Please help me understand today's tablet craze?!

I think tablets are a testimony to the power of advertising/need creation. Many of my students have them and there are not clear why. Small laptops come WITH a functioning keyboard and cost less than a tablet. My students seem happier with laptops/netbooks, although they feel cooler with their tablets.

Actually, a dramatically rising sales curve often means a quicker (shorter in time) product life cycle because of a short-to-nonexistent stable period. Think Tickle Me Elmo versus Frisbee.

I'm not so sure why we're so bent on denoting the differences between E-readers and tablets. E readers are nice and amazing in the bright sunlight and have the feel of a real book but I don't think anyone is really arguing about it. The thread is about the popularity and use of "tablets"

As far as gadget phase, if you're talking about Mores Law then I suppose all of our computers are in a "gadget phase" I've been building computers for some 25 years and compared to the late 80's my wrist watch is like something from Star Trek.

I personally don't think tablets are a fad and when you have major moves of large manufacturers going to something like this, it's truly more than a fad. The cost for gearing up to make these things is huge and just about any competitive manufacturer you can name is going there. There are reasons for it. If you don't need it, pass it by. There's nothing wrong with saving money.

High Desert Charlie really pointed out the attraction and some possible directions the tablet will take. I have a wireless printer I can connect to with my tablet's built in wifi and then there is other connectivity to my desktop, laptop and home server I find useful. I can lay in bed and watch Netflix on it. I can navigate in my car with it and on and on.

It's a neat portable device for doing most of the stuff I'd do on my other machines. If I found a need to do any real typing I'd get one of those flexible keyboards but so far, that's not something I use it for.

Think very portable, fairly powerful, easy, convenient, energy efficient and then add useful for pictures, Skype, email, professional (briefcase in a slate if you will) and even amusing from games to surfing the web. It's all right there in something affordable (with obvious differences there) Mine was a little over a hundred bucks.

Right now it doesn't replace my hexacore monster on my desk but it certainly has it's uses though with a keyboard, I could live with it should robbers take my precious monster away.

I use my tablet (iPad) far more for the most common things then my laptop (or a desktop).

Email checking and short replies, web browsing, eBay (sell or buy), video conference with relatives and friends, ENDLESS news bits and weather, stocks, an MMO game, view stars.
Oh, Time magazine on iPad too.

I did not know it, but I am more informed and more efficient with tablet.

In the google play store on android you can subscribe to magazines also

Thank you for lining out exactly what a Tablet can do, what if will be able to do and the difference between it and a laptop. I actually bought my family - my daughter, son-in-law, 4 grandkids 5yr old twins and 9 yr old twins - a cheap tablet through HSN for Christmas. I am on a "fixed income" (I'm poor) and the only way was for me to get one through HSN where I could pay it out. It is a nextbook 7" and although it was initially blocked to all the apps they wanted (comes with getjar where you get the proprietary apps), my smart son-in-law figured it out - he is now able to get all the games, apps, etc., they all want on there.. It's great for the kids. But my "Kids" use it sometimes as well. I bought the upgraded 16gb memory (I think it's only up-gradable to 32gb), with a cool little mini-SD card that fits a camera card onto it. This way, my son the photographer can take pics, hook it to the minisd card and upload them, or not; can just view them.

I do not think I need one.
I don't find putting a book in my purse the least bit cumbersome.
I have a 3"x 2" digital picture holder that attaches to my keyring. I can update it with the latest photos of my grandkids, or my garden, or both.
I do not own a smartphone; I have a "pay as you go" phone, complete with qwerty keyboard (it looks exactly lie a Blackberry, but it's not) with unlimited mins and txt for $30 mo. It's all I need.
I enjoy my Dell desktop and my HP (old) laptop and for portable use I have an Acer netbook.
But my family wanted the tablet.

For them, and for the low price of $159.00, It is worth it. I got something for 6 people that they all enjoy, and I end up spending about $26.00 per person. Not bad. It's no iPad. I think the Apple products are all overpriced, but I'll let someone else explain why Apple can put an "i" in front on anything and charge a fortune for it, and get it!! It irks me. But I would like to know if you are getting what you pay for, e.g., iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad tablet.

