Over the years, have you noticed that screen sizes have been increasing on virtually all devices that visually present information to the user; television screens have been getting bigger, computer screens have been increasing in size and the same can be said about mobile phones. The logic behind this trend is simple: you want the largest screen practical for the situation, because a larger screen facilitates a better user-experience. With respect to computers, tablet-pc's in particular, it means that more information can be presented to the user and in a much friendler format than competing technologies, like a netbook, but in a smaller overall package than say a laptop.
I purchased my first tablet-pc, a Fujitsu Stylistic 3400, in 2003 when I sought "the largest screen practical" for a mobile solution I had envisioned. Several competitors had already entered the market with cell phone and PDA based solutions without much success. A tablet-pc provided a much better solution. And, even though the tablet technology was not fully mature at the time, the solution was solid.
Now, I have yet to use an iPad, and from what I've read it's missing some key features and functionality that may hurt it in the long run, i.e. multi-tasking, flash support and a USB port(s) to name a few. But, in addition to those features, my ultimate tablet would also have:
- a pointing device or trackball or both for navigation, not my fingers (The ability to resize windows with your fingers is nice, but I don't know many people who still resize their windows)
- handwriting recognition (There is software available for this)
- a camera for pictures and video conferencing
- docking station support
