Before the dot com bust, nobody had visualised desktops’ vulnerability. But then came the laptops. Then too nobody had an inkling that another device will come after a decade which will change the face of computing world, the Tablet.
The tablet concept worked the same way the laptop did, the freedom to compute from anywhere.
Users need not to sit anywhere to do computing. They can send mails while interacting with their friends, browse Internet, look at the photos or listen to music whether they are in a drawing room or in a bus.
You can take notes on the tablet while in a meeting and the other person will not feel threatened as happens with a laptop barrier in between.
But for a heavy user, who wants to do things such as programming and photoshop, still needs the laptop.
Recently, Gartner has forecasted a lesser demand for laptops in 2011 and 2012 as people will migrate to Tablets. Gartner forecasts that worldwide PC shipments to touch 387.8 million units, which is less than the 15.9 per cent growth previously projected by Gartner.
“These results reflect marked reductions in expected near-term unit growth based on expectations of weaker consumer mobile PC demand, in no small part because of the near-term weakness expected in China’s mobile PC market, but also because of a general loss in consumer enthusiasm for mobile PCs,” said Ranjit Atwal, research director at Gartner.
Another deficiency of laptops are their batteries. They do not have the batteries which last the whole day. Therefore, the laptops are though transportable personal computers but not completely mobile.
Last but not the least, the Tablet prices are in the affordable range, just like the laptops, for the normal users, with Samsung Galaxy Tab being available for Rs 27,900, Dell Streak is priced at Rs 33,249 whereas two versions of HCL Me are priced at Rs 14,990 and at Rs 25,790 respectively. The low end laptops on the other hand start at about Rs 20,000 onwards.
So if you are stuck between a laptop and tablet computer, make a list of your possible uses before making a buying.