Moses, medicine, and computers - all of them have something in common. And now, the word "tablet" is back in popular consciousness and in a big way. The tablet has re-invented itself again.
The idea of tablet computing is not an entirely new concept. It has been around for years but never really gained a foothold in the market. Microsoft tried it a decade ago with a tablet running on the Windows XP OS and enabled by a stylus. The concept seemed viable; however, some complications prevented it from being a success. The gadget was still too heavy to hold, there were not enough applications supported by the format, and as Steve Jobs puts it, "Yuck, nobody wants a stylus!" Luckily for the desktop computer, it still had a few years to live.
A Microsoft Tablet PC manufactured by Fujitsu
Over the next couple of years, smart-phones came and dominated the scene. Phones that do not just make calls and send messages, but pretty much does everything a small computer can - surf the web, take photos, play games, etc. People have something new to play with.
Still, there was a demarcation line set between a personal computer and a smart-phone. People had to have both. Nobody chose one over the other. So where does the tablet of yesteryear fit now? Is there still room for one more product?
And by some whip of miracle, Apple was able to achieve exactly just that! It completely revived tablet computers out of oblivion when it launched the iPad just last year. Since then, a lot of other companies have launched competing models such as Samsung's Galaxy Tab, RIM's BlackBerry Playbook, and Amazon's Kindle Fire. And we are still in the midst of the craze.
The Apple iPad - the barometer by which other tablets are measured
This technology is truly game-changing in the sense that it re-created a whole new product segment altogether. People suddenly needed tablet computers even if they are not really needed at all - what with smart-phones and portable computers still around. Or perhaps it's just the charm of an Apple product which paved the way for the tablet's return.
In terms of capability, much of a tablet's use so far is similar to what a smart-phone can do, but it is of course far better in areas such as viewing content and apps. And this has numerous benefits to productivity in the workplace, especially for managers who want to see reports on the dot. While its use in business has not yet reached the level of mainstream, partly because working on spreadsheets and the like is still better on an actual computer, I believe the direction of technology will make us see more of the tablet in the future.
This is especially true for some of the students now who instead of carrying big bulky bags, can now go to school with just a tablet where all of their textbooks (in e-book format), notes, and even the quizzes can be found. I think it is a sound investment for middle school students and up who need to read and create a lot of material, plus it's pretty safe to say that they should be able to handle the device fairly well by that age.
One can only be excited on what the future has in store. And as Howard Hughes once quipped, "The way of the future, the way of the future, the way of the future..."
