I’ve been hearing a lot lately about tablets – from Apple or Crunchpad (which is turning into a soap opera). In some ways they sound pretty cool – the form factor and a long battery life for a very portable device sound pretty neat (almost like a Star Trek Next Generation thing). However, netbooks are challenging the value proposition of a tablet – due to the price point. These days you can get a notebook for under $400 – a multipurpose machine (albeit without much computing power). From what I can tell the tablets won’t be as capable as a netbook PC – but will cost more. I’m not sure if people are going to be willing to pay more for a less capable device. The battery life may be a key factor – as to me if I want a tablet form factor I want a long battery life – like over 8 hours.
The other trend involved here that my influence the tablet is the move to cloud computing. As we move more and more toward our apps on the web (not locally) the form factor of a tablet may become a lot more popular. Google’s “Chrome” operating system is essentially recognizing that trend – with the browser being the operating system. I personally still have some reservations with this trend – because of the apps I use. That said, the appeal of having my stuff anywhere I want it is fascinating. I’m not sure that broadband connectivity is there yet – as it can be challenging at times to get a good connection.
So I wouldn’t invest too much in tablets yet – as event the one from Apple is a mystery as of now – but would watch and see how the work out. I do love my laptop (even though my back sometimes doesn’t) – so maybe there’s the start…
