How Will the Tablet Change the World?

"... but why do so many analysts believe that tablets are the future of computing?"

Because, like most analysts peering into their crystal balls, they are usually wrong.

This has been tried over and over again. The reason it has finally taken hold is because the time was right, the technology was ripe, but most importantly - Apple seized the day. If it wasn't for Apple's marketing and Apple's OS and forward thinking with regard to applications, the product would never have been a success.

However, tablets will not replace PCs because nothing beats a tactile keyboard and mouse for most applications. Touch screens are nice and have their niche, but are still a slower and imprecise form of input.

Additionally, it is very hard to replace my 30" monitor with a 9" screen no matter what the resolution.

Portability. It all comes back to portability and ease of use. Apart from the b*** start up process.

And I think we are a long way from leaving the 'tactile' keyboard and mouse. You only have to look at accessories for tablets - -somemob somewhere is making/flogging addon keyboards which means portability is lessened - might as well have a laptop.

end of rant

I believe Ipads, IPod and Tablets or whatever were intended for kids! for me they are a nuisance. I have both PC and Laptop. Laptop is nice but I am still going back to my good old PC. Like A.H. says nothing beats your nice 22" or 30" screen especially when you have bad sight!

Is it just me or do others see the resemblance between a tablet and an Etch-A-Sketch?

I, too, would not replace my pc with a tablet. They just don't have the horsepower I need for my job.

Security is also an issue. Do you lock it in a cabinet each night? Would you be forced to bring it home?

What about upgrades? If I want more ram in my cpu, I just add it. Same goes for switching video cards and adding peripherals. Would an upgrade to a tablet mean a whole new tablet? Every year or two?

Companies have a lot of money and resources tied up in pcs. With the economy like it is today, and like it's projected to be over the next several years, I just can't see companies, especially small ones, giving up their pcs just yet.

I think there is some of that 'old head in the ground stuff going on in this string of postings - horses for courses - right tool for the job and all those hackneyed expressions adnauseum.

I have all three (PC, laptop, Ipad ..... er four Smart phone) and use each for specific tasks. There is some overlap in abilities/use but again it comes back to right tool for the job.

(YES it is nice to have a large monitor - some of us dream of owning a large monitor)

I'm not so sure about the "head in the ground" bit. For your work, sure all of these devices may be needed, or maybe they are just more convenient.

Quote -- what will it take for them to be adopted by the enterprise side?

A lot more functionality, a lot more horsepower, a lot longer battery life, tougher construction, ability to upgrade, and the list goes on.......

Drop your iPad a time or two, see what happens. Enjoy retrieving your data from a broken pad. Accidents do happen, no matter how careful you are.

As to functionality, no doubt you could customize (or can you?) a pad to fit your needs while working remote sites. Small applications will only get you so far, though.

I'm sure you get my point.

- convenient or not- adaptive is a better way to look at things. As you may missed my point - I haven't said that the pad is all one needs -

All those points you make about grunt, battery life, toughness etc just assist in the end user making a decission about the tool they wish to use.

With regards to retreiving data - ever tried to resurect a disk, hard drive, thumbdrive, flashcard or mobilephone that decided (through damage or ????) not to do its job. Been there done that and my only answer is make sure you have a back up of the important stuff - and not in the same location if at all possible.