Can Tablets Do a Laptop's Job?

In effect, they already are--but called touch-screens rather than tablets.

Strange question. My Xoom tablet has a perfectly adequate bluetooth keyboard for those times the virtual keyboard is a pain to use.

That said, tablets are not yet up to replacing most of the engineering/manufacturing applications bound to my desktop or laptop.

To me, the hardware isn't the issue, processing power and screen size are.

Hooker

I think the headline here is inappropriate for the question. The article talks about the use of the pad for "remote machine monitoring". Not only is machine monitoring a miniscule subset of what a laptop is used for, I would question how often a laptop computer is even used for "remote machine monitoring".

Does anyone know of a situation in which a laptop is used for remote machine monitoring? Any monitoring of machinery I've seen with an interactive display has either been attached to the machinery, or within walking distance and in line of sight. Or in a separate, decidedly non-mobile, control room.

I suspect when tablets are used for machine monitoring, you will find them bolted to the wall, or on a pedestal, or directly on the machine. They will be there because they are the most capable, and least expensive, touch panel solution. Mobility won't be a factor.

"Mobility won't be a factor."

I'll quibble about this a bit.

My Xoom tablet has very functional wi-fi and bluetooth capabilities built in to support mobility. What is questionable in my mind is the ability of a tablet to handle apps (Android or otherwise) to support such things as "remote machine monitoring".

I am just beginning to investigate Android app development with an eye to manufacturing/machine support, so I suppose the jury is still out. I don't see (yet) any major deal breakers, though.

Security may be the major issue, if my intuition has any credibility.

Hooker

For me absolutely not...