I'll admit, if I had all the money I needed, I would buy a smartphone - a big one 4G with all the latest. I would buy either a Nook HD+ or a Kindle Fire; I would use mostly to get books a bit cheaper, but also upload eBooks from Libraries. But I do not have all the money I need or want. So I get by fine with what I have.

Thanks again for your thorough reply.

Beau

When commutinging on the subway I would bring along a section of a paperback 1/4 to 3/8" thick ripped off from the main book. it would last me the ride in and back home unless I got in a conversation. I would throw it in the trash bin as I exited the station. those sections of print books didn't need battery or recharging and need crashed and could sustain being dropped, sat on and run over by a car.
I like the android tablets, I hacked my pandigital novel e-reader to android 2.2 and it works just great for reading and watching and getting messages. for $60 it sure beats one of those overpriced Ipads- those are for the fan-boy suckers! who have no cares but to buy the lastest fad. Just MHO.

I recently discovered a cell carrier that rocks. (I hope I can say it on here) It's called Ting (ting.com) and I just yesterday went over to them from Sprint. I loved sprint but was paying $140 a month and my contract was up. At Ting, I'm getting the same network and level of service for $20-$30 per month and they even offer a basic smart phone for less than $55.

I digress from the topic here but anyone on a fixed income like me would benefit.

Ok, to tie it into the thread and not be a spammer, you can tether your device to your tablet!!! No extra charge except for bandwidth.

There.

That last thing was for Beauregard6

I'm still trying to figure out why people would want to lug a tablet around. It's an awkward size. I guess if you have a backpack or a messenger bag etc., then it's not so bad. But what if you don't? Do people walk around carrying tablets in their hands? And depending on where you are, if you lay your tablet down somewhere and turn your back for a moment, how easy is it for someone to quickly grab it and run? This goes for e-readers as well.

Speaking of books, carrying one or two around is no problem. It feels normal and natural. It is substantial and something one can easily share with others. I picked up my niece's Nook the other day and was shocked at how heavy it was for something so small. No thanks.

I too have a pay as you go phone. It can access the internet, take a few pictures or a short video, but mainly I can make phone calls. My cell phone bill is extremely low, but then again I don't walk around talking all the time. If I want to have an extended conversation, I'll do that at home.

Smartphones and such seem awkward as well, though less so than a tablet. I don't know--doing most of my surfing and email is just so much more easy and comfortable from my home PC. I realize something is needed when one is "on the go", but my guessis that many things are not so important that one cannot wait until a desktop is available. And playing games--give me a break! How much can you really see on these tiny screens?

Of course, some of my feelings re: the above are due to the fact that my fractured and half-functional right wrist has problems with smaller objects. It is impossible, for example, for me to use the ultra-tiny cameras that are so popular. I simply cannot do it.

When the iPad first came out I thought Wow!. But then reality set in. Carrying one around and staring at a small screen may seem like fun at first, but after a while the novelty would wear off. In a society where people want things RIGHT NOW, these tech toys are indicative of the power of the sales pitch and the loss of something that was considered a virtue--patience.

I think I'll head out to my local library, grab a few books and settle into one of the comfortable chairs that are provided for old thinking folks like me and leave the hustle and bustle aside for a time.

90% of the market only uses a device to surf, email, and knock around in the social media. Any tablet--what you call a Touchpad--will do this beautifully. My Nexus 7 cost $200 and works as well as any other tablet.

Handhelds are content consumers. Computers--lap or desk--produce content. 90% of the people who use data devices only need this simple tool. Anyone reading or commenting in this forum, by definition, can make use of more than a handheld.

When we see them in the $100 range, we'll know that they are truly a disposable appliance.

. . . we'll know that they are truly a disposable appliance.

According to ifixit (htttp://www.ifixit.com) the iPad2 is essentially unfixable. Therefore, at roughly the $400+ range they are truly a disposable appliance. I wonder how many buyers know that?

