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Filed under: Mobile Devices •

Tablet Madness

Whether or not the mythical Apple “iPad” will ever grace our presence, the idea of tablet device seems to be cresting the point of critical mass. While many have tried and failed in this area, the environment for tablets is dramatically different than only a year or two ago. Here’s why…

1) Connectivity - One of the key issues with a tablet device is being connected to the internet. It makes way more sense to have a full screen device when you can connect anywhere. Wifi is now nearly everywhere and 3G/EVDO is everywhere else. 4G, just around the corner, promises to deliver 60 megabits/second… this is faster than most of our home, or office, connections.

2) Netbook success - After years of ever-growing laptop sizes, the trend towards “less is more” has definitely taken over. Netbooks are more than computing, they are high-portable computing. Their only real impediment is making room for the keyboard.

3) The Cloud - As we move more and more to the cloud (Google docs, Zoho, Salesforce.com, etc)… We become less and less connected to a single computer for everything we do. We don’t need to have our music, our calendar, or our documents local to the CPU. While this may not work for graphics professionals… it’s a contributing factor to popular demand for a tablet.

4) The iPhone - More than anything else, the iPhone is the bellwether of the rising storm of tablets. As the applications available approach 100,000, the way people use their iPhone has changed dramatically. It has gone from a phone with some applications to a portable internet device that happens to answer calls.

5) Web Video - With everything from Netflix to Hulu to iTunes to You Tube serving up high-quality web video, a portable way to watch this becomes more and more appealing. While the iPhone has proven to be a force in this area, it’s viewing range is painfully limited (hardly “arms reach”). The video available is also ready for a bigger screen. This is why, of course, this article is in PVC and not Engadget…

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Bravo Alex. You certainly have great insight into potential tablet applications. Thanks for sharing some of them with us.

Allan Tépper

Posted by Allan Tépper  on  10/06  at  05:29 PM

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what is Hardwire?

Posted by Mike Curtis  on  10/07  at  01:41 PM

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