I wrote a long version of this in November 2012. The “experts” agreed. Tablets would shortly replace desktops and laptops. By 2015, everyone would (according to them) be using a tablet or other mobile device for everything.
Tablet sales have slowed and will level off. I wasn’t surprised. They aren’t the hottest new toys in town. There has been a huge drop in tablet prices. Everyone has a few.
I remember the articles announcing the imminent replacement by tablets of laptops and desktops. The big machines were obsolete. This, based on the surge in tablet sales and the slowing of computer sales. Every time I read one of those articles, I wanted to reach through my monitor, grab the author by the throat and shake him or her.
I like portable devices and have a bunch, but they are not a total computer solution. All other issues aside, the devices are too small. Don’t you love the way mobile phones are growing? They are less and less pocketable and portable. Eventually, they will morph into laptops. Again.
I recently read yet another article that extols how easy it is to type on the iPad’s virtual keypad. I have an iPad. You can’t type on it. It has no keys.
You can’t run graphics software on a tablet. Or a Chromebook. Or a Smartphone. This is a big issue in my world. I bought this computer entirely so I could run Photoshop without crashing. Even online versions of these applications don’t run on small devices.
You can’t edit photographs on tiny screens. This is not opinion. It’s a fact. You can’t see enough. Mobile devices are too small to do the job.
About your next novel
Do you want to write 100,000 words one letter at a time? I can’t even write a long response to a comment on my iPad, much less a mobile phone.
Some people use phones and small devices instead of a laptop or desktop computer for many things I think are inappropriate. I feel like my mother warning me to not read under the covers with a flashlight. “You’ll ruin your eyes.”
It’s a big world
There’s room for computers, tablets, phones, and everything yet to be invented.
Know your equipment. Respect its limits. Make sensible choices. Small devices have a place in our world but will never replace larger machines. They do what they do. They don’t do everything.
Nothing does everything. You can’t replace everything with one thing. Nor should you.
One size does not fit all
Not in clothing, cameras, computers, politics, or relationships. It’s okay to be different. Choice is good. We should enjoy it while we can because every day, we have fewer choices. Eventually, we’ll have none.
IMHO – The Daily Rerun Prompt
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Categories: Computers, Software, Technology
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I agree with you Marilyn. I don’t like using tablets and phones.
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I use them when I must, but otherwise, I’m glad I don’t have to 🙂
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I feel very comfortable with my laptop for writing purposes. I have iPhone 5 and it suits me. Now a days my son is using that. I am worried as he keeps on watching videos and reading articles on that. Small screens are harmful for eyes. Somehow a desk top or a laptop is more convenient for these things and for rest of the things I would prefer just a mobile phone, need not a super smart phone. What the hell I will achieve with that speed or instant connectivity?
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I totally agree. I also don’t understand why anyone WANTS to watch a movie on such a tiny screen if they can watch it on a bigger one.
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Remember in the 80’s how we thought Japan was going to inundate us with all of these wristwatch TV’s and other such tiny, portable devices? IN an era when even the biggest TV screens don’t seem big enough for some people, the idea that we once dreamed of having really tiny screens to squint at is downright laughable! So it shall be for the tablets as well…
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I remember the tiny TV fad of the 1970s. For about five years, everyone bought teeny televisions with screens the size of your palm — and they were expensive. Apparently portability was the lure. I couldn’t see the point. Yeah, it was portable, but if you can’t see or hear it (the sound was awful), now you’ve got a TV you can’t watch.
So – why edit pictures on a tiny screen if I don’t HAVE to? Why do it the hard way?
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I was unswayed by the whole “tablets are going to take over” thing. I waited to see. My feeling (as opposed to in-depth research) was the hype about the next best thing reminded me too much of 8-tracks and laser discs.
I swore I wouldn’t get a smart phone. Who would use all of those things? Watch a video on a phone? Nonsense… And then, I got one. I understood. That size is just right, because I hate big purses and a tablet is too big. Laptops are ok but unless something truly monumental happens my next wonderful computer will be a desktop with an awesome graphics card and a big monitor.
In reality I could do just fine with a flip phone and a whiz-bang-uber desktop.
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I always thought it was twaddle and figured the writers were being paid by Apple or some agency. Because it was obviously wrong and stupid. Yes, I remember 8 tracks. I remember Blu-Ray. What a bust THAT has been, eh?
I compromised. Bought a laptop with an awesome graphics card and super high definition screen. I have the big hi-def monitor on the desktop, but the graphics card in it is not good enough. So I trade a bit of real estate for a lot of power. The upside is I can do it comfortably in the living room, not alone in the office. I could have gotten a bigger laptop … the price wasn’t much different … but I was tired of hauling 20 pounds of computer. Portable has come to mean “I can lift it without help — or getting another herniated disc.”
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I ride mass transit a lot because I can. I notice what people are doing and using. It used to be that the upward mobile techies carried a laptop in a cross body bag. Although some still do most just carry their smartphones right now. The laughable point is that smartphones have physically grown to where they occupy one of the two hands you were given. Few carry them in their pockets because of the physical connection they feel to being constantly “connected”. I’m waiting for the “Borg” implants. “Resistance is futile”! LOL
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I can’t figure out why anyone wants to be constantly connected. I love being out of touch. Not all the time, but isn’t that why we go away on vacations? I bring my laptop, but it doesn’t RING in the middle of whatever I’m doing. It isn’t intrusive. If I don’t open it, it leaves me in peace.
The bizarre thing (to me) is that most of the connections are so banal and empty of content. When they connect, they talk about nothing. It’s just noise.
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Totally agree.
