CPU wars, 1080p features and Display-Lightning 9000 ports, whatever. Tablets fail on one major point: our human interface heritage.
READING
One of the very best and natural use of a tablet is to read something. On one hand it’s unreadable outside or not different from a laptop (iPad), on the other hand it’s B&W (Kindle). E Ink is awesome but just barely started to feature colors.
I’ll buy a tablet the day I can read Akira in Palm Springs without a problem. We’re a couple of years from this.
Reading anything, anywhere. That’s the goal of the perfect tablet.
WRITING
I can’t believe how device makers are slow at taking small risks and set trends (I would have pointed out how iPads are exactly for big fat baby fingers and play on that). Of course the stylus is awesome. Not in itself but because humans have wrists, absolute marvels of mechanics, and that we learned to use them to write, draw, sketch and so much more that in thousands of years of that diet we’re now pretty good at using them, especially with a stylus.
You don’t want to use all that precision? You crazy.
I’ve always been bad at drawing, being lefty and having my hand ruining nice attempts traumatized me. The problem would be solved with magic electronic ink. If we could sketch precisely, sync drawings, ideas, lyrics, in the cloud/send them anywhere from a friend phone around to social networks, that would be super neat and a great addition to our digital lifestyle. And what ideas and ways of communication young generations would come up with a device like that? An encrypted handwritten new language? Collaborative penis drawings? Who knows.
Now that’s interesting! An electronic device that makes me able to do two really human activities I can’t do with my laptop or my smart phone as well, a real value that I don’t see in what tablet makers offer today.
Forget about watching movies on them, we have computers and TVs. Forget about games, we have computers and phones. Forget about surfing the web, we have computers and phones. These are not selling points, these are lame ass selling points.
Give us something we CAN’T do properly with what we already have. Add VALUE. Create an eco-system of devices.
I think that the first manufacturer to nail the reading/writing aspect of tablets will have a huge player if not a winner in its hands. HTC is on a good path. (too small, no e ink, next!).