By now you are probably starting to see people carrying these big pieces of plastic that have a shining light coming out of it, transfixing the owner into a world you wish you could enter. That piece of plastic is probably called an iPad, released last April as a new tool to access email, internet, play games, read books and periodicals, as well as listen to music. But now there is an increasing trend that has started to pick up speed as companies try to catch up to Apple once again.
Perhaps the most impressive alternative as well as the most unknown, is the Toshiba Libretto which sold out 48 hours after it was put on the market. People who were lucky enough got their hands on a Libretto from Amazon for a price of $1,100. The cool and innovative feature of the Libretto is in its Dual Screens, a multi-touch screen which enables you to use an entirely virtual keyboard on one screen while working on the other. You can still find them available on Conics.com.
Blackberry is trying to put its stamp on the tablet industry by coming out with the Playbook. Not expected to be released until early 2011, the Playbook offers front and backwards facing HD camera’s, allowing you to view images simultaneously. With 1 GB of RAM and 1 GHZ of dual core CPU, the Blackberry could very well take over the tablet market.
Another contender is called the Fusion Garage JooJoo. With a name like that what can go wrong? It is a custom built OS that is a low-costing tablet that will enable you to browse the web but also participate in video calls and multi-tasking.
The world of tablets is growing.
Ever since Apple came out with the iPad, the market has been on fire with these portable personal computers, and I have a feeling that we will be seeing a lot more of these things walking around. Just like how the iPod came out and destroyed any other portable music device, starting a trend of mp3 players that tried to beat out the trend-setter Apple, the iPad will soon be the normal device attached to people as they move through life replacing laptops and other portable devices.
Should you sign up for this trend and become another user of the tablet? It depends on how cool you want to be, and what you want to get done. First, everyone will take a second look at you, not at your new shoes or nice hair cut, but at the new device that they want for themselves. Second, having a tablet which is smaller than a laptop yet powerful enough to make up for the lack of size, is important. All the things that you can do on a little tiny phone with all those little apps you can do on a tablet, as well as on some make video calls. This is perfect if you are a traveling business man who always needs to be in a conference or a consultant who in order to be ahead of his competitors needs fast and easy ways to access information.
The tablet my friends, is here to stay.