For the vast majority of people who just want to friend on Facebook, tittle-tattle on Twitter, surf, play games, read the news or books or watch movies, and on something bigger than a phone, the tablet pc’s are an attractive, lightweight option, and there is no shortage of new ones about to hit the market.
Apple, of course, have currently got this market sewn up with their iPad, but could some of these newbies loosen the stitching a bit?
The tablets remain pricey, particularly if tied to a phone network operator, costing far more than a good netbook, but that doesn’t seem to be an issue with a lot of people. It’s all about convenience.
The recent CES in Las Vegas saw the unveiling of a multitude of new tablets designed for release during 2011, many based on Google’s (as yet unreleased) Android operating system ‘Honeycomb’.
I like the look of some of the tablets which have a slide out ‘proper’ keyboard, making them also more attractive for those who might fancy to have one for productive reasons as well as for entertainment.
Whether or not any of these will be a serious challenger to Apple remains to be seen. On a marketing point, the MSI WindPad sounds like it should be available on prescription.