The case for a tablet

A lot of people responded rather negatively to my last post questioning whether Nokia had a tablet strategy and decrying the entire idea of the tablet market as little more than a gimmick – Too large to be a phone and marginally more functional but smaller than an even a netbook and significantly less productive.

Truthfully I agree with them, especially when taking the time to look at the current tablet landscape. Lets be real, there’s no way I can do more, for longer on a tablet that I couldn’t do on my laptop for example and if I happen to possess a rather functional and/or high-end smartphone I certainly don’t have a pressing need for a larger screened device that can do the same tasks slightly better. It’s simply not a cost-effective idea. Unfortunately, much like Steve Jobs alluded to, tablets represent a sort of post PC device. A device made for a new kind of user, a new paradigm of usage and likely to represent the device of the future. I do NOT agree with his statement that the iPad in it’s current iteration is representative of that, but that tablets could represent the sort of shift that we saw most recently with the massive growth of the smartphone market but also with laptops outselling desktop PC’s 6 years ago.

The move to greater portability while maintaining or increasing functionality is an ongoing one and has defined consumer electronics for as long as I can remember. Look down at your current smartphone and realize that it can likely do as much if not more than your desktop PC could do barely 10 years ago. And while many of you see the tablet as a device sitting in between the smartphone and the PC, I honestly feel like the tablet or tablet-like devices are destined to replace the PC as we know it in due course. Much like CD’s replaced cassettes, Vinyls and cartridges and later DVD’s replaced CD’s and so on.

The most common counter-argument to this is that the touch-centric UI is not suited to productivity. But the fact of the matter is, noone said it had to be a touch UI all the time. A tablet that operated under a touch-centric system while alone and used a more mouse and keyboard-focused interface when “docked” etc could be the usage paradigm of the future. The increased size over say a smartphone would obviously allow for more power and functionality while maintaining longevity. This is especially plausible if one is to take into account the expected and observed development in the mobile SOC market over the past 5 years.

In the end, the current laptop, desktop or other PC paradigm may soon be relegated to those that absolutely need more power and functionality in their devices while the vast majority move on to using smaller devices that satisfy the majority of their needs. I think most of us here can attest to these changes in the past few years. In any case, my last desktop was bought in 2000 and my current laptop may be my last ever if current developments in mobile hold course. A bit of forward looking thinking is all that’s required to see what I’m insinuating.

Share your views in the comments section.

Tags: Innovation, miniaturization, PC's, Tablets, usage paradigm changes

Category: Nokia