

Do you really need a tablet? - pedalpete
http://www.engadget.com/2011/08/21/editorial-tablets-arent-the-third-device-id-hoped-for-fr/

======
jfruh
I'm not sure why the author seems so focused on the need to be "productive"
with a tablet. For me, the tablet form factor seems to be recognizing a truth
that's still emerging, although it's inevitable: much of the time I used to
spend reading books and magazines and newspapers for fun or personal
edification I'm now spending reading those things or their equivalents on the
Internet. And if that's all I'm doing, I'd rather be on the couch with a
vaguely book/newspaper/magazine-shaped object than sitting in the same chair
in front of the same monitor where I spend all my workdays. I can't tell you
how much it's improved my life to have instapaper on my browser on my work
computer, so I don't have to make the "this looks really interesting, do I
waste work time reading it or lose it forever?" decision like I used to.

That said, I fully agree with nesbot above: if you made me give up one of my
gadgets, it'd be the iPad, no question. But since nobody's making me give up
any of my gadgets, I'm not too worried.

~~~
nesbot
Agreed. My _final decision_ was and is to keep it.

------
kloncks
Great perspective.

It's a topic I've thought about personally. Forget all the marketing gimmicks
and terms like "third-device" or "post pc device".

For me - and this obviously is just my own perspective - tablets are
absolutely fantastic for media consumption.

Watching movies with Netflix or shows with Hulu Plus. Reading news with apps
like The Economist's or the New Yorker. Interacting with all of it with others
like Twitter or Flipboard. Consuming books with iBooks or Kindle. Watching
casual videos on YouTube. Sifting through emails, PDFs, or presentations.

Pecking away on an iPad's keyboard is torture. That's why it loses
productivity for me. I don't ever see myself going for my iPad rather than my
MacBook to type a document up. But in terms of media consumption, the tablet,
with its battery life and form factor, is king.

------
nesbot
Nice editorial. I have gone back and forth on this topic with myself for
awhile. I finally caved and bought a pre-order Notion Ink Adam that I recently
sold. I used that money and purchased an Asus Transformer with keyboard dock
and an iPad2 with the goal to return my least favourite. Every time I see a
10" keyboard I get excited and think how great it would be to have - so light
and portable. I always drop back down from the high once I use the keyboard
and remember how bad _they all_ are.

I find my tablet (read iPad) is great for _consuming_ content while laying
around. I don't think they are quite as awkward to use as the author suggests,
at least for me. However, I agree that at times when I want to be more
productive it frustrates me and I always move to my laptop or desktop to
actually get 'er done.

Another usage for me is that they are great for kids in the car.

I have a beefy desktop, 13" laptop, iPad2 and iPhone4. If you held a gun to my
head and said I had to give one up I would, without hesitation, hand over the
iPad.

~~~
anigbrowl
i had the opposite experience. I had a a laptop and liked it OK, but I was
getting sick of the screen wastage - I read a great deal of material in PDF
and long article form, and I'm sick to death of web design getting in the way.
On 80%+ of the websites I frequent, 30-40% of the screen is empty, with acres
of blank space to each side. I was getting to the point of wanting to turn the
laptop on its side so I could have something with the same aspect ratio as a
printed page. There's a limit to the amount of text I can read on a smartphone
without eyestrain but I can work on a tablet for hours in comfort. The
keyboard works OK for me; I wouldn't want to write a novel on it but it's fine
for notes and short comments like this (the on-screen keyboard, that is...I
prefer a plugin one for long-form writing).

I'm so much happier reading PDF files and the like now. Web pages, not so
much. Getting a tablet has made me realize just how bad many of them are, and
how poorly many webmasters and bloggers use their RSS feeds. No wonder
services like instapaper and readbility are doing so well. Surprise casualty:
Wikipedia. Needs a lot more work to be functional on a tablet.

