Content consumption.
What ?
Content Consumption.
PC's have a major problem when it comes to content consumption. Even Laptops that can go with us to the sofa do. They are compromised designs that are first and foremost aimed at content creation from the OS all the way to the hardware form factors. Typing, Video Editing, etc... Think of that ubiquitous office work horse the word processor. You create content on the computer that is to this day often printed out for consumption. Reading long documents in word or other processors sucks. Mostly because the program and the systems it runs on simply are not designed for content consumption.
A laptop is a great portable content creation device... it is a mediocre content consumption device. A Smart Phone (Apple iPhone in particular) is a mediocre content consumption device and a HORRIBLE content creation device. Hence the superiority of the iPhone at producing a mobile consumption device over laptops. They both are about as good I would say but the phone is completely mobile in a way a laptop just cannot dream of. 3g has connected them to the web in a meaningful way. But they are still just middling at consumption. The smaller form factor, low battery life etc... all conspire to hinder it just enough to make people think there is a better solution.
Netbooks are cute but simply have to many problems with form factor and useability... they neither produce or consume particularly well but they show the promise of a larger screen in a highly portable form factor. The iPhone/Touch success has shown how to drop a key board and still provide enough input capability to get by.... hence the tablet form that seems to continually be pushed on a public that has routinely rejected it.
What Apple has the potential to produce in a tablet is a good content consumption device. Not a great one... that requires something more than a single company can provide... but a good one. 3g access to Apps (or some equivalent) is a neat and tidy packaged way to present content for consumption in optimized bite sized selections. The iPhone and Touch (or Pre, Droid, Win Mo super phone) small form factor has a high limitation on just how far that can go. But a handheld device as responsive as those devices with a smaller than hard back form factor has a serious potential to provide a long lasting content consumption model. The question is will the size lose to the phone based on mobility and or connectivity. Phones go EVERYWHERE and as a result are the first connection fee paid. Any other device will be secondary which quickly relegates it to 'luxury' status. Without connectivity a tablet is a non-starter in terms of mass market appeal. Because of their small market appeal nobody has yet had the ability to establish a stable market from which to grow the concept.
But Apple is now in a position to do that. They probably have enough credit with their fans that a connected tablet design will garner a considerable audience that has the potential to provide a critical mass for a tablet eco system. 3g connectivity, App Store and personal media integration (Itunes, Iphoto etc...) on a device with a much more usable screen space will be dead sexy. But the numbers to make it fly are Tough. 3g contracts are still to expensive to think double accounts (iPhone and a Tablet) will be common even with Apple fans accustomed to costly computing habits. But it is possible that a wifi connection device designed for less mobile connection options will be sufficient (ala scaled up touch) and the ability to have a 3g enabled one will be explored by those with sufficient disposable income on a smaller scale.
If they do it and it works it puts Apple on the bleeding edge of what could be the next major paradigm shift in computing. They already are riding this wave with the iPod -> iPhone/Touch. Amazon and B&N are riding a somewhat related wave (explosion of electronic Content Consumption) with e-Ink book devices. The question is where this change stops. Are phones the long term solution because we have them with us everywhere? Or is a larger device still going to be needed for replacing the likes of magazines etc... Whoever gets it right will be huge in the years to come.
I talked a while back about what I thought an ideal Tablet would be like but here goes another (probably unrelated stab)...
3g connected device ($20 or less monthly cost of connection, or included tether to phone for $5-10) on a hard back size display (10-11") that is sunlight readable, lasts 8 hours with reasonable power reserve (15-20%) , capacitive multi touch interface, GPS, USB, SD/CF memory expansion, Solid State memory, Dual Mobile Computing core (Say Dual Arm 8) with 2gb+ of RAM, Multi-band Wi-Fi, Wi-Max, Blue Tooth, Zigbee, RF and IR (think most flexible wireless communications setup possible).
The use of such a device will be the consumption and correlation of content. Their weakness will be creation. The device above will be a second/third or greater device if the tablet ever actually proves a successful form factor. Ubiquity will never happen until the technology is so cheap it can become so widespread it permeates society like paper.
The concept I really would like to see is a 'phone' based computing solution. The phone provides the brains and connectivity and then we can augment it as needed according to the task at hand. Content consumption tends toward the tablet type device used in concert with the phone and content creation remains more with the traditional keyboard, mouse etc... solutions pending a breakthrough in input technology . All the connectivity between the phone and these adjunct devices is wireless (including display etc...). Ultimately this would probably end up in a silly level of convergence into the device space we use for a 'phone' today. Wallet, ID, PC, Walkman, Picture Album, Archive etc... In short it becomes your universal interface to the digital world.
Is it realistic? I don't know. I think it will be technologically feasible in a very short time. less than 5 years with the correct battery technology or efficient enough high power computing capability (ie make current batteries last...). 20 years at the most. Social uptake is another matter entirely. The sudden surge to iPhone and similar devices indicates there could be a swift move to such a technology shift... but it wouldn't take much in the way of scare stories to keep the masses from adopting such a major shift away from more tangible interactions.
