Tired tablets don't tickle the imagination, so sales fall again Box-counter IDC's latest Quarterly tablet tracker has more bad news for fondleslab fans: sales are down and the market is fragmenting. The firm's preliminary data for 2015's second quarter finds 44.7 million fondleslabs and typoslabs shipped, down seven per cent on 2014's shipments. Q2's never a cracker – it contains no major …
I got a pretty nice Toshiba android tablet last year, quad core, 2GB or maybe 3GB ram I forget, and something like a 2540xsomething display 9.7" or whatever(good price at the time). Thought I would use it more (got it mainly to replace my old HP Touchpads). But I quickly found that I didn't use the tablet much at all.
My Galaxy Note 3 handles 99.9% of my mobile work, I probably have picked up and used my tablet seriously 5 or 6 times this year. It can go weeks or month or more without even being touched. I don't even take it when I travel. I'm happy to watch movies on the 5.7" phone(which has 96GB of storage).
I have another Samsung tablet 7" which I have spent maybe a grand total of 30 minutes using outside of initial setup (got it cheap). I have another 7" I think HP tablet that was given to me by HP but I haven't taken it out of the box yet (probably will re-gift it) since I know I have no use for it either(that one runs windows).
Ironically enough my HP touchpads (used ONLY as digital picture frames, I don't even bother keeping them on wifi anymore) get more usage than the other tablets.
Maybe for you, and your use.
But for various non-tech folk I know they are a breath of fresh air without all of the AV and other crap that a Windows laptop has/accumulates in short notice. Also they are often much cheaper than a laptop for a decent screen resolution, for reasons I never could fathom...
@jerkyflexoff
No they're not.
I am reasonable techy - certainly more techy than your average person on the street.
My iPad is my primary computing device, as was the Nexus7 before it.
I have a bluetooth keyboard, which I use on occasion - mostly when I'm sat at my desk - occasionally I'll grab the mac keyboard for longer use at home.
The on screen keyboard does most of what I need though, most things I type are relatively short, with the irritation of an occasional autoscrewup comedy moment.
It is quite capable of holding a VPN to my wider network, as well as SSH sessions and a VNC/VPN option to my VPS (mostly used for game playing actually).
Virtually everything I do is perfectly well catered for, and its battery lasts all day
The iPad fits in my pocket (as did the N7), so I always have it around. The keyboard folds up and sits with my "normal" kit that gets carried around, so that's normally close by as needed.
I don't really know anyone that doesn't have a tablet now, at least not anyone that wants one.
Most houses have 2 or three plus phones.
There isn't any drive to get a new one other than breakage and dud irreplaceable batteries.
Most people just use them for social media, web browsing and some video watching. Nothing that really stresses the cpu. So there really isn't even a driver for more power.
Other people have found that tablet are a bit shit for work and are either going back to laptops or are buying Windows tablets with half decent keyboards. Recreating netbooks which got pushed out by tabs in the first place.
I got a tablet, never used it, gave swiped it and gave it away, and bought a great, light laptop that is my office away from home. I also have a desk PC, a good old-fashioned box, because I like having a mother-ship. I am now eyeing a Samsung galaxy for my coat pocket, to replace an old backBerry. The tablet will not ever tempt me again. It just didn't have enough of what I wanted: power, easy portability, and privacy.
Since everybody, now including Apple, sells super-sized phones, there’s less of a need for a tablet. I still use my iPad 2, and we still have two of the orginal iPads. Still good enough for eBooks & Web browsing, but the newer iPhones are increasingly at hand for most of the rest.
I bought a BlackBerry PlayBook a few years ago, and it's only in the last 18 months I've stopped using it.
I was then lucky enough to win an Apple iPad Air 2 two months ago, and all I seem to do with it is look at The Register when my phone isn't around or dead.
Against this backdrop, I bought a ThinkPad T500 for portable computing, and I have used that every day without fail. I also purchased an Asus Transformerbook T100 last year and that gets used when I need something with longer battery life.
To me, Tablets are good for quick internet browsing and playing the odd touch based game. You can't seriously use it as a replacement for a laptop. I've got "development tools" on the iPad and they're awful, I've used word processors on it and they're painful to use.
I'm not sure what that means in terms of tablets. It's a rectangle and it does "stuff". Most even have a camera, often two, one for taking photos/video and one for video chat. I'm not sure what's left to "innovate" or "refresh"
I've got an oldish CM-rooted Nook HD+ and I can't think of anything I'd like it to be able to do that it can't already do. Nook HD has no cameras, but if I had a need then I'd buy an existing knock down price tablet. Others might have a need for more grunt for gaming, but I'm struggling to think of anywhere for innovation or refresh.
I've watched kids typing out their homework assignments on school supplied tablets, usually iPads and I can write faster than they can type with on-screen keyboards. Maybe there's room there for improvement?
The Register 
Biting the hand that feeds IT
Copyright. All rights reserved © 1998–2024
