There's no evolution in electronics. Someone has to actually decide something else is needed. If the PDA wasn't a fad, it would still be around. The laptop hasn't "evolved" into anything else, nor has the desktop PC.
And the evolution of the tablet PC will be what exactly? At which time your tablet PC will be in a neoprene sleeve, because the tablet doesn't just morph into the newest fad electronic gadget while in your closet.I find nothing awkward about a 7inch or 10 inch tablets form factor. I guess it was marketing hype that drove touchpad sales too. Tablets are simply the evolution of the netbook market. Its the exact reason why you don't see any new netbooks.
If tablet PCs weren't a fad, they would not need to evolve.
I see dozens of people wearing their pants down around their knees with long shirts covering their asses. Is that not a fad?I see dozens of people with tablets at school each day that are using them for all kinds of things from internet usage to note taking. I see many people with them on the train as well. I see people playing games on them, watching movies, and reading books.
The number of people doing it does not negate my contention that it's a fad.
I do not live in a big city, nor commute, so I dont see anyone using tablets, but I pretty much agree with DMC.
I do not see the use in tablets. So much so that I know nothing about them and know no one who owns one except a family member of mine who just likes to buy the latest and greatest for whatever reason people do that for.
Tablets are, first and foremost, super light, very easy to hold and carry media consumption devices. They do this better than a laptop because the are super light and very easy to hold and carry. Also, if you are not a moron, they are cheaper than a laptop too.
If you are like me you can turn them into creation devices as well by attaching a bluetooth keyboard which I realize pretty much turns it into a really cheap, but still pretty powerful laptop, but it is one that can very easily turn back into a very cheap, super light . . . . you get the picture.
You don't need to commute in order to feel justified in owning these. You can just carry it room to room if you got wireless in your home. Much better than lugging a hot ass laptop around if I just want to read an article or two.
A much faster and cheaper tablet. Not different than the evolution of Desktop PC's or Laptops.
Arguably, at least as far as the iPad is concerned, the bulk of sales is to the personal use market.
It's perfectly fine that you might not have found a use for one though. Everybody is different.
I predict the tablet itself will be replaced by something smaller, or something that has a flexible screen that allows the unit to fold in half. Ergonomically, the tablet is a mess for anything other than casual apps.
So you see it as just a cheaper laptop with the option to remove the keyboard and use a touch screen.
How does being a moron make your tablet less expensive than a laptop? Someone who's willing to not shop for bargains with tablets also won't shop for them with laptops.
I find it amusing that some of you get personally offended over something like this because you've developed a "pot committed" at ude towards it (you are invested) and will defend it to the grave.
Sony just released a dual screen folding tablet, and they still call it a tablet. I would disagree in the ergonomic factor too. Ergonomically it's better than a netbook/laptop, IMO.
Agree to disagree, I guess.
I stopped reading your previous post when you said that electronics don't evolve. Thats just a whole lot of stupid. I'm curious as to who you think is offended, though. People just disagree with you. Not every response to one of your stupid posts means someone is offended.So you see it as just a cheaper laptop with the option to remove the keyboard and use a touch screen.
How does being a moron make your tablet less expensive than a laptop? Someone who's willing to not shop for bargains with tablets also won't shop for them with laptops.
I find it amusing that some of you get personally offended over something like this because you've developed a "pot committed" at ude towards it (you are invested) and will defend it to the grave.
I am not offended, I brought it up because if I didn't and just said that tablets are cheaper than laptops, then that is easy to refute. there are a plethora of decent 350 dollar laptops that any moron can find. there are only probably two decent tablets for that or under, but any moron would probably go buy a 500 dollar ipad or xoom.So you see it as just a cheaper laptop with the option to remove the keyboard and use a touch screen.
How does being a moron make your tablet less expensive than a laptop? Someone who's willing to not shop for bargains with tablets also won't shop for them with laptops.
I find it amusing that some of you get personally offended over something like this because you've developed a "pot committed" at ude towards it (you are invested) and will defend it to the grave.
Your post makes no sense to me.
Why would a moron buy top price tablets but not top priced notebooks?
The cheap tablets are no harder to find than the cheap notebooks.
If you want to misuse the word "evolve", don't let me stand in your way.
Tablet PCs are being developed that more resemble just a laptop with a touch screen.The fact that you can purchase BT keyboards is enough evidence that people want keyboards. Many people want to pair a small device that will fit in their pocket, where they can move data and have easy access to it rather than lug a laptop sized touchscreen around. It's still bersome to carry around a tablet PC as much as a notebook PC. Apple makes notebook PCs that are very light, very thin, and really take up not much more room than the tablet. They are much more expensive, but then you aren't required to purchase plans and buy the apps as most are already installed.
Like I said, I know several people who had to run out and buy the Ipad when it was introduced. I don't know anyone who still uses it. Any time I visit these people, the Ipad is nowhere to be found, and when I want to show them something online, they go to book their PC. I ask about the Ipad and they have often said "Oh yeah... let me go get it" and out it comes in the leather or neoprene sleeve.
Are they neat? yeah. If they were free I would take one for sure, but they are a fad. Their sales will dwindle as the desktop and notebook PCs continue to dominate the market.
The only caveat to that is Apple's ability to protect their infrastructure and their dedicated consumer base. They could remain viable longer than the rest simply because they are the only source for their particular platform.
Last I checked, the Ipad wouldn't even pair with the Iphone without some wrangling.
I've seen that one and others that have split screens. I was referring to a film technology that allows the screen to be somewhat folded (think folded outside the device, not inside so it's a rounder fold).
