In the latest issue of Wired magazine Steven Levy’s article Tablet PCs Must Get Cheaper, Lighter, More Connected is a good over view of what it might take to push the tablet into a new category of computing.
Some quick hits:
- Tablets must be cheap enough to lose ~$149 [or cheap enough when you drop it/spill coffee/spill beer on it you don’t have an emotional breakdown on a replacement cost]
- Tablets must be light as paper
- Tablets must always be connected
I’ve held back on the craze. I actually don’t want a tablet that does what my laptop, smart phone, or desktop does. I prefer a tablet exclusively for reading as I find little enough time or uninterrupted reading and prefer to sit without “you’ve got mail” popping up and interrupting my attempt, at last, to read War and Peace.
I look forward to a device that replaces my book/magazine/newspaper/annotation/highlight/comment-style, old-world self.
Perhaps I’m not thinking broad enough, but I’m hanging back during this e-donnybrook with my eye on the Skiff Reader with the bendable screen made of metal foil, not glass – see pic.
Try that with your iPad.
I foresee a lot of iPad owners with broken screens and with >$500 on the line, I’m not sure how happy they’ll be.
Oh, and the the price point for the Skiff Reader is expected to be ~$165 and set for release this year. By that time maybe the field tests will come back from all those iPad drops and cracked screens…
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