I saw that blurb of "unfixable" but then I have to comment on how unfixable most of this stuff is. I had a friend who's Asus laptop might be having an issue with the socket where you plug the power cord in. As a friend I can fix it for her for free but there would be a good six hours of work getting to it and then the part is around $60. (ridiculous!!!) You almost have to take the whole thing apart to get to it. (I managed with a dental pick to expand the contacts and then she has to be "careful" with it for now)

My point is that most stuff is pretty expensive to fix though tablets are even more compressed and crazy with fewer "components" that you can actually get to.

I have never really been a fan of Apple but I have to admit that they have really nice products. Whether they're worth twice as much? Who knows? They've done their research, and have made wildly accepted items. (what gripes me is proprietary stuff but then that's just me)

I guess the point I'm trying to make though is that most stuff today is pretty expensive to fix so protect it with padded cases and don't drop stuff that cost you a zillion bucks. Most of the failures that are really expensive are the result of physical abuse. Screens, sockets and buttons.

Apples products are nice to look at, but using them is a pain in the but. to change any common setting you have to go dig through the uncustomizeable mess of apps (they have recently added folders though) to find the settings app, then you have to dig through all the settings to do whatever you want to do, whether its turn off wifi or turn up brightness or change your password. my galaxy tab has a brightness slider, wifi, bluetooth, sync, driving mode, gps, toggles (there are a couple I can't think of) all on the notification area, my phone has a lot of those, and you can put widgets to do these things on the home screen. You can pick what apps are on the home screens, and you can tell it to put all of your apps in alphabetical order, or arrange them how you like. you can install better keyboards, apps not from the itunes store and whatever else you want. You also have micro sd card slots, so they do overcharge you for storage.

...the commands/settings are shared among their devices. Using the various Android devices this simply isn't the case more often than not. It can be a bit of a huge clusterfluff. I'm not going to even get into what I think about the low end Android tablets....

And believe it or not a lot of folks don't care about the extra level of customization that Android provides, nor do they care much about adding storage. I can see the advantages of both, so I use both for that very reason.

The low end android isn't what it used to be, there used to be a lot of random manufacturers you had never heard of putting cheap crappie on the shelves. The lower end androids today usually do the normal casul games, Web browsing, and whatever else fine, of course graphic intense games won't be as good, they do everything else including 1080p video great. I'm not really sure what the first time 3 sentences of yours are talking about, the settings are almost exactly the same on all androids, yes new features are added to new versions, but apple does that also. The buttons are slightly different on different phones, but I can't stand not having a back button on the iphone, when it was the only thing I had used I didn't notice how annoying it is. I also like the app menu button, so you don't have to find where the developer hid the app settings.

I tested two or three lower end Android tablets before Xmas this year. All less than $200. Buggy little beasts they were, but the Coby was probably the best that I used, and it might have been the cheapest. In this regard, there are still plenty of random ones for sale @ Target, Walmart, etc. Obviously you & I know to avoid them if possible, unless it's a budget conscious purchase that's a need.

Regarding settings on devices running Android, you mean to tell me that everything setting for a particular app in the same place/looks the same on each of those devices(?) Android is inconsistent in this sense.

I haven't seen any tablets below $200 at a retail store, but I did know you can still get them on amazon, I was really meaning that there aren't any new android devices like that (3.0 and up)
and no, obviously the app developers don't put all the same settings in the same places with the same font and color, ios developers don't do that either. You implied that the device settings are completely different, which they aren't, I like the fact that android has a menu button, so the settings are easy to find in every app.

<i>"Apples products are nice to look at, but using them is a pain in the
but. to change any common setting you have to go dig through the
uncustomizeable mess"</i>

but how is this different from all computers for the onrnery user?

E.g. now for some reason the Back and Up buttons have disappeared from my computer making navigation cumbersome, so I know it will be like that for 2 weeks till I get a b.i.l. to fix it (and then he will probably waste most time fixing something else I don't want fixed ) or better, one of the kind helpers here.

I was mostly referring to the widgets on the home screen, and the settings in the notification shade on androids, I wasn't talking about windows.

It's not a zero-sum game. It's the difference between consumption of content and creation of content. If someone doesn't understand that, they'll never understand why there's such a market for tablets. It's also about how that content is being delivered... via your internet provider over your own network or literally anywhere via 3G and 4G.

