The Tablet Vs. Netbook Argument: Why Tablets Are Necessary

Make fun of the iPad all you want. It certainly has its detractors, especially in the tech community, where power and versatility is sometimes valued over intuitive controls. When the iPad came out, it was derided as nothing more than a big iPhone--ignoring, of course, that the iPhone is arguably the most successful smart phone ever introduced.

Since CES 2011, there have been a number of Honeycomb Android tablets introduced that provide viable alternatives to the iPad, notably the Motorola Xoom, and tablets are the hot item of the season. Even so, there are still some that would claim that tablets are nothing but a tech toy--they're unnecessary in the grand scheme of home computing, and most of their functions could be recreated inexpensively with a netbook.

In a sense, they're right. Tablets are toys. However, there's nothing wrong with that. Home computers were little more than toys at first, after all, and tablets do bring something new to the table.

Tablets like the iPad, the Xoom and the Asus Transformer provide an intuitive way to use the Internet and proprietary apps. In a word, they're more fun. Scrolling through a news website on a tablet feels more natural and entertaining than using a netbook, because it provides us with something we're familiar with. We can use our hands, treat the computer like a piece of paper. Yes, you could get the same content with a netbook or even a desktop, but you wouldn't get the same experience.

Netbooks provide a keyboard, of course, which is better for doing work, writing emails and the like. They're the workhorses of the computer world, especially as we move towards sharing power and space resources through cloud computing. They're not tablets, though, and it's unfortunate that some still insist on comparing the two as if they're equal.

Tablets have the power to bring back reading and newspapers. They can be used intuitively as music instruments. They have quite a few specific uses for professional lawyers and doctors, and they're clearly something different.

The moral is that the world needs both tablets and netbooks. We need desktops, too, and supercomputers and smart phones. Tablet detractors forget that any form of computer that adds versatility also adds utility. We're not going to see the stream of Android or Apple tablets slow down or disappear any time soon; they're only going to get less expensive and more useful, because they're simply useful, fun devices. That's what the tech world needs to keep moving computing forward and further into the mainstream.

Sources:

Patterson, Ben. "CES: Motorola, LG announce first Android "Honeycomb" tablets," Yahoo! News.