Tablet PCs set for mainstream success?
2010 could be the year of the Tablet PC. At least the year that a new range of these ordinarily niche devices come on to the market. The question is whether consumers will want to buy these products from Apple, Fusion Garage, Dell, Asustek, and others – can Tablet PCs really go mainstream in the next 12 months?
Tablet PCs have existed for quite a while now but have been a wholesale failure in every department. Notebooks and netbooks are cheap, reliable, and capable of doing most things people need from a computer. So why the need for a fancy Tablet: expensive, niche, not suitable for every occasion?
I may not see the need, but some big companies clearly do as there seems to be a movement towards developing a new breed of Tablet PCs, as detailed by PC World.
The JooJoo (formerly the CrunchPad) has already arrived, although legal action by Michael Arrington against his former friend and business partner Chandrasekar Rathakrishnan, CEO of Fusion Garage, could put its position in doubt. Dell and Asustek are being heavily rumored to unveil Tablet PCs in the near future, while rumors of an Apple Tablet continue to bounce around the blogosphere despite nothing official having yet been announced.
These companies clearly feel there is enough demand there to warrant the devices. Or in the case of Apple, enough of a probability that fans of the company will lap up any new product it releases. But who is likely to buy these devices?
There will be a swathe of early adopters who will want to climb on board what is rapidly turning into a bandwagon. But what of the rest of us? Is this the right time for Tablet PCs to actually flourish and gain mainstream adoption?
Computerworld details the reasons why this could possibly be the case, with the reality of touch screens, more suitable operating systems, apps, e-books, and fast broadband all possible market forces which could help Tablet PCs establish a larger foothold in the market than they’ve had until now. But the party won’t truly get started until Apple confirms its MacTablet and gets everyone talking about the devices as the future.
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