The future of tablets

[Sysman]

I hope not netbooks, in my experience, are a pile of old crap.

The two we have in the family are simple not up to the task of running windows for more than a year. Scratch and re-install you say? Not really an option for a granny with the technical nouse of a woodlouse, all she knows is that the computer is running slow, or has run out of memory and is therefore crap.

The more I think about it the more I think Microsoft have got left behind here. It's not just granny, but me as well who wants to just switch a gadget on and use it.

Think of it like a TV. I want to switch the thing on and enjoy it with the minimum of fuss.

The thing about android and ios is that they tend to just work, and don't need a lot of looking after. That's very compelling for your average joe.

It's also very compelling for someone technically literate. I simply don't want something that demands a reboot when I plug a new device in.

[Incognito]

The more I think about it the more I think Microsoft have got left behind here. It's not just granny, but me as well who wants to just switch a gadget on and use it.

Microsoft's bread and butter is in the enterprise, most of their revenue comes from the enterprise client and productivity suites.

Granny is an afterthought.

[doodab]

Interesting points. They just see the numbers being sold as an indicator of future markets. Target market - audio / sampling world which encompasses sequencing and notation packages. I really can't see Sonar, Cubase, Sibelius etc on a 10" device with a host of VST plugins but not getting the message across.

I just invoice anyway I suppose but a ClientCo going in the wrong direction means possible bench time in the future.

Yes, that market tends to be into huge (& multiple) LCD screens.

I can see tablets being pressed into service as remote control devices, but that's a fairly mature and competitive market, and there are already things like the jazzmutant lemur and plenty of other dedicated gadgets that are more ergonomically suited to the job.

I think there is scope for something like a tablet version of ableton to catch on with bedroom DJs, or for a low cost Akai MPC / portastudio / garage band alternative, the main problem I can see with that is AFAIK none of the current crop of tablets support connection of expansion devices and you are never going to get low latency multichannel audio in and out (or connect decent microphones) without some sort of expansion box, which would be quite limiting for most potential applications, and again it's a mature market, you can already get a hell of a lot in a box for £3-400 so the cost of the software would have to be a fairly small increment on top of the cost of a tablet to make sense.

[Sysman]

Microsoft's bread and butter is in the enterprise, most of their revenue comes from the enterprise client and productivity suites.

Granny is an afterthought.

And it shows. Why don't they stop pestering her then?

Or more sensibly, stop wasting money by investing in this segment of the market. Put it somewhere else instead.