Era of the Tablets?

phantasmagoric
Wed, 10 Aug 2011 13:52:42 +0000

That’s a pretty solid idea. Many choose to have a desktop and a laptop, but for a while it was becoming more common to have a desktop and a netbook. The popularity of netbooks is going down, probably because of tablets.

As for tablets replacing laptops, many think that’s on the horizon. When the iPad was about to come out, the most common speculation about it was, will it run OS X? Lots of people were disappointed because it can’t (and is thus more like an oversized iPhone). I read on one of the tech news sites that an Apple insider suggested that Apple is developing a full-blown OS X tablet. I think it’s widely agreed that that’s the next step in the mobile PC progression. As always, Apple will cause ripples in the tech industry (first with its desktop PC starting in the 80s, then with the iPod, then with laptops like the Air, then with the iPhone, now with the tablet) when it releases an OS X tablet and others follow. This OS X or PC tablet will probably have some dock for a keyboard so that you can use the tablet as a screen on the dock or as a tablet on the go. That would effectively make current laptops much less desirable.

Of course, that depends on new technologies for touch screens, i.e. making an affordable, sensitive multi-touch for more than 9- or 10- inch screens. IMO we’ll definitely see PC tablets within 2-3 years, though as with any new technology, it’ll be pricey.