Tablets forum: Please help me understand today's tablet craze?!

georgehedley: I hold you in the highest esteem, reading your post and what you do! I was beginning to fear that this topic was an "age" thing, especially after reading from the tablet-haters who signed off as "old farts". You're 70, I'm 60, and I love tablets! Sorta like you, I travel extensively, year round, and my tablet has turned a 3-bag-trip into a 1 bag trip. Keep on Rockin' It, georgeheadley!

At the moment, it is a fad. People are going to go crazy over it because its something that is more recent. This is how tech has always worked. Companies are going to keep pushing it because they don't want to be left out incase this thing really has a future.
As an individual, we have to make our own choices. I would never buy a tablet/ipad unless the price comes down to $99. Laptops have withstood the test of time and they can do a whole lot more than any tablet can do but some people who can afford ipads are going to buy them and the others who can't afford it are going to follow them. Thats how it has always worked for everything else even stuff non-tech

More over smart phones have already filled the market need/vaccum - i.e. need for data along with portability and convenience. There is little room for tablets to fill - not sure how much space it can take away from laptop and smart phone space.
How much of that dual core processing power is actually used in everyday uses like email and net browsing - very little if any. Its the companies that push it, not necessarily the consumer demand. How many blades do you really need in a razor system to be able to shave - how do you think we got to 7 blades from what used to be a single blade -- so long as there are gullible consumers in the market, companies will keep them taking for a ride.

In my opinion, the popularity of tablets is a triumph of marketing over the human mind. They offer all the power of smartphones (except the "phone" part) and all the portability of laptops.

Oh sure, they're cool in a Star-Trekkie kind of way, what with this unadorned flat panel with a moving picture on it and all, but they don't seem to have any actual use that cannot be performed cheaper, more conveniently, more powerfully, more comprehensively, and with greater versatility, by either a laptop or a smartphone.

One thing that might spur me to obtain one, however, is that I have a Downs Syndrome daughter who might be drawn into using one of them where a desktop is too confining, a laptop too complicated, and a smartphone too easily misplaceable. But she'd break the thing pretty quick, I fear, and they're a little too expensive to be regarded as disposable.

But I'd never use the thing in any event. Style over substance, marketing over reality, "coolth" over usability.

Well, it appears that NO ONE is reading anyone else's posts and simply stating their own opinion. How sad. It also appears that, like politics, the posters are steadfast in one corner or another.

Jack: everything you mentioned about tablet's uses for a business paradigm is so true. When I first got my Samsung Galaxy 7" tablet, NO ONE had seen one. Even though it was 7", the few informed individuals asked (with awe in their voice) "Is that an iPad?" I had to explain to them that "No. It's a Samsung Galaxy and it's a different company." I use my original tablet SO much that I had to order batteries from China and learn to change them out myself, as I burnt through the original battery in less than a year.
You were so correct, Jack, when you mentioned "You may say your cell phone is convenient and portable but if you are showing a client a 6" x 8" picture or schematic they will be more impressed." As an architect, here's just 1 example of how my tablet paid for itself on my first job I used it at: I was at a wholesaler's, looking for items for my client. They had a budget. I saw a "Budget Buster" item that I knew would be extraordinary in their home. I took a photo with my tablet and imbedded it into an email, sending along my thoughts. Sent it off and called my client to "Check email and tell me what you think." While we were connected on the phone, they opened their email, looked at the photo, asked me to take additional photos (while we were chatting) and sent them off to them. Fifteen minutes later, I had a $4000.00 upgrade to my job, my client was BEYOND thrilled with the upgrade, and I cleared $800.00 profit, paying for my tablet and an entire year's worth of 3G!!!! And that was the FIRST job I used it at, in 2011; since then, I've made over $40,000.00 in upgrades from my tablet.
Also on my tablet, I have a Light Meter app and a Compass app. Do you know HOW impressed my clients are when I flick on those apps and can tell them exactly what their conditions are like for solar panels and window positions? When we're at raw job sites in the country and one of our band saws blows a blade, I can do an instant search with my 3G to find the nearest place in Hooterville for a new blade, or extension cord or just plain lunch. For the savvy business person who knows how to ring every.last.drop. of productivity out of a tablet, they are the most brilliantly conceived device since I guess the car.
What I do NOT do on my tablet is play games, ever. Or Tweet. Or Facebook. Or Skype. I refuse to buy a Smart Phone for two reasons: If you're on the Android System, a "New! Improved! Better!" phone is coming at you every second; buy a phone in January and a newer version is out in March. I refuse to buy into the hysteria. And secondly, I love clamshell phones! You can cradle them in your neck, they don't need ANY protection against dropping, THIEVES DO NOT WANT TO STEAL THEM FROM YOU and battery life is off the charts great!!!! 100% of my employees have Smart Phones. 100% of them have dropped them and have cracked screens, dented cases, scratched screens, etc. At construction sites, they are the dumbest phone, possible!!!! My crew foreman has replaced his iPhone so many times, his insurance plan on it is null and void; his carrier will no longer replace them since he goes through 3 per year. So, I use my SIM card in a $9 buck Samsung clamshell that I picked up at Walmart, THREE years ago. LOL
All these naysayers who are Thumb's Downing tablets are lodging the same complaints I heard about cell phones and e-readers. "It's a gimmick! WHO needs a phone in their pocket? Give me a REAL book with paper! BlahBlahBlah." The nice thing is, no one is forced to own a tablet so if it's not your thang, you can keep on keepin' on hatin' them.

