Tablets, the next craze or not?

No, I’m not talking about popping pills here, but the upcoming ‘craze’ in tablet PCs (and Macs of course).

Apple, the company that makes lovely arty products, is expected to announce the iSlate soon.

The iSlate, if in fact that will be its name, is a tablet PC, meaning it’s a computer without a keyboard, just a (touch) screen essentially.

The concept of a touch screen tablet computer has been around for years. Indeed, you can buy them now, but most are PCs that have a keyboard as well, you just fold the keyboard behind the screen to use. They also tend to be very expensive.

Then we have the ebook readers, the most well known being Amazon’s Kindle. eBook readers tend to be simpler products, not even color, which are making a bid to replace the current paper versions. The advantage of these is most can link to the web and download books instantly. You can subscribe to newspapers and get them ‘delivered’ each morning to the device too.

eBook readers tend to be fairly cheap, as they’re simple devices.

Apple’s tablet is being looked at with interest. These devices are more expensive than simple ebook readers, though no doubt they will be able to be used as such, but don’t have the keyboard of current devices, hence restricting their use slightly.

Apple is no doubt hoping to repeat the success of it’s iPod and even the iPhone with this device, but an expensive tablet is much more niché than either of those devices. I’m sure the Apple fanbois will leap onto it, and I’m fairly certain it will be a pretty device, up to Apple’s usual quality, but whether there’s a market for this kind of machine remains to be seen.

Will Apple spark another craze, or will this one fall flat? Only time will tell, but my money leans more towards the ‘flat’ than the ‘craze’ for this one.

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