The Tablet Dilemma

I would like to consider myself an expert on tablets, but most would find that laughable. I own a tablet, in fact you may not believe this, but I am writing on one now.

Okay, it was a long shot. Few people will remember that old commercial.

I want to be an expert on tablets, but most of what I learn comes from Gizmodo. I don’t have the money to indulge my passion (any of them), and I don’t have a job that lets me get free models to review. I do work in IT, but in an environment where we spend more time keeping aging systems running than on integrating cutting edge systems.

But, I do think about tablets a lot…and reading about them wherever can. Gizmodo often comes across as an Applefanboy reunion. Like so many others, they want the iPad to be everything that Steve Jobs says it is, the revolutionary device that changes everything. Yes, they have drunk the Kool-Aid and come to kneel in the Fruit Church.

So, naturally you get a huge argument when you stand forth and declare the truth…

It’s nothing but an iPhone with a really big screen.

Now, I am not disputing that it is more than an iPhone, but it is more than an iPhone in one dimension only…size.

Nor, am I disputing that size matters. There are many functions on a smart phone that fall somewhere between annoying and impossible, and most of those functions will rise up the scale when your screen is 4 times larger. Difficult things become a joy and impossible things become doable.

The true lesson of the iPad is simple.

Most people don’t need all that computing power.

Of course, actually the iPad only accelerated our acceptance of this lesson. Netbooks had already shown us that most of the time we don’t need all the power of a modern PC. The iPad has destroyed the Netbooks market on one factor…simplicity. Simplicity will always trump complexity, especially when it bears the holy symbol of the Fruit Church.

But, to get back to the dilemma, is it enough?

Is it enough that a Tablet does the same things as your phone, and very little more? It obviously wasn’t enough for tablets to put the power of a PC into a more portable form factor. In case you haven’t noticed, UMPCs (Windows Tablets) never sold very well. The iPad has sold more units in its short life than all models of Windows Tablets combined, and that goes back quite a few years.

Now it should be remembered the iPad, as well as Android tablets have some advantages over Windows Tablets, like boot up time and battery life. Those give these new tablets an advantage that the old Windows Tablets cannot overcome with added versatility and power.

I think that a tablet should be more than a really big phone. App Developers are working hard at making the iPad and Android tablets more than big phones, but is that enough?

I don’t think so. I think that the OEMs need to consider the middle ground, the spot between the ultimate portability of the smart phone and the ultimate computing power of the PC. The modern portable PC is the first step down, providing most of the computing power in a mostly portable form factor. I say mostly portable because some of the desktop replacement models can give you a hernia, but the ultra portables, like the MacBook Air or the Dell Latitude E4200, make portability a priority and sacrifice power.

The tablet seems to fit right in between, but so far they are all glorified smartphones or handicapped PCs. Maybe someone can find the true middle ground.