Hi Pepe7: Like the title said, I had to google that word, since I'd never heard of that company. Wow! $100 bucks for phone protection???? LOL I guess the cost covers itself if you're always bashing yours to bits. The one thing that I couldn't see from the site: do you need to take the phone OUT of the case? I hope not, 'cause 'butterfingers' would drop the darn thing trying to extract it.
I'll be passing along this information to my guy who's on iPhone III. THANKS!

I can see some benefit of a tablet if you are an architect or a designer but I'll let other folks in this profession make their comments -- I am sure there are a lot of architects and designers who are still using laptops or notebooks for their work and making a decent living. In your case, to attribute the $4000 to $40,000 job upgrade that you had to the tablet is very generous of you -- the Samsung company would be willing to pay you for advertising the tablet for them. I am sure your professional skills as an architect had something to do with that $40,000 job upgrade otherwise every Tom, Dick and Harry would be going out there and selling architect services with an $800 investment no need for College.
I think a little sckeptism along with value-for-dollar spent would be a fair way of evaluating any gadget or technology

Thanks for you comments and your point/clarification is well taken. I agree with you fully - one persons luxury can be another persons necessity.
Happy computing!

IMO the Surface isn't flying off the shelf because it's perceived as an inferior product to the iPad. Period. MS dropped the ball on this one, and is considerably late to the party. Windows Phone is another example of the dinosaur trying to catch up in the sprint...

FWIW, we are out of the recession. It's a slow economic growth period now.

Being retired, I have a very specific point of view on digital devices.

Tablets seem to be the latest craze of self promotion, light gaming, and work enhancement. My retired wife has an iPad for when she travels to visit her mother, and for that purpose. It seems relatively useful, short of buying the best and most advanced cell phone on the market. Hers is the dumbest of the smart phones, and so the iPad helps her to communicate with me and the rest of her social circle by email. She also loves the puzzle games, so the larger than a cell phone screen is attractive for her.

There is a definite draw with the iPad, and if I used one more often, I would probably feel it more than I do. Fact is, I'm always working on my desktop machines, editing and converting video tracks and learning new things to do. I usually have one or more of them open and relatively idle, so I can always check email. Social networks are definitely not what I do.

For a dinosaur like me, a keyboard and mouse/trackball work better than smearing my fingers all over a touchscreen, and attempting to use a virtual keyboard. Fried chicken is a definitel no-no for using an iPad. If you need a detachable keyboard, why not save the money and buy a small laptop? I know, that's no fun.

....own an iPad by next year (LOL). Given you certainly buck the trend for your age demographic(!)

cheers

Tablets aren't supposed to replace the mobile computer like a laptop or anything, but they are great for what the general public wants.

In this modern day and age most people only use the computer for one thing - surfing the net!

Sure they may also play the odd one or two games, but quite a lot of what people do on their PC's uses very little of the computers full capabilities - in most cases people could work with a 286 and not notice much difference (apart from the behemoth of an OS that Windows has become over the years).

So PC's have become too powerful for someone who just wants to type a letter, or e-mail a friend - you don't need a quad core 2Ghz processor with 16Gb of RAM and a 2 terrabyte hard disc for that - it will still only operate as fast as the user inputting the letter can type!

So now we have the tablet - tablets are ideal for someone with very little PC knowledge, most tablets just boot up in five seconds when you turn them on, you can then go straight into the web browser (which is where most people want to be), or use Apps that are very basically program, and linked online to SQL databases.

