit with it on the iPad, unfortunately). When it comes out, it may very well be the app that replaces Pages in my iPad’s docking bar. While I will lose some of the fancier features of Pages, it will be worth it for quality cloud support.

With third party apps outclassing Apple’s much vaunted iWork suite in terms of portability, Apple needs to get a clue, and fast. For the time being, I’m using GoodReader with Pages as work arounds for the iPad productivity problem, as I have not yet become a fan of Office2. Once Office2 polishes itself up, once QuickOffice arrives on the iPad, or once another app comes along to steal Pages’ thunder … frankly, that will be the day that I, and I suspect a lot of other people, will stop using iWork.

We need an office platform that lets us port documents to and from the cloud wirelessly. One that lets us share files, not copies of files. One that does require docking or exporting or e-mailing. We need a modern app, in other words, one that’s ready to meet the needs of our “magical” new iPad. For such a forward-thinking company, Apple really seems to have the blinders on here.

Come on, Apple. Cloud computing is the future. Why not give it a try?

About the Author

Writer@Large Brian P. Hudson is an educator and freelance writer currently living in Dearborn, MI.

 

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