mp3 players are to real musical instruments.
No, the analogy isn’t perfect–show me one that is–but it captures the essence of the primary difference. Computers can easily and effectively be used to make stuff; tablets are best used to consume stuff (as entertainment devices). Yes, computers can be used to entertain the user, just as tablets can be used to create content, but tablets aren’t generally well-suited to creating content, whereas desktop and notebook computers are very well-suited to creating content.
Type on a tablet–any tablet. So far, I’ve seen no one who can type an email, a word processing document, etc., as well on a tablet as on a physical computer keyboard. There may be one or two such freaks of nature, but, for the most part, folks who claim typing on a tablet’s as easy as on a physical keyboard are simply lying (perhaps to themselves as much as to others).
I’ve seen apps for music creation on tablets. None of them come anywhere near eve transcription programs like Finale or Encore for creating real music content. Ditto for video creation on tablets as compared to more traditional computing hardware.
Now, casual “computer” users may find that they can get along OK with 2-finger typing of emails, browsing the web (on a very cramped screen) and watching videos on tablets, but those are about the only “computing” activities that tablets can manage apart from… consumer apps, apps that are directed toward doing the kinds of things grownups already know how to do, like navigating from one place to another* and suchlike. *heh* ‘S’all right, kiddos. Tablets are perfectly OK for such things.
Note that I use my very blatantly consumer-oriented tablet (Kindle Fire–a marketing tool for other Amazon products, just as the iPhad is a thinly-disguised tool for marketing the Apple “cloudosphere” *heh*) almost exclusively for consuming media: books, movies and musical recordings. Sure, I went through a phase early on of exploring all the lil thing could do and discovered… that apart from books, movies and accessing my mp3 collection, my more traditional computers beat the heck out of it in almost everything else. OK, it makes a Good Enough emergency flashlight, and the lil app that turns it into a bubble level is marginally useful (except, of course, I have 5 or so perfectly good analog levels, one older than I am, that do as good a job *shrugs* don’t really need a battery-powered one :-)).
So, when I read, Forrester Report: Tablets Will Rule The Future Personal Computing Landscape, my response was, “Yep, as long as we define “computing” down to mean “using an appliance to facilitate consumer behavior” that’s certainly true.
Whatever. I can see a role for tablets, but without serious computing power (some do have–or will have), the ability to access serious programs, not just lil bitty limited “apps”, better data input capabilities (like, oh, the proposed Microsoft Surface Pro tablet) and suchlike, the limited uses tablets now serve well (instead of “serve poorly” or “just barely”) will rule tablet “computing” for some time to come.
One can hope for really useful voice command inputs coupled with powerful applications, but so far that’s just not materialized. Some nice “gee-whiz” proof of concept things have been prototyped, but aren’t seriously in the works for some time to come.
*Navigation: using tablets, phones, etc., to get from one place to another spurs me to ponder just what that means…
1. Unfamiliarity with one’s environment?
2. Going places one has never been before, with no referents for guideance? Probably new activity or new place to buy something/spend money, etc. Too much ADD-ish behavior there for me.
3. Visit friends/relatives: what? You’re so disconnected from them you don’t know where they live already? *heh* Can’t read a map? Don’t even know N-S-E-W? IMO, People who need their phones and GPS tracking to get to the corner store should be in Assisted Living Facilities.
Confession: I do need help finding things sometimes. That’s why I have a copy of my county’s 911 map, as well as a few other maps, in my car, as well as a compass for seriously overcast days, since the “piney woods” dirt roads can sometimes twist and turn a lot. I do get calls to go places I’ve never been before, places that just aren’t noted anywhere else than on that handy lil 911 map… and even it doesn’t match what’s on the ground from time to time. Besides, GPS systems get lost in America’s Third World County ALL the time. Seriously. But because I can read maps and do know N-S-E-W, I can count on the finger of one hand the times I’ve gotten lost since the first day I started walking to school… and even before. GPS? Don’t need no steenkeeng GPS.)
BTW, another area where tablets just don’t make the grade compared to traditional computers comes into play when I, as I enjoy doing so often, browse through our County Assessor’s map(s) of the county. More up-to-date than the county 911 map, shows property lines, topo, geographical and aerial views; searchable with many different parameters: it’s what I use to “travel the back roads” when I get too cantankerous to pay today’s gas prices (although I still like to get out and just play “discover the county” every now and then)
