Remember The Netbook? The Tablet Era Will End Too

PixoBebo’s Kate MacKenzie notes that just a few years ago PC netbook laptops were the latest big (albeit literally small) thing with many commentators contending that Apple needed a Mac netbook in order to survive.

Instead, Apple answered first with the MacBook Air, which initially cost five times the price of a typical netbook, then followed up with the iPad, which started range of mid/upper-priced netbooks, but offered the innovation, substance, quality, and convenience that PC netbooks did not.

The rest, as they say, is history. The MacBook Air has become one of Apple’s strongest-selling Mac systems, while the iPad stands astride the tablet computer sector like a colossus.

Ms. MacKenzie observes that while many other players have introduced tablets, you don’t see many in use, and so far it’s pretty much an iPad-defined market, with usage reports indicate that Apples diminutive iPad clan makes up almost 90-percent of online usage (87 percent if you’re a stickler) among tablets.

The Tablet Era Will End. Will Apple be Ready?

However, The Mac Observer’s John Martellaro notes that the personal computer era lasted from 1977 until 2010. Nowadays, we’re in the Post-PC era, the tablet era. That,, but he predicts that it, like the PC netbook fad, will also pass. So what’s next? and more importantly, what do we want?

John sugests that unlike with the PC era, the post-tablet era isnlt going to last anything like 33 years, citing a variety of reasons why it won’t be long before the tablet interface starts to morph into the next wave, which might be see-point-touch technology or even smaller, miniature devices that cn display information in our field of view, hanging in the air, plus, he contends, companion robots are not far off.

These musings make John wonder whether Apple is the company that will take us down that path, noting that would be a shame to see Apple become another Kodak, bound by it’s own tradition and corporate blinders.

For John’s full commentary visit here:
http://tinyurl.com/bxo9ukl

Kate Mackenzie’s is here:
http://tinyurl.com/b9k4y24