RE: Who really needs a stinking tablet, anyway?

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Who really needs a stinking tablet, anyway?

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techconc 18th Nov

@Tim Acheson

What I find amusing is a recent pattern in the press which seems to acknowledge that there isn't an overall tablet market, rather there is an iPad market. Though Amazon and Barnes and Noble seem to have some battle for traction on a low end type of a device.

Basically, it goes like this. Android has crashed and burned with the horde of challengers this year. Same with HP and WebOS. Microsoft doesn't even have anything to field at this point and likely won't until late in 2012. Even then, it's not as if their Windows Phone has managed to gather any significant traction. Most of the PC OEMs seem to be losing interest in the overall tablet market though as evidenced by a recent digitimes article. That leaves Apple. Well, if Apple is going to lead the market, we might as well just try to downplay the market entirely, right?

In terms of the article, I have a PC, I have a laptop, I have a smartphone and I have a tablet. Do I NEED a tablet? No. Do I need a smartphone? No, a dumb phone would meet my most basic requirements. Do I need a laptop? No. Do I need a PC? Yes, I think it's fair to say that we need a PC in some form or another in this day and age. So, why do we have all of these devices then? Convenience. And we're willing to pay for this convenience.

I agree with the notion that a tablet has less overall functionality than a laptop for example. Yet, I spend more time on my tablet (iPad 2). Why? Because the overall experience is much better on that device for the function I'm using it for. It's that simple. This is a trend that is more likely to continue and grow as other users experience tablets as well. As computers evolve, they are going to become more like appliances that require less maintenance and configuration. iOS is the obvious early example, but even Microsoft is headed in this direction. Burying your head in the sand and hoping the entire market goes away isn't going to very effective for you.