David Hockney, said to be Britain’s greatest living artist, has sold a lot of iPads and quiet a few iPhones. Short of donning a blue shirt and standing in Covent Garden, he couldn’t have done more to popularise the tablet as a creative tool.
I know one good friend, a fan of Hockney, who bought an iPad with the sole intention of using it for drawing. What else could it possibly be useful for? Now she and her husband (both originally sceptical about technology) own two iPads, two iPhones and a MacBook Pro. They are always first in line when a new product is announced and they have worn thin the stools at Apple’s one-to-one sessions. It’s the Apple halo effect with a vengeance.
Hockney, of course, got nothing for popularising the iPad. He is said to have rebuffed Apple when he was approached to provide an endorsement. This isn’t surprising, but in the end Apple got all the publicity for nothing. Hockney, perhaps more than anyone, has shown that the iPad is a serious computing device with impressive creative advantages over traditional laptops or desktops.