The other thing is the multitouch functionality. My hobbies include drawing
and electronic music and having a high resolution control panel is absolutely
killer for these applications, in much the same way that the mouse was a huge
game changer by freeing people from the command line.

~~~
nesbot
That is one thing that made me keep the iPad over the others. The aspect ratio
is much nicer than the wide screen versions. I do as well frequently turn it
to be portrait for reading.

I agree that responding to tweets, emails or forums and the like that don't
require more than a few sentences is completely acceptable for me as well.

I am just saying, for me, its the one I would give up first, but I do
currently choose to keep it.

~~~
anigbrowl
To each their own, I guess - I specifically wanted the wide screen aspect
ratio because of reading a lot of documents. I have a nice PDF application
that automatically zooms to the text instead of the margins, though.

~~~
nesbot
Reading is the reason I enjoy the portrait aspect ratio. Its the same reason
my main desktop monitor is a 23" rotated in portrait (vertical) mode, 2048px
high.

I think we are saying the same thing, no?

~~~
anigbrowl
Not exactly - you like the 4:3 aspect ratio, but I prefer the 16:9 because he
margins on most documents are too wide.

~~~
nesbot
Yes, but it seems we agree on 2 things.

1 : portrait is better, be it 4:3 or 16:9 2 : back to the original post, we
like our tablets

------
georgemcbay
My Asus Transformer has shown me that I do not need a tablet (but I like
having one for the oft-mentioned couch-surfing), and the ideal tablet for me
is one that can easily convert into a laptop form factor.

I'm actually very much looking forward to Windows 8 because the one failing of
my Android-based Transformer is not being able to run "big boy" apps like
IDEs, Photoshop, etc, when it is in laptop mode. I really do like the
simplified UI/OS for doing all the basics -- email, web surfing, reading news
feeds, etc, but having one device to act as my tablet/notebook/productivity
machine would be absolutely ideal and while it is somewhat possible to mix
Linux in with Android (I've done it on both of my Honeycomb tablets) the
results are pretty hacky and it looks like Microsoft is the only player who is
really going to push a meshing of the desktop and tablet ecosystems into one
OS.

We may be moving into a Post-PC world, but I for one am not nearly ready to
step into that yet.

