Uses of iPad® Applications in Music Therapy

We take no credit for this, and that's not our intention...our intention is to say something is going on here. (Researchers) should take a look at this.Steve Jobs, Applet Chief Executive, discussing the rise in use of iPadt apps with children with special needsIn writing on the topic of technology for publication in a biannual journal, I recognize the challenge of issuing some sort of prescient inquiry that has benefit for clinicians in our field. Even given that awareness, perhaps no article will be so quickly out-of-date than this one. I will do my best to guard against it, as I have included some more broad conjecture about clinical pitfalls of technology and a larger context of the upsides to how our clientele benefits from these advance- ments. However, the list of applications (apps) provided in the second section would have needed updating before it was even typeset in order to stay current-that is how quickly apps are added or updated in the online iTunes store, where Apple hosts them.In the previous installment of this discussion of technology in Music Therapy Perspectives (see Knight & LaGasse, 2012), we revisited a definition of technology specific to music therapy from Crowe and Rio (2004): "it (technology) may involve any equipment, device, or method that systematically fosters the production of or response to music'' (p. 283). Few bits of technology have been more influential than the Apple iPad and its host of applications. The term "apps'' was also previously defined in the previous technology article as "short for applications, (and) refers to software that is nearly always downloaded from a website, may be free or paid for,'' and then "lives'' on a mobile computing device, most often a tablet computer of some kind.How did this technology come to be? When cellular phones and eventually smartphones became more affordable, the computing power that could be installed in them similarly grew. Much of that power has turned into applications, creating the interesting irony of phones that are used more to compute than to verbally communicate, perhaps the original "application'' of mobile phones. By 2010, close to 90% of the population in the U.S. had a cellphone, landlines were disconnected at an increasing pace, text messages increased by 50% the previous year, and application data surpassed voice data in total cellular traffic on mobile networks (Wortham, 2010). However, it may not be simply that the rise in smartphone purchases spurred application creation- the utility of apps has also bolstered usage of smartphones. The creation of more compelling apps, specifically in the categories of games, social networking, and music, seems to have triggered some reward center in our collective subcon- scious (Barrabee, 2013). Between May 2010 and June 2013, the number of apps specific to iPad usage went from 5000 to 375,000 and over 30 billion downloads of apps took place in 2011 (World Bank, 2012).It appears that computer companies saw an opportunity for up-scaling the touchscreen technology of the smartphone while downsizing the heft of a traditional laptop in creating tablet computers. While the iPad was not the first touchscreen tablet computer on the market, it may be that Apple's vision of application development and usage set it apart from compet- itors immediately. While there are some signs that tablet computing technology is becoming more diverse in terms of market share, the dominance of the iPad is difficult to ignore. At the end of May 2013, the iPad share of U.S. and Canadian tablet web traffic, as one unique metric, was 82.4% while second and third place was the Amazon Kindle Fire and Samsung Galaxy at 6.5% and 4.7%, respectively (Elmer- Dewitt, 2013). Specific to clinical populations, several papers have highlighted Apple products for use with people with autism, augmentative or alternative communication (AAC) needs, and developmental disabilities in several countries (Kagohara et al. …