Craig Pringle has sparked an interesting conversation about whether the time is ripe for Tablets.
Here’s what some are saying:
Warner Crocker chimes in with some great points suggesting that Tablets still need better Office and OS “transparency.”
Layne says that last year was the year of the Tablet and that the next few years to come will be the years of the highly mobile PCs.
Rob Bushway also wants better ink integration and further sees that the success of ink across more and more devices is the key.
On the hardware side I agree with Layne. The devices to watch are those that are being enabled by new hardware technologies. Intel is leading the way with new processor and connectivity hardware–making new, smaller, more power efficient devices practical.
I’d also suggest people watch digitizer and display technologies over the coming year. Improvements in combined touch and active digitizers for a wide range of display sizes could make a huge difference in “ink adoption.”
(As an aside: Just imagine, for instance, if someone would integrate a scanner and/or camera directly into a Tablet “display.” Imagine the possibilities. Point is, there’s still lots or room for innovation here.)
On the software side I agree with Rob and Warner. Ink needs to be accessible in more places. One key area where we need to add ink support is across the web–and in particular across all the browers. As I’ve blogged about before, when I look around at how my neighbors use computers, they spend the greatest amount of their time in the browser–where ink isn’t. Even if they had a Tablet, they couldn’t leverage the ink part without jumping through hoops. Some may argue that the issue is that there isn’t enough compelling ink content. I don’t. I don’t think we’ve made the technology practical enough for the end users, the developers, and the hardware folks.
One more thing about Tablet adoption: When I drove around town to buy the iMac last week I went to four stores that all carry a variety of computers. Each one of them had Apples on display and in a form I was willing to pay for. All of them except one (you might guess who 🙂 ) carried Windows notebooks and desktops too. But guess what? Not a single Tablet. And two of these companies used to have them. I don’t know how many computer stores carry Tablets in town, but I do know that I’m only seeing them in one chain now–Best Buy. I haven’t seen Tablets in local computer stores–in the big chains or the small independents–for about the last six months.
Now, Tablets do not have to be in the big chains for them to succeed. Actually, for me, I’d rather see Tablets in more independent resellers and VARs–and maybe this will happen when ASUS’s tablet hit the market this summer. I can’t wait to see what happens.
The simple truth is that at least for now, if you want to buy a Tablet you have to go online or maybe purchase one through a school program. We’ll have to see if this supresses the market. At the beginning this was a huge problem, but now that there are more Tablets in the hands of people who can share their experiences, maybe this won’t be as big a deal. Maybe.
One thing is for sure: As a developer, I know I’ve only begun to scratch the surface when it comes to what I’d really like to create. There are many great features and apps I want to write. And as a user, I know how much Tablets have influenced my productivity and expressiveness. Tablets, to me, are still quite inspiring and as such I’ll continue to use them.