When I'm working I primarily use my desktop at my desk with the big monitor and keyboard. But that's the way my work life is set up. I have a netbook because I am a fast typist and thought I could use it on the patio. I do, but the processor is just not fast enough for my taste. So I don't use it for work as much as I thought I would. And yes, I didn't expect it to be a desktop (or even powerful laptop). Even my smartphone (Droid) has a slideout keyboard. I write and I love keys to press.

BUT I also consume content. I can read this column (as well as the NYT) on my phone but I won't watch video on it. Too small. I have an e-reader only for reading books. That's all it does, but that's all I need it to do.

My next purchase is going to be a tablet for sure. I am obviously not buying it to replace my content production devices, but for consumption. I want to be able to watch streaming video content and play games in larger format than my smartphone and I don't want to be stuck at my desk. The tablet serves a definite purpose and as others have said, it was not designed to replace a production machine, but as the amount of available content grows from a variety of sources, the flexibility and mobility provided by a tablet is the right thing at the right time. Will it replace my Kindle Paperwhite? maybe. Will need to see how comfortable it is to read anywhere and everywhere. But since the Kindle e-reader is so inexpensive, I'm not really worried about it.

Too many people replying to these posts have the all or nothing view. It's so very tedious. I think there is definitely a market that is not going away for a truly portable CONSUMPTION-based device.

I think you are right on the money with the way things will go. I am especially sad to have to agree with your paragraph #4. I do understand why people will like the using the cloud, but I can not understand for the life of me why people would want to store their business in someones elses "cloud".

Believe it or not, but a lot of companies/ corporate entities are creating their own private clouds. know this, because who I am working for is building the infrastructure to support it in the near future. Also, you can make your own private cloud at home. I haven't made one yet, as I don't need one at this time, but I know a coworker who made one so he can keep all his music stored on a home server, no need to pay for someone else to do it.

I see some claim they have a cloud but I walk up to their cloud rack and flick the power off to one server and their system vanishes. That's no cloud. That's a server.
Bob

Too many people hear the word "Cloud" and all they can think of is Dropbox or Google. That is, people think that Clouds are public. In business, with regulated data such as PCI-DSS, HIPAA and CJIS rules, companies, as a whole, worry about the Terms of Service of the public cloud companies and what kinds of fines they can receive if their customers' data is exposed. The company gets fined, not the cloud provider. By keeping their clouds private they can at least adjust the security to match the data being stored.

Hi. I read this hoping to give myself a little justification for having bought an iPad. I knew I didn't really need it and it was somewhat frivilous, but I love electronics and was convinced by my brother that I would love one as much as he loves his. Well, your article not only made me feel better that I spent the money, but it also gave me some insights on another future purchase I've been thinking about--a light-weight and fast laptop. I have been watching the SSD sizes increasing and the prices decreasing, but still it would be a teriffically large amount of money to buy what I wanted. Your points told me there might be other better alternatives down the road that could still give me the speed and portability I want. I'm a person who doesn't buy every new electronic that comes along but I have made occasional less than well-researched mistakes (like the $250 Acer Aspire One I bought from Costco because it is very light weight; but found that it's so irritatingly slow I never use it). Thanks so much for your observations--they've convinced me to wait for a while and watch what is going on in the world of outside servers as you descrbed in item 4 before I get too excited about spending a lot of money on another laptop.

I agree with pretty much everything said. Since I use pc/laptop both for what I consider real work (photo editing, typing, making videos, etc.) and I need the control of a keyboard, I was just annoyed with the tablet. Tapping continuously to attempt to accomplish a task and finding it didn't respond, I hit the wrong "key" or things just opened/closed when they weren't supposed to. I wanted NO part of it!

I'm not a gamer, prefer a book to reading on a tablet, and hardly ever spend time searching the web. I want to install software and use it, without updating every day or paying more to add more features. And, as of this moment, I am not ready to trust all my files to "somewhere in space."

