2010 Marked the year of the tablet. Or realistically, the year of the Ipad. Tablet computing is the new fad in technology and seems to be taking the industry by storm. Almost everywhere I go I see people on their Ipad's, utilizing them in different ways. As a Ipad owner, and admitted Apple enthusiast, i can see why they are so popular.
I recently took a trip to my hometown of Grand Rapids, Michigan to spend a week with my family and relax. I saw tablet computers everywhere. I went to get my haircut and their computer system was run completely through ipads, even on their checkout counter they had an ipad attached to a keyboard. My long-time friend from high school has his ipad mounted in his car. Working in real estate he uses it to pull up housing listing information for customers while he drives (not safe). Another friend of mine uses an ipad to replace his old college laptop, that has seen better days. I even saw a mother sit down in the airport with a small child, give the little boy her ipad, and watched him go to town on a game for about an hour, giving his mother a much needed break.
Ipads are everywhere, especially in the business world. As a finance major, I was quite interested in a couple articles I read about how the financial world has been one of the quickest industries to adapt and to utilize the tablet computing craze that has swept the technology world. Tablets give financial professionals direct contact to data in an extremely convenient way.
http://www.securitiestechnologymonitor.com/news/enterprise-ipad-iphone-activations-winning-26892-1.html
This article depicts the adoption of the ipad in the financial services industry.
The future of tablet computing looks extremely great. Some say the possibilities are endless. However, i am a firm believer that the tablet style device will never replace my laptop or normal computer. As an ipad owner, I do value the device and think it is quite fun to use. However, I do find it to be a bit of a novelty item, almost everything I do on the Ipad i could do on my Iphone, which is much smaller, or my laptop computer, which in many cases is much easier and faster to use. For instance, i could be writing this blog on my ipad, but I wouldn't do that, because it is easier on my laptop.
Ipads and tablets are great tools and toys, but are not essential.
