However, whether Apple's iPad ultimately succeeds or fails, it is yet another sign of an emerging device class. With Google, Microsoft, and others investing in researching tablet-style computers, this is a trend that will not begin or end with the iPad.
The Tablet Redefined: A Media Pad
What's different about this new wave of tablet devices is that the intended use cases for the device have evolved into something completely different. These new tablets are not being presented as a replacement for the existing computer but for an ancillary type of platform. The new tablets are also not being primarily targeted at business users, but at home users instead. The usage cases are more tightly defined as well. The new tablet devices are about accessing and consuming web content.
Plus, unlike tablets of decades past, these new devices come on the heels of similar devices with similar usage cases: Smartphones.
A New Device Class
Touch-input is key here. Yes, the ability to use add-on accessories is important, but touch is one of those features that instantly makes a product easy to use and also limits the need to carry add-ons like a stylus or other input device.
Consumers might not need a tablet device or media pad any more than they need to have multiple TiVos or Blu-ray players, but many will want them and buy them anyway.
Don't Count Out Students
College students spend hundreds of dollars on textbooks every semester -- textbooks that are heavy, that are sometimes out of date as soon as they are published, and that don't fit well with the existing digital lifestyle of today's students. Even without subsidizing the initial device price, I know that students would flock to using a tablet computer if they could get all of their textbooks, have the ability to make notations, get online updates and see supplementary information all in a device that weighs under a pound and can fit easily in a backpack.
The convenience factor alone makes it a killer device. Mark my words, whoever is able to get textbook publishers and universities on-board en masse first will ultimately win the eBook market.
The great thing about tablet computers is that they aren't just eBook readers. They can offer additional content experiences as well.
What Do You Think?
Tablet computers are coming. By the end of the year, a variety of tablet devices will be on the market. Do you want one? How do you see it fitting in with your existing lifestyle. Let us know!
More iPad resources from Mashable:
- 9 Upcoming Tablet Alternatives to the Apple iPad
- Will Apple’s iPad Change Mobile Gaming?
- 4 Reasons the Kindle is Dead, 4 Reasons It’s Not
- Why Apple Could Have Etched “iPad” Into Some Rocks and Sold Millions