WINNIPEG - Smaller than a laptop, faster than a BlackBerry, able to connect to networks in a single bound!
Tablet computers are all the rage now, with the release of the next generation iPad sure to increase the fever, but are they muscling out old technology or just adding to the load we already carry?
Is there one big enough to display movies or work documents like a laptop or netbook, yet small enough to be portable like a smartphone?
Some analysts believe the answer is no.
"I am a very strong believer that we have added a device," says Duncan Stewart, director of technology research with business consulting firm Deloitte Canada, said in an interview.
"You see this in Europe all the time. People wander around and they actually have a voice phone and a smartphone and a laptop and a tablet. Five years from now, more than half of Canadians will be carrying three devices."
Stewart's prediction is contrary to the way some tablets are being marketed. They're touted as do-everything devices that can play music and videos, take pictures, act as a videophone and run a wide variety of applications or programs, depending on the model.
Bell, for example, promoted the original seven-inch Samsung Galaxy tab as an "ideal balance between portability and performance". Several other tablets are in the seven-to-nine inch range.
But other tablets are larger. Apple's market-dominant iPad has a 9.7-inch diagonal screen. Motorola's Xoom has a 10.1-inch screen, as does Viewsonic's G tablet. The difference may not seem big when expressed in diagonal inches, but an iPad screen's total viewing area is 48 per cent larger than the screen on a seven-inch device.
The larger displays of tablets are easier on the eyes, literally, than smartphones. But they're not exactly small enough to clip to your belt or carry in a jacket pocket. For that reason, you may not give up your phone.
"If you're in a restaurant and you get a call . . . I don't really see somebody grabbing an iPad and trying to put on headphones or headsets," said Prasad Gowdar, a Winnipeg-based consumer electronics commentator.
"I still think people are used to having something they can hold in their hand, next to their ear."
So, if the tablet can't replace the smartphone, can it replace the laptop or netbook? Gowdar thinks so. With the right software or applications, tablets can perform many of the same tasks as netbooks, and the screen size is similar.
"The tablets, you can argue, can do everything that a netbook can," he said. "I think the netbooks are dead."
Gowdar feels laptops are safe, however, because they have a large keyboard, hard drive and offer much more functionality than a tablet. It's easier to perform a few hours of work on a laptop than on a tablet, he said.
Stewart compares the variety of electronic devices to the wide range of motor vehicles. Some people have a minivan for long trips and a fuel-efficient hybrid car for city driving, the same way people will use tablets for some purposes but keep laptops and smartphones for others.
As for the size of tablet screens, they range from seven to just over 10 inches. Samsung's newest Galaxy tablet is bigger than the original, with 10.1-inch screen. Research in Motion's Blackberry PlayBook, set to go on sale later this year, has a seven-inch screen.
Late last year, rumours were circulating that Apple's iPad 2 would come with a smaller screen for increased portability. But the device, set to go on sale in Canada March 27, bears the same 9.7-inch screen as its predecessor. It's expected to almost corner the market. Sarah Rotman Eps, an analyst with Forrester Research, expects iPads to account for at least 20 million of the 24.1 million tablet computers that will be sold in the U.S. this year.
Stewart expects the wide range of screen sizes to remain, because some consumers will value portability while others will insist on a larger, eye-friendly screen. But Gowdar is betting on something even bigger -- near a whopping 13 inches.
"Once the weight of the devices gets down, I think the natural size is an 8.5 by 11 paper," he said.
"It's magazine-sized. It's what we're accustomed to holding... and I think that will be the magic size."
