Its kind of an misnomer to call these new devices Tablets, but too late for that. So I will refer to them as NetTablets indicating that these devices are not the Tablet PC’s we know of now, but instead very thin Network Slates that are designed to perform most of their tasks in the cloud.\u00a0 But anyway…<\/p>\n
A few days back we heard how TechCrunch’s Arrington announced how the group he was working with to design a simple slate (NetTablet) decided to go on with the product without him now calling it JooJoo priced at $500.\u00a0 I do note expect it to be anything more then yet-another-netTablet given that its a custom OS tablet that must compete with Apple, many Andriod\/Chrome and MS versions coming out, makes no sense.<\/p>\n
So now are down to three.\u00a0 And if you are thinking; ‘this seems a lot like the PC wars of old’ you would be correct. Although we have 3 major players instead of two.\u00a0 And this time, MicroSoft is looking to go the Apple way by building married OS\/hardware systems.\u00a0 So you have MS and Apple building married devices and Android as the ‘open’ platform.\u00a0 So who is going to win?\u00a0 Well, lets have a look at the battlefield shall we?<\/p>\n
First off, we have a brave new world of ‘Cloud’ computing returning. This is not your fathers cloud computing, where the device is useless without a connection, but close.\u00a0 The NetTablets will be VERY thin devices that will only perform the basic tasks on their own.\u00a0 A sort of compromise between the Personal Computer (PC) and the Terminal Computer.\u00a0 With 128gig USB devices floating around out there, storage will not be an issue and we will find the graphics cards will be more powerful then the CPU.\u00a0\u00a0 These NetTablets will focus on two things.\u00a0 Running a browser and displaying media.\u00a0 Also, we are entering a new age starting with HTML5 where browsers can operate application even if they are offline.\u00a0 Its almost as if you download an application that runs through the browser and that application is updated each time you refresh. Cache not withstanding.<\/p>\n
We also are in the ‘iPhone’ age.\u00a0 Not the best name I know, but you have to admit that the iphone completely changed how we think about mobile keyboard-less devices. {Update: just heard the term AppPhone.\u00a0 Love it.} Between the iPhone and App store, we can see a platform that can perform a large number of tasks that before were relegated to PC (not just windows) only.\u00a0 Android is simply another expression of this new understanding of mobile computing<\/p>\n
And finally, we are FAR more connected then we have ever been before.\u00a0 With 3G and unlimited plans, most users can connect to the web anywhere and at anytime.\u00a0 The stage is set.\u00a0 We can finally explore ‘Slate’ computing as it was invisioned almost 10 years ago.<\/p>\n