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I never tried tablets, but smartphones don't seem intuitive at all to me.

Edited 2011-02-23 06:07 UTC

That's the beauty of the "intuitive" word. Anytime you try to use it as an argument to drive other people's choices (not yours), you're doing it wrong.

Do you mean in general or in relation to PC's?

I agree with your first point, but not with your second point "Really, I think Tablets are what Netbooks were meant to be.", netbooks are just small laptops(*) which have their distinct usage..

*: at the beginning those were sold at a premium, but then Asus noticed that in fact those could be produced cheaper (smaller screen) so created the netbook marketing concept.

The way I see it Netbooks were supposed to be computers dedicated to internet use. Because they didn't need all of the functionality of a PC, they could be made cheaper. But they came off as being cheap laptops.

I think they just didn't go far enough, so most people couldn't tell the difference. But with Smartphones and Tablets there is a clear difference.

It's worth noting that Smartbooks were going to something like this but I guess they waited a little to long to launch or something.

And you're WRONG, since tablets are bought by gadget freaks (and media folks), never by technophobes, and hardly ever by "everyone else".

"never by technophobes, and hardly ever by "everyone else"."

It's called Ipad.. and it's been pretty darn successful outside the gadget geek and media weenie market segments. Maybe you've heard of it?

I hear what you're saying but if these devices aren't getting regular folk interested in computers they're a step in the right direction. Personally, I know my mom (a regular person) is interested in having one but right now they're too expensive. (which I agree with)

In terms of limited processing power, limited functionality; yeah, tablets are probably going to be a more successful netbook form factor than clamshells. Pesonally, I find the tablet with clamshell mount most interesting; tablet on the go, real input at home and office.

It depends on what one needs to do though. The virtual keyboard on the Ipad isn't horrid but I'm not going to be doing heavy data input or cli app use with it. I've put in the time on my N### virtual and button pad inputs most recently and various inputs on Palm, WinCE and Newtons back through the years. It's great for some things, horrid for others.

For consumption; absolutely since you don't need much more than a list of content titles and the traditional five video/music controls.

For creation; hope it's a button and nobb input like the mixer studio app for Ipad (very nice app for the musicions with mic'd instruments).

For me personally; how useful it is depends on a strong text input method. A keyboard accessory has been my first purchase with every handtop since the Newton. The benefit is being able to use my same apps on desktop, notebook and handtop tablet. It's about being able to go beyond the limited apps built around the most superficial graphic interface layer. I don't want Android apps; I want a full *nix distro and userland underneith the pretty GUI makeup. Give me brains and looks not just the latter.

And much more, I suppose. Give us a tablet device with the features of Win 7, and the usual ports and I think the laptop would soon disappear and the desktop would be relegated to a niche product. This powerful tablet may only need 6 (honest) hours of running time to be successful, which would be a real technical achievement at this time.

However, Microsoft and it's technical partners are on track to achieve this in 2012. The question is, will the competition beat them to the punch. I know if I realize this, Apple, Google, and crowd have already figured this out and are working toward that end. If they succeed first, then Microsoft is in deep kimchee. Still, Microsoft has recently shown some pretty savvy insight (Windows Phone 7 is really decent) so this could be a pretty even race, with Apple always being the wild card.

For me, the first tablet that meets this (somewhat vague) criteria, will be the first tablet I own, regardless of who makes it. Although I should admit I'm partial to Android.

"Really, I think Tablets are what Netbooks were meant to be."

Except that you can actually do real stuff with a netbook: use office (Open Office if you prefer), photoshop, gimp, blender, turbotax, etc