However, once I loaded Slingbox I found my advantage. I travel a lot but want to watch my own TV. I'm able to with Slingbox on my tablet. Everything on my DVR is available to me when I'm not at home. Yes, this could be done on the laptop, but the tablet is more convenient for this. I also check e-mail and fb.

I totally understand the attraction for others, but not for myself. By the way, I read a lot of this on my tablet, but jumped to my computer to type!

Reply to my own post: I forgot to mention that when ordering my new laptop last year, I insisted on a non-glare screen so that I could sit outdoors and still use it. My iPad reflects everything! Another reason it becomes impractical for me.

Tablet and the smaller touchpad devices such as the Itouch and Android devices are new tools. Similar to a new tool you would use in your garage or kitchen gadget. You don't need to have one to do similar items. For example in the Garage you have screw drivers and then come the powered screw drivers. Or in the Kitchen you have a spoon and then comes the blender to mix the cake and cookie mixes.

The tablets are fast and quick: in comparison to Laptop and Desktops for some of the following:
Power on is instant- Power down is just as quick- No pressing start then shutdown to power off.
Emails: I have numerous email accounts for various reason. With the old method I have to go to each account and sign in then read and or reply to each email. With the tablet all my email accounts are checked with 1 application.
For general web surfing say to your favorite forum such as Cnet- or Facebook or Twitter you can read through all the questions and answers without begin stuck to a power cord or network cord and having 5 to 10 lbs sitting in your lap.
The tablets can interact: with your TV, Stereo remotely, I have nearly all my CDs reduce to MP3 and stored on my device so I can listen to them or tie into a Pandora or other online music service and listen to any music that is broadcast anywhere in the World anywhere I am without lugging a Laptop. So it can be a super radio as long as you are near a Wifi source or have a 4G connection.
Also you mentioned lack of Storage:. While this is true, more and more information is moving to the Cloud Storage. And many movies can be loaded to the Cloud for viewing when ever you like. Note: Ultraviolet in Blue-ray movies. Also there are many online document storage solutions so data storage is slowing becoming obsolete on laptops and desktops.
Another think is the photos being store on applications such as Picasa, Snapfish and such allow you to have all your photos at your finger tips with the instant on.
Movies are also streamed via Netflix, Hulu, HBO.GO and many others and yo don't ave to sit in a place with a tabletop.

Tablets can replace heavy books: Take the Harry Potter Series- You can load the whole series onto your tablet and carry on a plane to read, while waiting at doctors office, waiting for the kids to get out of school.

Now you can do all these things with both laptops and notebooks. As mention already if your typing a lot then the tablet is not very easy. But for portability A tablet weighs very little in comparison to a Laptop. And not much for than a wireless keyboard.
The tablet will never full replace my desktop in my book. Nor will it 100 percent replace my TV, Stereo receiver or my DVD/Blue-ray player. But it can supplement them all while I am not at home near any of those devices.

With so many references to "portability" of tablets and handhelds, I think the math is simple here. For years if you asked most people who spent time online whether they considered themselves introverts or extraverts, I believe it was about 70% who answered "introverted". Tablets and handhelds finally give extraverts who are on-the-move, socialitic types and travellers an excellent way to stay in touch with the global network, the all knowing god of google and a whole range of communication opportunities.

It is more about becoming a node without becoming a nerd and having the freedom to be out in the world and not tethered to a home computer for simple email and browsing the net. Regardless they are probably here to stay... old episodes of Star Trek the Next Generation consistently show tables littered with a variety of tablet sizes and shapes... so despite Apple's main claim to fame, they have been envisioned for years and we obviously like the convenience.

Desktops and laptops are still more incredible with their power and ability to provide a more serious creative platform for content originators. Larger screens are significantly more immersive too.

I am sure we will be seeing 'tablets' in the 22" slate size soon and those annoying hunt and peck virtual keyboards will likely simply be replaced with wireless bluetooth keyboards for all our devices, I use one for my TV, tablet and even my iPod.

Doctors are indicating more shoulder and wrist problems due to holding tablets and recommend leaning the tablet up against something and placing a keyboard in front of it to type... hmmmm that sure sounds like a familar item we already have, so there may be some credence to the fad of a keyboardless computer.