2010 - Year of the Tablet

I think it's safe to say that 2010 was the year of the tablet PC. There were many talks about Tablets before then and a few companies made weak attempts before that, but 2010 really changed things around. Right now, you've got one company that is in full flight: Apple's iPad. I am not a "fan" of anyone in particular, I try to post unbiased opinions. I own a 5th Gen iPod. The iPad, although a big seller, seems like more of a toy than anything else right now. Three big things I don't like about it. First, no front-facing camera. Second, no Flash support. Third, the Apple App store (or to be more precise, the Apple ecosystem).

Apple's ecosystem is a bit troubling to me. Once I buy a piece of hardware, I want to be in control of it. I don't need someone telling me what I can and cannot install on my device. I understand what they are trying to do though, they want to make things work easily for EVERYONE. I get that, and I agree with it. But for more "tech" people, this is a turn-off. Why should people have to "jailbreak" their device to enhance their hardware? Why should people use iTunes and nothing else to manage their device? Apple is being so controlling about everything that it's a bit suffocating.

I won't be buying an iPad, and probably won't be buying a tablet of any kind soon. I don't think any platform is ready for tablet PCs right now. I'm seeing good progress though. Here are interesting products coming along.

The EXO-PC is one of my favorites. First, it's a Quebec based company (which makes it a home favorite!). But more importantly, it's running Windows 7 with a custom layer to make it touch friendly. The device is said to launch soon and has very good specs. The fact that it runs Windows 7 means that you can do a lot of things with it. It has an excellent screen, front-facing camera and since it runs Windows, it plays Flash. If I were to jump on the tablet bandwagon, this is what I would buy.

And then there are a gazillion Android tablets. I think Android is very close to being ready to run on a tablet. Owning an Android phone made me realize that it is designed to be touch friendly right off the bat. All we need now is for big companies to start producing units. We see so many prototypes running Android, but not production units. Samsung's Galaxy Tab might hold promise, but only time will tell.

I'm sure this will change soon, but once one of the other devices launch, it will take time to change people who have been early iPad adopters.