The other advantage with a tablet over a PC is that it is a bit harder for it to be hacked and gain a virus (I didn't say impossible - just a little bit harder), and even if it does get some kind of malware on there, normally there is an easy fix - just do a quick reset, and most things are back to normal, or if it really does lock up there is always the manual reset (normally by holding two buttons down), and finally the factory reset (which does of course wipe out all your data as well).

There is none of this going into the mysterious world of Safe Mode, and then letting Windows try and fix the problem for you (and eventually hashing things up so bad that you end up calling a techie out). It's just a simple reset.

Also with tablets most devices that are for a tablet are already built in, or can be added using bluetooth connections - none of this messing around trying to find drivers, coming up with a message like "Windows found an 'unknown device'" for a device that is inside the computer.

Tablets are just very simple and ideal for the general public because they work, just like the old Commodore Amiga's and Atari ST's used to - you just plugged them in the TV, turned them on and shoved a disc in and you were off.

Plus tablets can also be plugged easily into TV's - none of this messing around, getting Windows set up with multiple monitors and ensuring which desktop looks good on which screen rubbish, again with a tablet it's just plug in a HDMI cable and go.

I went from owning ZX Spectrum, to Amiga, to PC and when I went to the PC I actually thought we'd taken a major backwards step there and the PC was about as far away from the home entertainment market as it could possibly get, however now with tablets we're going more back towards incorporating the computer with the TV.

Also the entire architecture of the tablets are so much better than ye olde 80x86 architecture. The old Intel 80x86 is very lucky to have lasted so long. Zilog's Z80 years were much shorter, until we had the Motorola M680x0 and Intel 80x86 architecture battle and unfortunately the 80x86 came out on top possibly because of it's heavy office presence. But the 80x86 has a lot of major flaws in it's design that causes it to waste resources - for example the joke 640k memory limit. Thankfully these new tablets might seem under-powered in comparison to a desktop PC, but they have one main thing at their centre that means they don't need that power - an ARM processor - developed by Acorn, originally for the Acorn Archimedes. It does away with the wasteful resources of Intel so it doesn't need anywhere near as much power.

As for the on screen touch keyboard being an issue on tablets - that isn't always an issue - a number of firms all make bluetooth keyboards so you can turn your tablet into a full mini-laptop similar to an ASUS Eee PC. Arnova do a tablet with a cover that doubles up as a keyboard, and the good thing is if you don't want the extra weight of a keyboard - just leave it at home and use the onscreen one.

Tablets are a universal media device that can be used in a number of ways, but obviously if you want to do hardcore stuff - like say major video editing, intense 3D gaming, etc the PC is still the fore runner, with a tablet on the side for the minor things.

I have the same questions you have. I have a spectacular laptop that cost me only $279 (Acer, after $50 rebate) and it does everything I want it to. It hooks up wirelessly with a number of accessories, including my main printer. Sure, it's big and it weighs a few pounds, but I wouldn't trade it for a tablet. I might be happier with one, but I'm not about to spend several hundred dollars just to have the latest thing. I don't think tablets are a fad, though. I think that people that get on the tablet-track find that it meets most of the important needs, and what it doesn't do doesn't bother them. Tablets are pretty impressive, but I would guess that you and I are about the same age and this allows us to remember the first K-pro, Commodore, and Apple IIe. That puts everything in a different perspetive.

It fits happily in normal size purse. It keeps all my books and audiobooks just fine. And pictures. And OneNote. And now I love to watch movies/series on Netflix and HBOGO when babysitting at my daughter's house who has no TV movie programing. Or at some hotspot. It works better for streaming than either of my 2 laptops: an old HP Dell and a little Acer. Rarely ever touch either one - except sometimes on trips just in case I want to do something serious I haven't figured out how to do yet on my Kindle - like watch the Olympics in Tennessee mountain house when their TV was down. The Kindle can probably do that too. When I am at home in my house I live on my desktop computer.

1. I think that most of us who use home computers are gadgets freaks. I mean that in a good way.

2. I download books to read or listen to from my public library. I watch Netflix and Hulu Plus, all on my desktop/laptop. I can get to bed earlier and enjoy it more on my tablet.

3. Touch screen seems to be the way of the future, and I thought that this would be a good way to get into Windows 8. Love the Dell Latitude 10.

4. Long battery life.