OPEN COMMUNICATION
idea today. (Who doesn’t want one?) With more
tablets available, there will be even more to come.
A tablet — also referred to as a slate — is not a
cell phone and it is not a PC. It is a hybrid device
somewhere in between. PCs have morphed to
laptops to netbooks, and now the tablet is
encroaching on that market. You can also think of
the tablet as a smartphone with a larger screen. It
does not make phone calls as such, but does in
some forms contain a 3G cellular data connection,
as well as its Wi-Fi wireless capability. It has all the
other basic smartphone features too. It has Internet
access, email, texting, still and video
cameras, GPS, and serious video.
Most are also e-book readers like
Amazon’s popular Kindle.
The idea of a tablet computer has
been around for decades. Many have
tried to make a small portable PC
without the keyboard and big screen,
but most have failed. The market was
just not ready. A few specialized
computers came out of it but nothing
like the tablet trend of today.
Tablets will not kill off the laptop
or netbook. Those will still be
popular because they do have real
keyboards and run office software
(word processing, spreadsheets,
Power Point, etc.) we all need access
to on a regular basis. When you look
at what the dominant use of a laptop
or netbook is, you can see why a tablet
might be a replacement for some
people. That dominant application is
Internet access, mail, and social
networking with You Tube, Facebook,
MySpace, video, and others. A tablet
is ideal here with its larger touch
screen, video features, and fast data
connections via a 3G network or a
nearby Wi-Fi hotspot. If you need to
make a phone call, use your cellphone
or possibly use Skype on the tablet.
While the hot tablet is the Apple
iPad, there are others getting some
attention. The Samsung Galaxy Tab is
one. So are the tablets from Dell. RIM
has their BlackBerry tablet called the
PlayBook. It uses the popular RTOS
QNX for its OS. It does not have built-in
3G service but has Wi-fi and Bluetooth,
and can connect to a cellular network
via a BlackBerry phone. More tablets
are on the way from HP, Lenovo,
Toshiba, and even Microsoft. It remains
to be seen if they can beat Apple’s
iPad, but they certainly will try. NV
■ FIGURE 5.
An Apple
iPad with its
9. 7 inch
touch screen.
It comes in
Wi-Fi only
or 3G plus
connectivity.
The only thing
it does not
do is make
phone calls.
December 2010 71