If you could put an Ipad 2 in your pocket, it would be much more appealing to the user than something the size of a notebook they have to lug around. It would also fit into a smaller sized purse.
I see these market regressing to an add on or middle man between the laptop and desktop but in business there will still be applications where the tablet format is useful.
Not sure how old you are, but tablets have been introduced a few times over the past 30 years, each time they were all the rage for a short while then faded for the same reasons I think these will (they lag behind the laptop and desktops in software and hardware tech).
I'm old enough to have lived the entire personal computer revolution, and tablets were introduced a lot of times over the the past 30 years and they were never the rage. They actually never caught on. The biggest failure was always the same: It was a PC in a tablet form factor with an OS designed for a mouse, not a touchscreen.
That's what Apple/Android got right, and that made the tablet finally gain steam. Now Microsoft is quickly running and designing a touch-aware version of Windows (Win8) and an App store. I'm pretty sure they see these things might stick around, and where the money is going to come from.
As far as putting an iPad on my pocket, well, we'll have to see what that looks like. What I've seen from flexible OLED, it's a thin film. Not sure how that'll work for touchscreen, etc. Ultimately though, something like that would be the nail in the coffin for laptops too.
I think tablets are one of those areas in which you can really tell the difference between having a use and having a need. I don't think much of anyone, outside of very specific business applications, actually needs a tablet. They have changed the way people are able to do things, but they have not really provided anything new to do. And, perhaps in the long run, their lack of necessity will lead to waning interest as people go back to machines that do what tablets do with more power (laptops) or more portability (smart phones).
For instance, I haven't bought a tablet because I have absolutely zero need for one. I have a laptop currently, which I very seldom take out of the house unless I'm going on vacation, so I already know that I have little need for mobile computing. And, if I did develop a need to actually go portable with my portable device, I don't think I would need the convenience of a tablet badly enough to make it worth owning along with a laptop. Therefore, I am one of probably a large number of people for whom a tablet would be completely superfluous and won't buy one for that reason.
That being said, it's pretty ridiculous to suggest that because tablets aren't needed, they aren't useful. Of course they are. And though I'm pretty firmly in the camp of thinking them silly, I have no doubts that I'd use the out of one if someone just gave me an iPad or something out of the blue.
Bad comparison, incidentally. The tablets that have been introduced repeatedly have never been as convenient/comfortable to use as the tablets being released now. My previous laptop was convertible, with the screen swinging around and closing to be used as a tablet, and I loved the idea of that feature but almost never used it. It was great in theory to have touch screen use of my full power laptop, access to all of my do ents and programs, etc., but even lightweight laptops are way too heavy/bulky to make them comfortable to use as a tablet for more than a few minutes. When I had that feature, I'd invariably end up working with it on a table, in which case why go out of standard laptop mode?
Relative to their counterpart laptops and desktops and user understanding, they were on par with what we have now. They were indeed the rage amongst computer savvy people (there were many fewer than now of course).
The same is almost as true with the tablet. Many people find a flat surface to use it on. Some will hold it, but I've seen plenty put it on a surface to use it because unlike an Iphone, you cannot do the thumb thing while you hold it. You have to hold it with one hand and operate it with the other, and if you are in keyboard mode and don't want to hunt and peck, you have to find a surface including your lap.My previous laptop was convertible, with the screen swinging around and closing to be used as a tablet, and I loved the idea of that feature but almost never used it. It was great in theory to have touch screen use of my full power laptop, access to all of my do ents and programs, etc., but even lightweight laptops are way too heavy/bulky to make them comfortable to use as a tablet for more than a few minutes. When I had that feature, I'd invariably end up working with it on a table, in which case why go out of standard laptop mode?
If you find someone giving away Ipads, I will sacrifice my time and pick one up as well.
why can't you do the thumb thing
Never mind, I have big hands. I can very easily type on a ten inch or a seven inch. I would think that even people with small hands would have no problem typing on a seven inch tab.
What's need to be said about the tablet market is that the components are much cheaper and have a much better long-term hardware development potential. Basically, laptops today use chips that were never really designed top to bottom to be used mobile. Even the mobile versions of CPUs still have to accommodate a good chunk of legacy circuitry supporting legacy instruction sets and features because the Desktop market demanded it.
On the other hand, tablets have taken a mobile-from-the-get-go tech, by borrowing the ARM architecture which is much better suited to mobile (which happens to be cheaper too). Today designing powerful laptops is a challenge from both a energy and heat standpoint. And it is a design/architectural problem. With Dual/Quad core ARM CPUs at gigahertz rates and multi-stream GPUs coming down the pipe, I can see actual laptops being built on ARM architecture in the future, even if it might feel a bit of a step back at the beginning from a raw processing power standpoint.
I think the decision from Microsoft to develop Windows targeting ARM points at this. The margins on hardware are extremely thin right now, and if you could build systems with even cheaper components, then that's exactly where the market is going to head to, IMO.
What I mean is, unlike the Iphone or other smartphone, you cannot do it with one hand. On my BB I can hold the device with one hand and type (helpful when driving, but I would never do that).
The tablet attempts to fill a niche that's filled by one of the two platforms already, the laptop or the PDA/Smartphone.
Like CF said, there's no need for it, but that doesn't mean you cannot find a use for it. I can find a use for the 500 dollars it cost.
You quickly run out of things to do with it though. It becomes a big smartphone without the phone aka PDA.
Why were netbooks so succesful?
I know what you are getting at here, but my answer to the question posed is: I don't know!
When you have to wait at least 45 seconds (sometimes more) for word to open, then there is something wrong.
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