2011, Year of the Tablet?

frontwave writes "After the huge success of the iPad, with over 4 million units sold since its introduction, all major hardware vendors of PCs and mobile devices are coming out with new tablets in the next few months, including Apple with a smaller version of the popular product. Analysts estimate the market for tablet devices (over 6" screen size) to be around 25 million units for 2011."

Comments

Heh

[anomnomnomymous]

Including Apple with a smaller version of the popular product.

And let me guess; You can also call with this one?

Re:Heh

[BrokenHalo]

Calling the iPod a smaller version of the iPad is like calling a flip phone a small netbook...

Not really. The iPod Touch and the iPad have more similarities than differences, and there's little point in discussing usability, since that is entirely at the mercy of Apple.

The iPad looks very attractive, but it is essentially (like that manufacturer's other handheld products) just a media box. From my point of view, Apple has missed the boat. I would have welcomed an iPad that ran OS X with the bells that come with it, most particularly the *nix shell of my choice (zsh if anyone cares).

In other words, what I really is a tablet computer, not just a locked-in box that dishes up any trinkets and baubles that Apple cares to sell me.

Re:Heh

[catmistake]

From my point of view, Apple has missed the boat. I would have welcomed an iPad that ran OS X with the bells that come with it, most particularly the *nix shell of my choice (zsh if anyone cares)

I thought the exact same thing. But I thought I'd give it 10 days of a trial before returning it and sticking it to Apple. You'd be surprised. Just try getting it away from me now. I never really use my laptop anymore... well, not directly. I use it now mostly as a media server. Want zsh? There's oodles of ssh apps that will allow you to connect to your Linux server to satisfy your shell tooth.

In other words, what I really is a tablet computer, not just a locked-in box that dishes up any trinkets and baubles that Apple cares to sell me.

Not so much. What you really is closed minded, like I used be.

Another overblown bit of hype

[Sonny Yatsen]

I'm seriously waiting for this tablet hysteria to die down. In 2007/2008, it was netbooks and nowadays we barely hear a peep about them.

Re:Another overblown bit of hype

[Nursie]

That's mostly because they stopped selling the good ones. The attraction went away when they got bug (11+ inches), and stopped using solid state storage. At that point they were just cheap underpowered laptops.

And also the netbook has now been done. We don't hear much about how amazing laptops are here on /. either, do we?

But I think they still sell a few of those.

Re:Another overblown bit of hype

[bhartman34]

The fact that 4 million people bought one doesn't mean it's not a toy. It just means that 4 million people bought a toy.

Re:Another overblown bit of hype

[shadowrat]

I work in an industry where we have historically bought US$3k+ touch screen devices to be the basis of kiosks. To our clients, the ipad is a miracle. It completely surpasses the hardware they were used to at a fraction of the price. From my perspective the ipad is every bit the piece of killer hardware the hype says it is and more.

Wrong

[SkankinMonkey]

I thought 2011 was going to be the year of Linux on the desktop?

Re:Wrong

[wjousts]

2012 will be the year of the Linux tablet! You heard it here first!

Re:Useless prediction

[Anonymous Coward]

"Tablets are going to be popular and then they'll be gone like Betamax."

Why do you believe that?

Because like most people on Slashdot, he mindlessly rejects that people are getting value out of a product that he has decided he hates because he can't install Linux or Apache on it. Every time someone says iPad, at least 500 Slashdot users blow a gasket and start ranting about how the machine is useless to them and therefore there is nobody in the world who is correct about it being a good purchase. Heaven forbid that some of us like the app store and don't give a shit about the lack of flash on the device.

Those of us who bought them and make regular use of them will continue to happily use them. Mine could in no way replace my work laptop, but it wasn't bought to do the same things as I do on my laptop. In fact, it was bought to do all sorts of things that I don't do with my laptop, and as far away from a desk as I can manage. In fact, sitting in a recliner or on a sofa is one of the most common ways I use my iPad. Sitting in an airplane seat is another place I'd rather have an iPad.

Re:Doubt it

[Abcd1234]

In terms of utility I don't find tablets all that great

A little contrast: I'm a programmer and a power user, with, god, 15 years of Linux under my belt. I recently replaced my Palm TX with a 4g Touch, mainly for use as an ereader and music player, and yet suddenly I find myself using it instead of pulling out my laptop for certain things. Want to check my email? Browse my RSS feeds? Look up a wikipedia article? (Yes, I admit it) Check Facebook? All these things work great on my touch. But it's often that I really wish it had a larger screen... the instant on, always connected convenience is awesome, Safari is an impressive piece of work, and the high-res display means the touch is decent for web browsing, but a larger screen would be perfect. As such, I can conclude that I would likely find myself completely replacing my laptop with a tablet for idle internet noodling if such a device was available to me.

'course, as always, I'm going to wait a hardware generation or two before I take the plunge. But I can definitely see a tablet filling a niche in my day-to-day life.

No, Apple is not

[SuperKendall]

I know some people have tried to spread the RUMOR that Apple is making a 7" tablet, but I just don't see it happing. Size is too weird being in-beteen the current iPad and the Touch.

Frankly to me a 7" tablet makes no sense. Part of what makes the iPad really nice to read or browse is the size. What makes the iPod Touch and iPhone so nice is portability.

A 7" tablet is what you make when you get engineers driving specs: "Well how can we make it priced around the iPad with quality parts", or "How to we make it light enough to hold for a long time". Rather than thinking about how easy the final result is to use they optimize for cost or weight without thinking how it will really effect people using the device.

The iPad optimized for readability and features, the Kindle optimized (very well) for long term use and dedication to reading. The smaller tablets coming out (including the Samsung), I just don't know how they will fare.

If anyone will succeed at all it would be Samsung, they are the ones to watch for sure.

Does transitivity hold?

[bobdotorg]

If I put Linux on my tablet.

And put my tablet on the desktop.

Would that make 2011 the year of Linux on the desktop?

Re:Serious question to tablet owners

[zero0ne]

Enterprise system administrator here.

_IF_ we had wifi setup in our building I can see a HUGE use for this in my daily activities.

Update a ticket? use the tablet to update it while you are on the PC dong the work. without one, I usually forget by the end of the day as I just want to leave.

Need to re-image a PC using Altiris / KACE / OPSI / other home grown app? go to the site, log in, and queue up the jobs / tasks necessary for that asset.

Those are just the ones that come to my head.

Hell, regarding tickets / work done, you could create a area for the user to sign his name after you complete the work so that if they ever try to come back at you and say you didn't do it right or it was never completed, you have their sig right there!

Re:I doubt it.

[The Phantom Mensch]

They are computers for folks that don't do "general purpose" computing. Folks that want to browse some websites, check their facebook and e-mail, carry their photos around and play some games. All without waiting for a general purpose OS to boot or worrying about a virus protection subscription. If a general purpose computer is for folks aged 13-70, iPad like tablets are for the 9-90 year olds.

They're also a good secondary device the rest of us for low intensity after hours computing like the above mentioned activities. The size and screen resolution make them better than smartphones for this, and the instant-on Android/iOS applications environment make them better than netbooks for this.

Android better have a non-contract tablet

[rsborg]

If Android is going to really "flood the market" with tablets, it better revise it's decision to require a carrier contract to allow Market access. What use is a tablet that doesn't have the biggest storefront available for that OS? There's no way they're going to compete with Apple on price if they require contracts... I already have a contract for my smartphone, I can't afford a 2nd one just for data on a non-primary device.