Should I join the tablet craze?
If your just looking for the answer, it’s No. My explanation though is below.
The idea of portable computing goes all the way back to the 60’s. Tablets are truely portable computers that can basically do everything a computer can do. All the world’s knowledge in your hands. It’s a pretty powerful concept, however, do we need them now?
If your looking for portable computing, then you shouldn’t look at anything else than a tablet. Like I have said for about the past 15 years, Laptops and Netbooks are just a waste of good money(yeah even I bought one of the worthless things) laptops especially. Laptops and Notebooks have a battery life of anywhere from 2 to 6 hours, that only gets worse as they age. Another down fall to these beast is that they are huge; they are not portable at all compared to a tablet. When looking for portable computing, tablets are superior in all forms, because they are smaller, lighter, built-in 3/4G, long battery life, and have an OS built for being mobile.
If you thinking about getting one because they are going to revolutionise your life or change the way you compute, you are going to be wasting your money. Because, most likely, you already have a smart phone. Smart phones, whether it be an iPhone or Android, keep you connected to the web. These phones are fast, bring only meaningful content and have even better battery life. If you can’t view what you need on a 3 to 4 inch screen, then you probably need to be sitting at your desk anyway. Smart phones have really changed the way we use the Internet and interact with the web. The tablet may bridge the difference between the two, but make no mistake, they are two different arenas. Tablets still suffer from a missing identity.
Are Tablets here to stay? Actually they are, you can expect them to replace every single netbook and laptop within 5 years. I’m really surprised that it’s taken this long for tablets to hit the masses, but the tablet will finally eliminate Laptops and Netbooks.
So if tablets are here for the long run, when is the best time to buy? Well, that would be in about 2 years give or take, because they are seriously over priced. I don’t care what other people may say about how much it cost to make these tablets, the device does less work and there for should cost less. If they can’t lower the price then there’s no reason to buy. When dual-core tablets get into the $250 to $400 price range with WiFi and 3G built in without contracts, laptops will be history and I’ll be a pround owner of a fine tablet. Until then, don’t expect me or anyone with common sense to be wasting money on tablets or laptops.
Bottom Line; The cost of the tablet just isn’t worth it yet. Cost > Practical use
