[anigbrowl]

I really want a cheap tablet. I've been looking at laptops with the reversible screens (or whatever you call them), but have been put off a little by the size and weight. People said netbooks were a waste of time too, and that anyone who really wanted a laptop already had one.

[axod]

I never said netbooks were a waste of time. They were always going to be a runaway success. Tablets have been about for years. With no success.

Can you really imagine comfortably being able to use a tablet? How does that work? do you hold it with one hand and try to use it with the other? Do you ask a friend to hold it while you use it?

The only usecase I can see is putting it on the wall in the kitchen. But that's a little bit niche.

edit: Rather than downmod, how about explaining exactly which problem a tablet solves (other than the recipe in the kitchen usecase).

[anigbrowl]

I didn't mean to direct that at you personally; just that I heard plenty of sniffy remarks about the early netbooks. Tablets have been around for a long time, but there were many missing ingredients that are now present:

- cheap and compact wireless networking - relatively cheap and robust touch screen technology - decent-capacity flash memory and low-power CPUs/chipsets

I worked in hardware sales for several years the main obstacle to tablet adoption was poor interface and weight of 3-5 pounds, which is a lot to keep parked on one arm.

As for uses, I can picture many (which is why I want the thing). Here's a few, all of which are predicated on the idea of something light, cool and with similar processing power to an Eee:

- reading in bed. I like reading in bed, but not the weight or head of a laptop. - casual browsing on the sofa when watching TV and I just have to have a snuggie or shamwow :) - reading gmail offline or pdfs on the bus (~2 hours per day) - working on a film or TV set, where it could replace a clipboard/binder with a full script, call sheets, contact lists yadda yadda (I hate the wasteful and time-consuming practice of dumping all that info out to paper when 90% of the time it's not necessary, and 95% of the time there is adequate power around to run a small server with wi-fi) - weighs substantially less than a large textbook and fits in my bag more easily (I'm happy to have it in a binder like a pad of notepaper)

The Kindle DX is much of the way towards what I want, but the screen is still small and I'd like color and some light functionality. I'll read off a magazine-sized screen for an hour or two. The rough size of a clipboard and weight of a thick magazine work just fine for me, I'm happy to lug that about.

[whacked_new]

You have obviously never spent much time with a tablet. To each his own, but --

When standing, you anchor the tablet near your elbow joint. It gets tiring after a while, but half hour is no problem. And usually you don't need to hold it for that long. For those who do, there are specialized and/or detachable ones that come in at less than 2kg; the HP TC1100 is very usable for this.

I have been a hybrid user for the last 3 years. I used to own an Intuos. There is no comparison, and I am not looking back. In some cases it brings probably a 10x increase in productivity. Why? Wrist movement vs finger movement, indirect visual feedback vs direct visual feedback. In fact, this efficiency has been critical for meeting the deadline for a research project I am on.

I am so tablet-happy that I will use Vista or whateverthecrap M$ sells me so long as it is the most tablet friendly OS (and it is). But I'm waiting for Apple to make one! The Modbook doens't cut it. Expensive as hell and no keyboard all for this "this is what we think is best, eat it" attitude (which, no offense intended, seems to be a very Appley attitude).

Anyhow, a 10" Mac tablet isn't all that appealing to me because it will be quite useless for serious tablet work. But if they have something 12"+ with a stylus, I will buy one the very day it comes out.

[ryanwaggoner]

Relatively cheap, well-built, small, light tablets with a great OS and App Store haven't been around.

[axod]

>> "Relatively cheap"

When was the last time Apple competed on price?

[Radix]

Now, why would Apple need to compete on price to bring price down? It isn't their thing, yet they may still bring price down, and they can certainly bring demand up. Take the iPhone as an example. Before the iPhone I did not believe I could find any use for a smartphone, but now, if I had a little extra money, I would get one. And there are a lot of people less interested in me in gadgets and tech that have an iPhone already. Apple could create a market for tablets.

Their aren't any good user interfaces that I know of, yet, but if anyone can create new UI idea Apple can. And when they do others will begin to follow. Creating the demand that is needed for more hardware companies to compete with Wacom, hopefully bringing prices down.

Your scoff about how you use them is weak. You hold it like a clipboard or a notebook. You realize _all_ drug reps carry one around to get signatures verifying they've been to their clinics for the day. We will find uses for them, it's just chicken and egg for a while longer. It's just too bad MS got into it too early.

Well, I hear Windows 7 has great handwriting recognition.

[ryanwaggoner]

iPhone springs to mind...perhaps not at first, but they've gradually lowered the price until it's pretty competitive compared to other smartphones.

That's really beside the point, though. Apple won't be competing with other tablets so much as creating a new category: the touch netbook.

[anigbrowl]

They're not the only ones hovering around that space. The Crunchpad was aiming for $299 and I'd buy one in a heartbeat if it came out tomorrow. If a first product strikes a chord, there'll be multiple competitors under $500. $10 says these things will be all over the place in 18 months.

[axod]

I'll bet you $1k they won't. You're an outlier.

Joe public will look at a tablet and see it as half a laptop that you have to hold, instead of sit on your lap. How can I hold and type :/

[anigbrowl]

I'm poor, so $10 is the most I can throw away on a vanity bet - but I am confident that if tablets with about the functionality of an eee/ipod touch (don't care much about 3g modems etc) come on the market for under $500, they'll see a high rate of adoption. I'm at gmail if some third party wants to be referee and take $10 via paypal.

[kyro]

Even with that, I fail to see any value. It still doesn't solve anything.

One thing I never understood is how one would type on it. If one of the main purposes of a tablet is to utilize internet services, I'd imagine that typing emails/IM/tweets/etc. would be something done quite often. You want to fire off an IM or tweet in less than 3 seconds. How would that be done on a tablet? Using a touch screen keyboard won't work simply because the table would be too big to allow you to grip it and type with two thumbs. The only other option would be the hunt and peck method of typing, which would provide for a pretty crappy experience.

[Radix]

For a tablet to be really useful to me it would need to be a hybrid. Tablet for reading and browsing, laptop for email. But there is a middle ground of texts and chat that can be easily taken care of with handwriting recognition.

...[handwriting recognition is] better than you remember.

edit: Actually, I would be perfectly happy to have a $500 tablet with a small screen and without a keyboard for reading and browsing as long as there was good handwriting recognition.

I prefer handwriting to typing for longer essay type papers because it feels more natural to me.