Millions of words have been published on the net about the ubiquitous iPad and other tablet variant devices, most of them are either providing reviews or trying to sell you something but this article is not about to try and sell you anything or even suggest how "cool" mobile tablet devices are. Far from it.
For those of us who have an iPad or other such device or are considering one of the many new entrants o the competitive mobile tablet device space, you will probably love the idea and enjoy using it for browsing. However, after thousands of hours use, there is a growing band on dissent and frustration about the limitations of these devices.
Tablet Pc Viewsonic
For example, in their current state, you cannot possibly consider any of the iPad like devices as replacements to your computer. If you do any meaningful computing work where you use Excel spreadsheets, Notepad, Word or other data application then you absolutely must have either a track-pad with left and right buttons or a mouse. With the iPad there is no ability to "right click", nor can you switch between screens and applications - which is a major downfall as it means you last program has to close to open a new one. Something that hopefully the new iPad will address.
Furthermore, sure they have a neat on-screen keyboard but have you tried using it for any extended period? Forget it! Before long your "jabbing" finger will start to resemble an arthritic chicken leg and you will get a sore arm from keeping your hand aloft and moving it around like a demented mechanical robot arm at an auto factory.
Can some please tell me why no flash player with Apple? (ok - actually we all probably know the answer, I was being rhetorical) One of the biggest iPad problems and one which afflicts all devices based on the iOS platform is that there is a lack of support for possible the most important web applications:Adobe Flash. Without which there are thousands of websites that have content the iPad simply cannot see!. Apple should watch out as the new Viewsonic G-tablet supports native Flash.
My final point which (in my view) seals the fate of the current tablets to not be able to replace a laptop or PC is the inability to download so much of the free software available for so many things, for example: do you use a Google Toolbar? I do. Do you have free apps on your computer for things like weather alerts? Do you use industry tools that require software updates on your system?
So in summary, sure there are lots of now familiar iPad problems and some of these will still be present in the new competitors products. It would be impossible for many of us replace our computers with pads and even if the new pads had USB drives to connect to external things like printers or mice etc - really, how many of us would want to? Computers and laptops are part of our way of life and pads and mobile devices changing our computing habits, we are more likely to see them as simply for online communication, games and browsing. They pose the biggest threat to the mobile industry.