Okay I had to tie my hands to the desk on Friday to stop me ordering an Ipad. It ticks all the boxes for a tool to help facilitate the endless reading of manuals and reference materials that comes with working across so many IT areas. I reckoned that in one day alone I acquired another 1500 pages of reference materials from one library subscription alone !!
So I have decided to wait – for a month or two – to see what the competitionactually shows up with and to get a better understanding of a performance of Ipads in the wild. Nothing better than thousands of pairs of eyes and fingers to point out the devices deficiencies or otherwise. However it does seem as I’ve suggested many times with Apples initial announcement that 2010 is the year that the tablet gets its chance to shine.
With the improvements in Windows 7 support and advances like Microsoft Surface – people are beginning to see the usefulness for daily work in the direct manipulation interaction that a tablet with multitouch brings. It remains to be seen though whether the manufacturers can find the balance between power , funtionality and battery life to give us light enough andf robust enough units to satisfy the consumers demands.
Its already been reported that suppliers – almost all the suppliers are trying to bring out something to compete with Ipad but that a number have cancelled or curtailed their offerings. The remainder of this year will really show if the tablet can become as ubiquitous as the phone and as essential in daily life.
So my advice is Keep taking the Tablets – they are good for you.