Tablets Are Trying to Replace Laptops

With all the tablets coming to market, is the laptop dead? Will they actually substitute for a laptop when it comes to doing actual work? Most tablets are attempting to offer the fun of an iPad but the productivity of a laptop. The good news is that tablets do an awful lot of what laptops can do. But they are not a complete replacement. Here’s why. In the last two years literally millions of tablets have been bought- mainly iPads and Android tablets- and business users have loaded software to emulate Microsoft Office. We all know that Microsoft has been the de facto standard for documents and making presentations. These tablet programs themselves aren’t 100% Microsoft compatible and you need to scrutinize the conversions if you want to share with others. As an example, send a PC document to a tablet and you’ll note the margins don’t line up the same way they did in the original on the PC. Transferring files can also be tedious- you can use a variety of document-sharing programs such as Google Drive or Dropbox, or sync your device with your desktop computer through iTunes. The easiest way is just to email documents. Today’s tablets have limitations for business, which is probably frustrating for someone accustomed to doing ten things at once on a computer. And today’s tablets, including the iPad, are much more about consuming content than they are about creating it. If you're looking to browse a website or if you want to watch a movie on a flight, then the iPad is a terrific device. Tablets can be used for blogging and some photo editing, but a laptop is still the better option for these activities. Bottom line- today’s tablets try to emulate laptop capability but there needs to be workarounds. However, the major PC manufacturers are promising better things to come- and soon. The newer tablets coming to market are hybrids. Windows 8 will be coming to HP, Samsung, Dell, Lenovo, Toshiba, Asus, and Sony and marketed as ultra-portables, hybrids, convertible and tiny touch-based mobile computers. The Samsung tablets scheduled for release Oct. 26th are a few inches wider than the iPad, but significantly heavier and have a laptop-like power cord that’s bulky compared with the iPad. Other Windows 8 tablets out, including Microsoft’s own Surface, will be slightly heavier than the iPad, partly because of its larger screen. Windows 8 will be marketed as a better touch experience for mobile computing and we’ll have to wait and see results with actual users. Most of the new tablets have docks into a keyboard base. You pop the tablet out and use it like you'd use an iPad, then dock the tablet back into the keyboard base to turn it into a little laptop. That's the ThinkPad Tablet 2, HP Envy x2, Samsung Series 5 Slate and Asus Vivo Tab. Are these really tablets or just smaller laptops with detachable touch screens? You be the judge. Here’s a word of caution. Before you discard your laptop for one of these hybrids, do a real sanity check by defining your needs and then assess the market for what’s available. Understand the pros and cons of your laptop and how a tablet will fit in to your work effort. Newer laptops are still very portable and more functional than tablets- so you need to be the judge for your own particular needs. For the foreseeable future, tablets will probably remain a companion to the laptop. And we’ll see business users carry 3 mobile devices around- their smartphone, tablet and laptop- as necessary tools for doing business when mobile.