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Who needs or wants a tablet PC when we already have e-readers, portable media players, netbooks and ultra-lightweight notebooks? This argument would have made sense a year back, but now everyone seems to be tablet crazy and tablets are capable of doing everything once expected from these devices. Lately tablets have also started encroaching into one more segment, that of smartphones. The recent breed of tablets like Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, the Dell Streak, and India’s Olivepad, and of course our very own Shanzhai tablets, have started to offer integrated phone functionality. But I wonder if it is plausible … can the tablet actually morph into a smartphone killer?
The prediction was that iPad rivals will blindly follow its form factor to hastily launch a slew of iPad lookalikes, but all manufacturers, including Shanzhai makers, have taken a completely different approach towards tablet PC designs. 7-inch may be called ‘Dead on Arrival’ by Apple, but almost all makers have preferred the more mobile 7-inch screen over Apple’s humongous 10-inch iPad. The 10-inches may provide a laptop-feel, but a 7-inch tablet is lighter, handier and more pocketable.
But why are makers deviating from the benchmark set by Apple? Is it to give the illusion of an evolution from the smartphone, a gadget segment which has enjoyed a volume sales increase of 81 million units compared to 2009 (according to Gartner’s third quarterly report of the mobile industry).
Dell has shrunk their tablet form factor even further with their 5-inch Streak, which can be aptly called an oversized smartphone. Isn’t the Streak too small for a tablet, and too big and bulky for a smartphone? Not exactly, if you look at the recent drift in the mobile industry, big screen smartphones are definitely in. Take a cue from the size of the 4.3 inch HTC Desire or Droid X, and the 4-inch Galaxy smartphone.
Advances in smartphone technology have come a long way and you can now do a lot more with a smartphone besides receiving and making calls. They are now recreational devices and they can work overtime as an eBook reader, media player, gaming console and an Internet device. But being an avid reader, believe me, it is strenuous to read those tiny letters even on the crystal clear retina display of an iPhone 4.
And is it any fun watching a hi-definition movie on such a small screen? Even though the clarity of the AMOLED screens of the latest smartphones is remarkable, the experience on a tiny screen leaves you lacking. The screen is OK for googling a few sites, checking email, or friends’ updates on social networking sites, but surfing the Internet is not entirely satisfactory on a small screen smartphone. Gaming apps are one of best selling apps on the Apple Apps store and also on Android Marketplace, but can you actually forgo a gaming console once you own a smartphone? I think not.
The smartphone has become an integral part of daily life for many people, and the popularity of apps shows a yearning for fun and enterprise level apps amid smartphone users. Advanced features such as multi touch support, digital zoom capabilities, voice guided navigation are all well received but at the end of the day, the experience is hampered by the playing card-sized screen.
Interestingly, the gossip mongers allege that Apple worked on a tablet first, but later modified it into an iPhone. This holds true as the iPad is nothing new, it’s a giant iPod Touch with a bigger screen. If enabled with phone capabilities it could easily be tagged as a large smartphone.
Leave aside the giant Apple iPad, the latest breed of tablet PCs are a little bigger than smartphones, on average around 7 to 8 inches, and they can perform all smartphone functions on a larger screen. A smartphone is tailored to match the reading proficiency of an e-reader like Kindle, media playback entertainment of a PMP, navigation capabilities of a GPS and the Internet surfing experience of a fully-fledged laptop.
The only hindrance in the adoption of tablets as smartphones is ironically the feature that makes them superior to smartphones—their size. They are not pocket friendly like a mobile phone and it’s not smart to hold a 7-inch device to your ear to receive calls. On the other hand, it can give you a lot more freedom from relying on multiple devices. Why not carry one suave sleeve instead of a cumbersome laptop bag and a smartphone pouch? For gals with handbags this is not a bad option as they can keep a 7-inch tablet their handbag and receive calls using a Bluetooth headset. My argument that the tablet could morph into a smartphone killer may seem a little farfetched now, but consider desktops, laptops, netbooks, and smartphones - do we really have room for them all? After a few generations of iPads and Galaxy Tabs running alongside continued development in smartphones, there may be only a single communication device left, and it could be a tablet.
Qualcomm has filed a patent application for a fantastic device which can be used as a TV when spread out, folded into a tablet PC and further folded into a cell phone. That type of technology, or something similar, may be one way that the screen size of a tablet and the convenience of a smartphone can converge, and what will we say then … will the tablet have morphed into a foldable smartphone or the smartphone morphed into an expandable tablet?
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