Will Anything Better Than the Ipad Ever be Made?

[don.dent2164]

Hi Guys,

No doubt the ipad is the biggest gadget to have such great impact
in recent memory.

Will Anything Better Than the Ipad Ever be Made?
Will there be such 'a gadget' that will eclipse it?

Is there such on the horizon perhaps?

What do you think?

[essellar]

The iPad concept isn't really all that new. What makes it spectacular is the infrastructure (the app store, in particular) and the display, along with the Apple name and marketing. Newer ideas in the UI space certainly help, but the iPad isn't alone in having touchscreen, multitouch or gestures. The timing was good, though, and having a customer base already used to small touchscreen devices (the iPhone and iPod Touch, as well as similar Android and other devices) made the sales easy.

But the iPad is basically a consumption device, and a relatively expensive piece of kit for what it does. Producing content is difficult. Expect consumption devices to become something like the pads in Star Trek TNG and later -- you'll be able to have a stack of them floating around, probably meshable, and treat them much like you'd treat notebooks or pads of paper today.

But to do anything beyond reading and interactive video, you really need something with an input facility. Some folks will need a versatile multimodal input, and for that, something like the Orkin Design concept rolltop computer would serve. Heck, the flexible OLED display used in the rolltop would also allow a roll-up consumption device that's easier to transport (and cheaper) than the iPad. Still others are going to be mostly text-bound and need something with a real keyboard -- and there's no reason to expect that something small, lightweight and with a keyboard that feels as good as, say, the Thinkpad keyboards can't come along to serve that market as well. (Look for Lenovo in that space -- something smaller and lighter than the X series with the power of the T series, a distributed SSD, similar to the MacBook Air, and a convertible tablet/notebook form factor would be a killer.) And then there's the gamers to think about -- touchscreen is a lousy gaming interface.

The iPad is hardly the end of the line. Content consumers will want things that are lighter, less bulky, easier to carry around (perhaps folded up in a pocket) and nearly disposable. With OLED displays, ARM-type processors and ever-cheaper flash memory, there's no reason not to expect the iPad to be eclipsed soon. Maybe the newer, better device will also carry the Apple name -- I wouldn't put it past Jony Ives to come up with a shiny new gotta-have-it package.

[Darkmere]

Hi Guys,

No doubt the ipad is the biggest gadget to have such great impact
in recent memory.

Will Anything Better Than the Ipad Ever be Made?
Will there be such 'a gadget' that will eclipse it?

Is there such on the horizon perhaps?

What do you think?

Yes ... Android Tablets.

They are half the price of Apples iPad.
They have 4 times the CPU power.
Twice the Memory
GPS and Compass and also can give direction with no network connection at all.
No restrictions on what you can put on your tablet
Batteries are replaceable if something goes wrong
Has ports for Thumb Drives and external Hard Drives
Has Ports for Game controllers
Head Tracking
Voice Tracking (Meaning when you hold a conference on skype or other software you dont have to move the tablet to the person speaking the tablet automatically adjusts the camera and focuses on the person speaking.)

[essellar]

Specs don't sell, though, and Android has its own little set of problems, particularly in the area of the sheer number of different devices already on the market. You mentioned some features -- but they're not universal. Replaceable batteries? Maybe, if that tablet's manufacturer makes them replaceable. USB ports? If the tablet maker includes them (and you can also connect USB devices to the iPad, by the way). Head and voice tracking? There's no rule anywhere that says an Android tablet has to have a camera or a microphone at all. Android is just an OS -- listing features that a particular tablet has and calling that "the Android experience" is like picking a Windows-based computer and saying that it is what all Windows computers are. Even the processor power/speed is a variable -- it depends on whether the maker is looking for performance or extreme battery life (something that is far more important in a device like a tablet than it is for a more conventional computer). And the memory depends on what the maker feels like including.

And that's part of the problem with Android. Development for Android is a lot like development for Windows -- you don't know what you're dealing with. Everything is a variable, from screen size to built-in and attached accessory devices. And then there's the inevitable (and essentially unremovable) maker's and telco's crapware (if it's 3G/4G capable and you actually want to use that capability, it's probably tied to a telco), theme and OS tweaks. So we're back to the original, hollow Java promise -- "write once, run in some places and not in others, on alternate Tuesdays, if the weather is right and you've remembered to make your bed." Whatever else you may say about Apple's little kingdom, you can't deny that it makes a developer's life easier. And it's the apps that make the awesome, not the platform.

[remy87x18]

I like the Ipad, but my biggest beef is the no SD card or external storage. I still prefer the freedom of moving file from one device to the other without some sort of cable connection or wifi involve.

[Darkmere]

I like the Ipad, but my biggest beef is the no SD card or external storage. I still prefer the freedom of moving file from one device to the other without some sort of cable connection or wifi involve.

All tablets now transfer files to computers with out a cable ... I think most phones do now as well

[cheezo]

how about amazon kindle fire,I think its good too. saw someone using it while i'm in the bus and I think she's enjoying using it.

[frankfriend]

Hi,
Clearly it is an important staging point, but the history of computing and indeed of all technologies is one of change & evolution [so far!] The infrastructure created by Apple and the really excellent service quality from Apple are perhaps a real innovation - and one which others need to catch up with. Amazon's Kindle is certainly a strong player in a slightly narrower field![COLOR="Silver"]

---------- Post added at 10:52 PM ---------- Previous post was at 10:49 PM ----------

[tinmancan2121]

I would have to agree with the above... I prefer the android tablets, and with tethering from my phone, makes it a much better deal than the 3g option of the ipad....

[cenobite321]

I don't believe that beyond entertainment purposes the iPad or even tablets in general have had impact for these recent years. I won an iPad in a contest (now I say fortunately I won it because otherwise I would be regretting buying it)and I can tell you from first-hand that it's a terrible device for anything that are not games, sending short e-mails, reading and watching videos. And I would question reading since it's got a glossy screen.

For example, I've tried to write a homework document the other day and I got really frustrated because if I typed something incorrectly I had to do the whole press and drag to get to the point where I'd like to change something which for a while gets annoying, plus if I wanted to delete for example a sentence selecting it is such a hard ordeal where all the touches have to be precise (select the sentence, press only once on selected sentence, select delete)... I ended up finishing the document in a laptop. I just believe that still tablets aren't ready for efficient and productive things. I think Bill Gates was right when he said that the problem with the tablets today is that they lack of a proper input.

Now even for entertainment purposes the iPad in particular is very dull since the only games you can play properly are the ones on the App Store, forget the Flash games since there is no support for it in the iPad.

Also it's not practical to carry a tablet around, there are many risks: water spills, dropping it, scratching the surface and of course the risk of someone stealing it.

So to answer the question... yes I think there will be something better, something that at least get these issues of input, compatibility and security resolved.