Last week, Apple’s boss, Steve Jobs, ridiculed the seven-inch tablets, which are poised to become the next thing in the computer market. Mr. Jobs said, “seven-inch tablets are tweeners, too big to compete with a smart phone and too small to compete with the iPad. The current crop of seven-inch tablets are going to be dead on arrival.”
When someone who has more or less been single-handedly responsible for revolutionalising the smartphone industry speaks, you must listen. Again, his 10-inch product has sold almost eight million units since its launch less than a year ago. So, he must be on to something.
But before we go on, a disclaimer here. I disagree with Mr. Jobs, and I will explain. First, we must define what a tablet is, and why Mr. Jobs’ comments are very important.
2011 is the year of the tablet. A “tablet” is a computer contained entirely in a flat touch screen that uses the fingers or a stylus as the primary input device in the place of a keyboard or mouse. It is a generally accepted precept in computing that there is a functional wasteland which manufacturers are struggling to fill because it is potentially very lucrative. This functional wasteland is the void between full productivity and pocketability.
For devices that give users full productivity, the main concerns are content creation, productivity, the ability to sit down for long periods at your computer, and the ability to type with both hands. Devices that fall into this category include your desktop computer (some of you have those 42 inch screens, others do six screens at once), your laptop (13 to 17 inch screens), and your netbooks (10 inch screens).
Availability and size
For devices that give users pocketability, the main concern is high availability and size. High availability simply means that the device should be ready to go at all times (hence, a lot of research is going into instant booting).
Devices that fall into this category are also geared for entertainment, and the ability to do some basic productive tasks on the move, with a view to synching when you want to really work. All smart phones and PDAs fall into this category. Most of them have five inch screens or smaller.
A 10-inch tablet is more portable, but less functional than a 10-inch netbook, and that is just an issue. If portability and versatility are not benefits, then you may as well get a netbook. But in that case, you are just handicapping yourself – get a laptop. For computing in your comfort zones (home and office), nothing beats a desktop or laptop.
Again, you cannot use a netbook in your car, when you are driving, to replace your radio. You cannot use your netbook as a GPS device, and before you boot it, that argument over who was the Oba of Benin when the Portuguese came, which you wanted to refer to Wikipedia to settle, may well be over. The 10-inch size pretty much prevents all of this, even if you have an iPad. It is not useful in these places other than perhaps argument – but you cannot use it while driving, even as a GPS device, because it would block your screen.
Virtual keyboards are good for making quick notes, but when you really want to type, nothing beats a mechanical keyboard. Now, if you have to buy an external keyboard for your iPad, you may as well go out and get a netbook because one of its touted features, its weight, would no longer be an advantage.
Unless we can somehow break the laws of physics, one size can never quite do everything. Typing even with the blackberry’s keyboard can be a tiring experience, much less trying to do the same thing with a touch screen.
These gaps are what the new onslaught of seven-inch tablets want to try and fill, and this is probably what Mr. Jobs saw before making that statement. Almost as a rule, you do not attack something that does not bother you, so it is more than likely that the coming tablets do bother Apple.
You see, Apple’s 10-inch iPad is a little too heavy to use for long periods as a true mobile device. You cannot watch the entire length of Episode 8 of The Wire’s first season holding it in your hand, something you can do with a seven-inch tablet.
From my experience using Archos’s seven-inch tablet for the past one month now, that seven-inch size is where you actually reach that sweet spot, where you can use it not only in home or office (and you have a computer there already – making the 10-inch and larger devices of questionable benefit), but also bring it along with you and have practical applications in more portable settings – including car and the places you go in a car.
Simply put, size is not everything, and in the tablet wars, I am putting my hat in the ring on the side of seven-inches.
