The Year of the Tablet

by Tom McNichol

Already, a serious trend is emerging for technology in the coming months: 2011 promises to be The Year of the Tablet. That's because tech companies are tripping over themselves to develop their own version of Apple's fabulously successful iPad, which sold 3 million units within three months of its April 2010 release. The runaway success of the iPad heralded the emergence of the tablet as a legitimate computer device, a category nestled somewhere between laptops and smartphones.

In the next year, the tablet will come of age as other manufacturers attempt to capitalize on the iPad's success. Tablet computers will proliferate in much the same way that the e-book readers suddenly exploded onto the market in 2010. In October, Samsung released the Galaxy Tab, a shiny, black touch-screen tablet computer that looks and acts much like the iPad. The Galaxy runs Google's increasingly popular Android system, with access to the more than 80,000 applications available at the Android Market.

Unlike iPad, the Galaxy supports Adobe's Flash technology, a significant advantage for many users. The Flash Player is the Web's most widely used plug-in: Almost every one of those annoying website intros and video ads you see online are running in Flash. Besides that, millions of videos you actually might want to see also run in Flash. Steve Jobs has excluded Flash from the iPad, claiming the technology was too unreliable, but complaints from users may make him back down. Until then, tablets running the Android OS will give users access to all of the web-not just the parts that Jobs likes.

Computer maker Dell is already selling a pint-size five-inch tablet computer called the Streak, and it has a larger seven-inch version ready to go and a ten-inch model after that. Research in Motion (maker of the BlackBerry) has introduced the PlayBook, a tablet that's less than a centimeter thick with a seven-inch display. The PlayBook, which supports Flash, runs the same BlackBerry operating system that countless lawyers already use on their smartphones. The tablet version is ideal for rich media such as video, and its high-definition display is particularly good for video conferencing.

Motorola, which has emerged as one of Apple's chief rivals in the mobile arena, is expected to release its first tablet computer in the first quarter of 2011, perhaps with an updated version of Android.

Meanwhile, the company that started tablet mania in the first place isn't going to stand still. Apple will come up with a new and improved version of the iPad in 2011. One potential upgrade is more memory: The iPad currently has only 256MB of RAM, half that of even a typical Android phone. Users are already griping about their iPads being slowed down by the memory crunch, and it's likely that Apple will address their complaints soon. Also, better resolution of the iPad screen would make it easier to view in bright sunlight.

One improvement Apple may not get around to is lowering the iPad's price. Right now, it's a relatively pricey device for something that's too big to be a smartphone yet somewhat underpowered for business use as a laptop. (The entry-level iPad costs $499, and versions with more storage capacity run as high as $829.) The iPad may look like a toy, but don't be fooled?it's actually an expensive toy.

Lawyers who insist on having the latest gadget probably already own a tablet computer. But for the average laptop-toting attorney, is a tablet computer an essential purchase? So far, at least, the answer seems to be no. All but the cheapest laptop computers feature more memory, a larger screen, and a more stable computing environment than the best tablet computers likely to hit the shelves in 2011. The tablet's one commanding advantage is its ultra-portability. The iPad, for example, is ridiculously light at 1.5 pounds (or 1.6 for the Wi-Fi + 3G model), and the device is a scant half an inch thick. A fast-paced litigator or an attorney constantly on the move might find the compact form of a tablet computer compelling, but plenty of full-featured laptops out there are nearly as thin and light. The HP Pavilion dm4-1065dx, for example, weighs just 4.4 pounds and has a thickness of 1.3 inches, hardly a burden to lug around. And Apple's own MacBook Air, with an 11-inch screen, is even more of a "lightweight," at a measly 2.3 pounds and 0.68 inches thick.

Tablets are unlikely to replace laptops for business use anytime soon for another reason: their keyboards. All tablets these days feature a virtual keyboard. There are no actual keys to press-the keyboard appears as an image on the touch screen. That may be fine for an 18-year-old who grew up texting, but for a veteran attorney who's been banging on a real keyboard since law school, the virtual keyboard may seem cumbersome and slow.

So many business users have complained about the virtual keyboards on tablets that many manufacturers now offer a physical keyboard as an add-on device. IPad users can add the Apple Wireless Keyboard as a Bluetooth device, and Samsung sells a keyboard dock for its Galaxy tablet. The trouble is, a high-quality physical keyboard will set you back another $70 or so. More to the point, a tablet linked to a physical keyboard is essentially the same thing as a laptop, but it costs more and has less computing power and storage space.

So if you're looking for a fun new gadget and have the money to blow, the iPad or the growing number of rival tablets may scratch your itch. But if you need a machine to do serious legal work - ;especially anything that requires a lot of typing or document creation - ;you're better off sticking with a full-featured laptop. The Year of the Tablet may be upon us, but don't expect the laptop to disappear anytime soon.

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