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Gaming Is the Most Popular Use For Tablets
The Guardian's Games blog reports on a survey from Google's Admob, which found that more people use tablets for gaming than for any other purpose, even viewing news or email. Quoting:
"According to the survey (PDF), 84% of tablet owners play games, ahead of even searching for information (78%), emailing (74%) and reading the news (61%). 56% of tablet owners use social networking services on their device, while 51% consume music and/or videos, and 46% read ebooks. ... The survey found that 38% of respondents spend more than two hours a day using their tablets, while another 30% spend 1-2 hours. It appears that tablets are predominantly domestic devices, with 82% of people primarily using their tablets at home, versus 11% who say they are used primarily on the go, and 7% who said at work. 28% of respondents say their tablet is now their primary computer, while 43% say they spend more time using their tablet than they do their desktop or laptop computer."
Step 1: make some affordable accessories to comfortably set up a tablet as if it were a PC monitor; keyboard, speakers, etc.
Step 2: start marketing parts instead of finished products only so it isn't an entire industry of iMacs. Let people build their own.
Step 3: open things up and give people more control over what they do with their devices; if you buy it you get to decide how it's used.
Boom, tablets are the new PCs. Not a replacement, simply an evolution out of the old form. Until all this happens they'll still just be a gimmicky toy that some people happen to spend a lot of time on. Make these things happen and you'll see business tablets as well.
Some people use their hands to perform surgery. Some use them to play the violin. Some use them to flip burgers. Nearly all, however, use their hands to brush their teeth.
Thus, tooth-brushing is the most popular use for hands.
How can I believe you when you tell me what I don't want to hear?
Do people play with toys more often than they play with tools? Tonight, we investigate.
Step 1: make some affordable accessories to comfortably set up a tablet as if it were a PC monitor; keyboard, speakers, etc.
With the iPad2 I can mirror to any monitor, or use a keyboard stand that Apple makes, or use any bluetooth keyboard, or buy any number of speaker docs.
Step 2: start marketing parts instead of finished products only so it isn't an entire industry of iMacs. Let people build their own.
And how is that different with the entire iPad ecosystem today, where people are doing just that with a huge range of third party accessories? Otherwise you aren't seriously arguing that people surface-mount components in a homebrew tablet right? Because that is what you'd be doing to keep the size and weight anywhere near current tablet standards.
Step 3: open things up and give people more control over what they do with their devices; if you buy it you get to decide how it's used.
99% of iPad buyers have all the control they can use, they use the web and buy a huge range of tablet specific apps and that is enough.
The other 1% can jailbreak. And that is in fact better for the technical user than using any other device because of how much easier it is to hack ObjectiveC apps to tweak the system and individual apps instead of having to write whole applications from scratch. A huge part of the Cydia app store is not just superficial customization like the home page, but about customization to add features to existing apps (like Mail.app).
Now you may start to understand why Apple calls the tablet the "post-PC", the only missing component is off-pC backup. Hmm, I wonder what Apple is doing with a huge new datacenter?
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley