It is a known fact that the sales of smartphones and tablets are growing all over the world. However, the spread of tablets is leading to a sale decline netbooks and laptops. Most people who own tablets can satisfy all their needs in communication, info search, photo and video management, etc. And a very interesting question arises: will tablets replace notebook, netbooks and even desktop PCs?
But before speaking about the future of netbooks and laptops, it is necessary to think why tablets are so popular, what makes them stand out of the line of mobile devices. I believe it is possible to name the following reasons:
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Ease of use of tablet systems. The operation systems of mobile phones and tablets are developed in such a way that a user intuitively knows how to use them. Computer OSes can’t boast of such “feature”.
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Tablets use apps instead of software. These facilities can perform almost similar functions, but you will need more experience and time to use software products. Applications are usually developed so that any user, irrespectively of the age or education, can start to use it as soon as he or she loads it.
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Speed of work. The speeds of work of tablets and laptops are almost similar, so you don’t need to carry a 2-kilo laptop to pay a bill or to check emails.
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Personalization of the gadgets. Modern mobile operation systems are much more flexible.
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And, of course, tablets are thinner and weight less than any laptop or netbook.
So, we found out what makes tablets so different from netbooks and laptops. And now it is time to speak about the probable variants of future. In general, there are 3 opinions about it. Let’s have a look at them.
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Tablets will win.
According to the polls about 46% of adult Americans think that tablets will replace laptops in the future.
There are some very serious grounds to think so. Just have a look at the advantages of tablets mentioned above. And taking into consideration that more and more information is stored in the cloud today, you don’t need to have a device with great storage capacity to work with huge amount of docs. All you need is a device with high speed of work and processing the information. Tablets are becoming such devices.
If to compare the price of netbooks, notebooks and tablets, there is no great difference. Each type of the gadgets has budget and lux variants.
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Netbooks, laptops and tablets will be developed simultaneously.
Despite the existing pluses of tablets, there are really lots of followers of “traditional” operating systems and “traditional” computing. Besides, netbooks have one very big advantage – battery life. Modern tablets can’t boast of long time of work, especially if to use them very actively, including Internet surfing, video and music streaming. Another thing that can attract users, especially older ones, is a physical keyboard, especially if you need to type a lot.
So, the supporters of this “prediction” think that there will appear new models of netbook, laptops and tablets separately from each other. And that each type of the gadgets will have its own part of the market.
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Hybrids of netbooks and laptops.
It is the very direction that will bring the PC and mobile technologies together is tablet-laptop hybrids. It is a very fast developing direction. Several very decent models of netbook-tablet hybrids have already been released, notebooks are transformed into ultrabooks, even operation systems are becoming hybrid – the new Windows 8 can be run both on tablets and PCs.
To my mind, the third variant is the most probable one. I believe that in a few years the market of mobile devices will be divided between smartphones, tablets, hybrid netbooks and laptops.
About The Author
Katerina Merzlova, a copywriter in Intellecsoft LTD. I like to read, write and even listen about technology, especially mobile one. If you want to find out more about the team I work with, go here.