Sean D. Francis

The Rise of the Tablet

Posted on 28 January 2010

All day yesterday I followed the news about Apple’s new consumer electronic device, the heralded Apple tablet and I was confused and puzzled.  I couldn’t see how, why, in what way anyone would want something like this when they could get more power and performance from a netbook or convenience from a smart phone.

I admit that I am a little afraid that my reaction is more due to my age and inability to easily adapt to new technologies, so while I voiced my criticism I hedged it by saying Apple is known for it’s category building, game changing efforts.  I had the first mp3 player and I didn’t see why the iPod suddenly got all the attention since it did everything my Diamond Rio did… except for holding hours upon hours of music and having a software package that made it easy to manage the music stored on it.  Normal things a normal user needs to have to  make such a device usable.

I took my laptop to bed with me last night because I was doing some reading on it and writing up some responses to some friends.  I’ve often taken the laptop to bed for this purpose and I don’t find it cumbersome.  In the morning I hauled the laptop up to the bed to check my email and it hit me.  This is what a tablet would be good for – checking email in the morning from bed.

I’m over simplifying but it is at moments like that when my eyes are bleary that I would want a larger brighter screen without the bulk of the laptop.  Yes, a netbook doesn’t have a lot of bulk, but it has all those keys which my mind can’t deal with first thing in the morning. It also can’t easily come with me as I go about my morning where a lightweight tablet can.

I can also see where having something you hold would be more convenient on an airplane or other commuting situations.  But in that line of thought, as I ride the el and need one hand to hold onto a bar and the other hand to hold onto the tablet, I need a way to control the device with my thumb.

There is room for a third device in the consumer’s tech bag, but I don’t think Apple has it.  I need the device to multi task.  I never run just one application at a time.  I need something that connects to my home network.  I don’t ever want a stand alone device in my home.  I have multiple locations for information and I don’t always remember on what device I created something and whether or not I saved it to a common storage area.  If I’m in bed and need to call up a document on my tablet I want to be able to do that without relying on the cloud, but the tablet better interface with the cloud in a seamless fashion.

Apple has take the bold step in creating an affordable device that helps define the category.  This is great and definitely is moving in the right direction.  It just isn’t there yet.  Hopefully the second generation will allow me to connect to external storage devices and have an sd card slot.