It began in January of 2010 when Apple announced the iPad. It went on sale in April, and by September more than 3.2 million were sold. In late 2010, investment analysts were predicting that in 2011 Apple could sell more than 28 million of the devices.
The modern tablet that has captured everyone’s imagination is a lightweight, magazine-sized device with a large screen and instant-on functionality, since most run operating systems that were designed for smart phones.
These tablets are couch PCs. They can be used to browse the web, participate in social networks like Facebook, read books and magazines. Their large screens make them ideal for watching videos.
Some data-intensive businesses are looking at tablets as an alternate for their mobile workforce to the traditional laptop. These devices are lighter and faster and have been optimized for long battery life.
After seeing Apple’s success, many other vendors are piling onto the tablet bandwagon. Samsung’s Galaxy Tab running Google’s Android OS is the first major competitor to the iPad to hit the market. As of this writing most other computer and mobile phone suppliers including Acer, Motorola, Dell have announced plans to release their own Android tablets in the coming months.
Blackberry is planning to release their Playbook tablet. HP is planning to release a tablet on their webOS platform. Nokia, the first to market with a modern Internet tablet, is planning upgrades to their line to better compete with these tablets.
Even Microsoft is looking again at their tablet lineup. They have had versions of their OS available for pen-based computing since 2000. That continues today with their Windows 7 OS. Several models are available today from HP, Dell and Samsung. However, these are full-fledged PCs. There is talk that they will be making a version of their new Windows 7 Phone OS for larger screen devices.
Watch this space for more interesting developments on tablet computing.