~~~
cdcarter
I would say that with teh direction Apple is taking Lion (and whatever will
come past that) and iCloud, they are also pretty committed to "push[ing] a
meshing of the desktop and tablet ecosystems into one OS".

~~~
georgemcbay
Apple is certainly pushing towards making the ecosystems inter-operable, which
is great, but I don't think they are aiming for a true melding the way
Microsoft is.

In basic terms, I think I will be able to buy a Windows 8 tablet/notebook (in
the style of the Asus Transformer) in 2012 on which I can run Photoshop and
Visual Studio. I don't think I'll be able to buy an iPad in 2012 which runs
Photoshop (the real one, not Photoshop Express) and Xcode.

------
bliss
It's all a matter of the journey I suppose. this chap has found his niche and
is happy there. My journey was a little different. I started pocket computing
with my USR palm 5000, upgraded to a palm III and then ended that part of the
journey with a Zaurus. I decided that the form factor wasn't good enough for
me to get productive work done and they were really just toys, so I struggled
by with laptop and desktop, I got an MSI Wind and really enjoyed it, proper
portable computing, then when apple finally launched their much anticipated
tablet, I jumped and I love it. Now, since I had fallen out with pocket size
computers, I never got a smartphone since I would have considered it a toy, I
just have a standard nokia that can make calls and send and receive SMS. My
tablet is now a device that gives me great productivity. i'm a bit of a photo
buff and have by slr handy, or a little point and shoot nearby, don't care
about having one device that does everything, right tool for the job is my
mindset. My iPad is used for consumption and for creation, I'm a BA and that
involves lots of meetings and workshops, having all project documentation at
my fingertips in that situation is perfect, I make big use of mind maps and
the software I have for that integrates with the desktop software for
continuing the work later on. So yes, I do really need a tablet, it's perfect
for me, I waited years and it has delivered proper portable computing that
I've long dreamed about. I think that if you have a smartphone, you're perhaps
duplicating a lot of the functionality of your powerful little phone on the
tablet device, but don't forget the screen size, the thing that turned me off
the palm type devices in the first place, that is the winner for me. I don't
need it to fit in my pocket. That's my journey and it's a bit different to the
author's, so arrives at a different place. The author made it clear at the
beginning of his piece that one size does not fit all, the tablet is not
something he's willing to get on board with and that's absolutely fine, but he
does appear to be drawing the conclusion that no-one needs these devices and
it's somehow that we've all been seduced by slick advertising selling us a
device that we have no use for. I suggest that the author gives it a whirl, he
might be pleasantly surprised.

------
ChuckMcM
I find these sorts of editorials fascinating, basically they are "I don't see
a need for this, my friend/spouse/other also doesn't see a need for it,
therefore there is no good reason for these things to exist." As if the entire
world was defined by the standard of the author.

A really good example is this comment in the article: "Pixel-for-pixel, I can
see almost as much information in the palm of my hand as I can with an
unwieldy screen that requires two hands to use with any precision whatsoever."

Here the author has no trouble at all reading the same text on a their iPhone
that they have on their iPad. They are in for a rude surprise when they hit
their mid-40s and their eyes start losing their current flexibility :-).
Unless you want to look _really_ dorky holding your iPhone three inches from
your eyes, you will really appreciate that the larger screen makes things
'bigger' without having to zoom and give up those pixels.

That being said, the author misses that it is easier to read with a tablet
than it is with a laptop because the keyboard is _in the way_ and not
essential to the task. And yes, when you want a keyboard, not having one
sucks, but there are many applications where having a keyboard is actually
broken.

For example, sign-in/sign-off sheets. You've got a bunch of people who are
coming to your conference/meeting/facility and you have them on a list.
Looking them up on a list, checking them off, and even entering the time/date
when the arrived it hugely more productive with a tablet than it is either
with a laptop or a pad of names. Many sort of form processes get similar
benefits (inventory, quality sorting, Etc.) It can be an awesome
calculator/adding machine (much better than a PC) because you can customize
the key layout to your particular needs. Consuming information can be easier,
and its a huge win if you want to show snapshots to your friends from your
camera.

If the author had any sense of history they would look up the sage advice
about how useless it was to put all of these 'smart' features on a phone, all
you needed was for it to call numbers, and ring when called. The rest was just
fluff.

Now, not so much.

------
tewks
The biggest problems with these devices today are ergonomic, but these will be
fixed with time and the laptop with keyboard will gradually be made obscure:
tablets won't be the third device.

As the thickness and weight of the iPad decrease, it will become less
cumbersome and more natural. iPad2 is already a big step forward in the latter
two categories: it is significantly less awkward to hold an iPad1 but still
has quite a while to go.

Typing today on an iPad is slightly awkward. Good voice recognition could
eliminate this in private settings.

When these physical dimensions diminish, input improves, and screen
resolutions increase, the experience will converge towards that of a truly
interactive notepad or piece of paper, thereby becoming much more natural.

~~~
technoslut
While I'm no longer a fan of Engadget, I do find this article interesting but
it's a typical response and misguided.