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I totally agree. I have a tablet. I love my tablet. In a pinch when I am out, I will write a short article or notes for an article or story idea and work on it when I am home at the laptop. Everything has its pace, of course, but I am not one to ever expect to be without a desk top computer and/or a laptop. You simply can’t do everything you need to do on a tablet.
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My point exactly. It’s not either/or. It’s this AND that.
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Who are “the experts”? They sound like baseball prognosticators.
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For all I know, they are the same morons, writing under a different pen name.
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As much as I have learned to appreciate my “tablet” it will never take the place of my computers…, there’s no way it can.., not enough flexibility. Tablets represented “gravy” money for computer manufacturers, and I don’t think they really thought they would take over.., but it was good ad strategy and sold a crap load up front. So, in answer to “who are the experts” it’s more a question of what, and what they are is “expert liars”. We live in a world of “planned fabrication” designed to steer markets, or create new ones.
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Well put. I used to go to the tech mags to get an honest read on new products. Now, I believe they are being paid by Apple or Microsoft or Samsung … but they are not giving an honest or independent opinion. I wind up asking friends and reading user reviews on Amazon. Pity about that. Real pity.
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I have something of everything. I have an apple laptop, a “normal” laptop, an iPad and a smartphone. that is my collection and it suits me. I don’t have to get the newest, the most modern. My smartphone is nice and small, is an iPhone 4 and fits in my jeans pocket. what more should I have. I will not buy a new smartphone unless mine becomes obsolete and definitely not a king-sized model which resembles a mini minipad. I can write on my iPad, but not lengthy works of literature. for that I have a computer. I like my iPad I can sit in a chair in the evening, keep an eye on developments in my computer world and read a book on it. Even my Kindle seems to be coming obsolete over time. my iPad is restricted to home, it does not have 3,4 or 5g or whatever, but my next iPad probably will. Whatever – I like to know what is going on in the online world, but there are many items I can live quite comfortably without. I do not have to have them because they are new. You can even buy a watch with all the wifi stuff – for what? I need a watch to tell the time.
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I think we all use our tablets more or less the same way. I use mine to check what’s going on with my blog and others, to listen to audiobooks, check email. But if I want to write, work on pictures, anything more serious than looking or listening, I go to my laptop or desktop. I think that’s the point, actually. You use the best tool for the job and one tool doesn’t do everything.
Those supersized new cell phones don’t actually fit in a pocket. I think they are losing sight of “mobility!”
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5***** for the daily rerun prompt :-). I have to admit I love my tablet and use it quiet often when I pretend to be interest in whatever my husband is watching on TV. I use it for news updates and recipes only. Nothing will replace my desktop, like ever.
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Ditto. I don’t even pretend I’m interested these days. Garry watches stuff in which I have no interest. I have no problem with that, as long as I don’t have to pretend I like it.
I keep my iPad in the bedroom. It’s my device for when I’m too tired or too lazy to get out of bed.
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I have a 10 minute rule. I sit there for 10 minutes and try to watch something on TV with my husband. After 10 minutes, when my brain goes to sleep I open my tablet 🙂
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I keep one eye on the TV just in case I’m interested. If not, I gracefully face into the computer. Garry is so used to me having it on my lap, he thinks nothing of it.
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You are too right. Tablets have their uses, as do smartphones, but they will hardly replace desktops or laptops (which each have their own uses). I wish that people will stop saying that this thing will replace that thing when there is a time and a place for everything that’s been invented. People still use house phones. It’s true! the mobile phone hasn’t “replaced” them. Yet. 🙂
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WordPress is THE most guilty of this stupidity. And we are all paying the price. Dumbies. Really. That’s what you get when a blogging platform is run by people who don’t write, aren’t photographers, and don’t use their own software.
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I like the convenience of an iPhone and an iPad. They are great for web surfing and there are many cool — and even some useful — apps. But they’re not for doing any real work. Whether you’re writing a document (or a blog post), working with numbers on a spreadsheet, making a PowerPoint presentation, or doing your taxes (which I should be doing right now instead of commenting on your post), you need a real computer, whether a desktop or a laptop. One with a real, physical keyboard and with a mouse. And with a large enough monitor to provide some visual real estate.
I even have a physical keyboard for my iPad, but while that does make typing on my iPad easier than using the virtual keypad, it still doesn’t come anywhere close to permitting my iPad to replace my laptop.
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I’ve heard this from everyone. All my fellow iPad owners have said this or something almost identical. I had unreasonable expectations when I got it. Now that I have reined myself in, I find it convenient to check what’s going on on my blog, email (but I don’t answer from the iPod unless it’s no more than a couple of words). And it’s good for listening to audiobooks. It has a nice Audible app which I like better (mostly) than the Windows version.
Meanwhile, here I am, on the laptop. I cannot type virtually. I do not have pointy little fingers. Maybe in the future, the human race will evolve. Our hands will have sharp little fingertips 🙂
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And maybe our fingers in the future will be known as “pointing devices.”
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I miss my target more than half the time on the iPad. I have not evolved. I tried using a stylus, but that was even worse. My granddaughter? For her it’s like breathing. Automatic. Maybe she has already evolved.
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I absolutely agree. My main purpose in having any computer is to write and to do this easily one needs a full-sized keyboard, at least until we start evolving into humans with soda-straw tipped fingers. My Mac Air is as small as I want to go.
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This computer is 14″. I found it a bit smaller than was comfortably when I started using it. It took some getting used to and sometimes, I have to adjourn to the other room where the big screen lives. Anyone who does everything on a tiny device isn’t doing anything serious. Great for Twitter. 140 characters is pretty much my limit on a virtual keyboard 🙂
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