[Retric]

It's standard operating procedure in many palaces to drive a truck over a new mobile phone model then dunking it in a bucket of water before accepting them. There is no reason that tablet's can become at least that rugged.

Second, there are a fair number of 200$ tablets out there bumping that 50$ for a rugged case and you can make something that lasts long enough for minor increases in efficiency to quickly pay for it. So, IMO the real question is can a tablet increase the average construction workers efficiency by 2+% with good software and I think that's vary doable. (2% efficiency for someone making 10$ an hour would pay for tablet in a little over 6 months getting the average lifespan of a tablet to 6 months seems vary doable.)

[ynniv]

It's standard operating procedure in many palaces to drive a truck over a new mobile phone model then dunking it in a bucket of water before accepting them. There is no reason that tablet's can become at least that rugged.

Structural integrity declines exponentially. An 1/8th inch piece of glass the size of a credit card is pretty durable. That same piece of glass the size of a sheet of paper is rather delicate. On top of that, a phone screen provides a smaller target for falling debris.

So, even if touchscreen phones become popular on the jobsite, it will take significant additional engineering to get tablets there.