I agree with you that there will be such things as voice to supplement the
experience but I think that the article vastly underestimates what mankind can
do with a soft keyboard. While there are many that complain about the soft
keyboard, younger generations will be able to adjust where today's generation
cannot.

~~~
tewks
Agreed. I personally vary between delight and dislike of the soft keyboard.
They can do nothing but improve and your note about young people adapting is
absolutely true.

------
bradleyland
"Do you really need..." is a horrible rhetorical device. All we really need is
food, shelter, and someone to love. When making the iPad decision, my
questions were more subtle:

* Will I use it?

* Will I enjoy it?

* Can I afford it?

As it turns out, all three are yes for me. The author comes across as trying
to convince me that I'm not really enjoying my iPad as much as I think I am. I
find that tone obnoxious.

------
yalimgerger
As a commentator in the article's comment system mentioned, tablets are
amazing to consume content. Much much better than a laptop. So if all you do
is look at stuff without contributing more than 10 words a day (typical
Facebook user), which what like 99% of the world's population does, iPad is an
order of magnitude better than a laptop. Both objectively and subjectively.
Objectively, it has much better battery life, is easier to use, easier to
carry around because it is lighter, more affordable etc...etc...Subjectively,
it is more fun to use, cooler to own and more pleasant to look at. As
subjective as these are, it seems to be shared by the overwhelming majority of
the economically relevant population. If you visit an Apple store, you will
see so many people inside buying iPads, you would think that they are giving
it away for free.

------
phamilton
Frequently mentioned in these comments is what we really do "need". While
necessities are food/clothing/shelter, I think the author of the post is
looking at a different definition of need. He mentions video editors and how
they need a Thunderbolt RAID array. His argument is whether a technology
contributes substantially to ones profession. A Thunderbolt RAID array does
contribute substantially, making it a justifiable purchase. He mentions
ultraportables. He also mentions gamers (questionable "need" here... I think).
But basically he is putting forth a rhetorical challenge. How straightforward
is your justification for buying an iPad?

As others had said, a tablet is not an essential. There may be use cases where
it is very justifiable, but for most of us, it's not.

------
beej71
I absolutely do not need one, and I can prove it. :-)

I have an iPad 2 sitting on my desk right here. I use it for developing and
testing iPad apps. The rest of the time, it is 100% idle. I have never once
used it to watch videos, answer email, or anything else. It's sitting right
there--I could use it at any time, but I always reach for the netbook or
desktop instead.

(I've used my phone for all those things, though, when I'm out and don't have
a computer.)

My reasons are simple: my other devices are better than tablet PCs at
basically everything I do.

Other people's needs make a tablet a better choice. So the author can flag all
the legitimate reasons he and I don't need a tablet, but how can he claim to
speak for everyone else?

------
zerostar07
I dislike the limitations of apple products and gave away both a macbook and
an iphone in the past. But i love my ipad. It has made my toilet time so much
more productive. The one thing that makes it shine compared to the phone is
the web: With the ipad you can actually surf the web in normal size while in
bed or walking around. I don't expect to write code on the tablet. I barely
use any other app than safari, but that's enough to justify my purchase.

------
cletus
"Need" is really the wrong question to ask because, apart from food, water and
shelter, there aren't many things you "need" by the strictest definition.
After all, in years not too long ago we managed to live just fine without cell
phones or even personal computers (of any kind).

The thing that most people missed before the iPad was they didn't understand
what its purpose was (myself included, although I was neutral on the device
rather than negative). You pick one up though and it's simply a joy to use.
There's no booting it up, battery life is great, it's sufficient for Web
browsing, reading email and generally consuming various sources of
information. Updates are a breeze (of both the OS and apps). The payment
ecosystem is built in.

The iPad is for me the most used gadget I think I've ever bought. For the
foreseeable future I think it's easily justifiable (for me, having sufficient
disposable income) to buy the new model every year. Not because I need it (I
have the iPad 2 and could easily have lived with the iPad 1 for another year).

But it's simply a joy to use.

Apple has a great history now of taking things that suck and making them
great. Using computers, generally speaking, sucks. Updating tends to be
awkward and haphazard. You end up wasting huge amounts of time solving arcane
problems (on Windows and even more so on Linux).

In years passed I used to like buying PC parts, assembling a PC, installing
the OS and so on. Now? I just can't be bothered. I'm happy to pay a premium to
someone (which only seems to be Apple these days) to solve these problems for
me. Not because I can't solve them but because I just don't care and I value
my time more.

~~~
jamesbritt
_Updating tends to be awkward and haphazard. You end up wasting huge amounts
of time solving arcane problems (on Windows and even more so on Linux)._

Updating on Ubuntu is way simpler than on a Mac. No competition. And I reboot
less often with updates on Windows 7 than I do on Snow Leopard.

I'm glad you like the iPad. I picked one up and found it too heavy to be
practical. Likewise I find the OSX GUI sort of sucky, preferring my KDE3 set-
up.

But that's me; it's all anecdotal.

