The Technology Pile: Tablets, Netbooks, and Laptops

In the world today we are consumed by more electronics than ever. The electronic boom has exploded into a messy pile leaving consumers to pick over and around. This could not be truer of the PC/Tablet market. Numbers are thrown at consumers at an alarming rate. The downside is that most consumers don't even know what they mean. Today we are going to have a three way fight and see who the last person standing.

The latest in technological break through are tablets. There are many out there made by Samsung, Motorola, Apple, and even Blackberry is jumping on the bandwagon. What is a person to do? Right now as it stands Tablet PC's are in their infancy. Most are running the favorable Android operating system. Apple of course is running its own IOS. If you want a quick internet search with the ability to run some applications and a e-reader then a tablet is just for you.

Right now unless you by a 3^rd party branded tablet you will have to get one from a major cell phone provider. What does this mean to you as the consumer? It means data plans. So not only are you going to have to shell out 300-600 dollars for the tablet it then requires a data plan. While all tablets have wireless technology the Telco's can't pass up their $25 a month plans. With the wide availability of wireless networking this is a big downfall for the tablets. It is important. Also most tablets have limited space to store things on. Most have expansion slots to increase their space but SD memory cards can get expensive. Make sure that you research what tablet you want. Also tablets are the more expensive of the 3 for right now. So cost maybe an issue.

The netbook was an interesting concept. For people that did not want to spend the money on a full fledge laptop but still wanted something portable that they could surf the internet with and install programs on. What I really like about the netbooks is that all are Wi-Fi capable, lightweight, and have decent processing power behind them.

You can do everything that you can with a tablet only without the data plans plus netbooks have much better storage capacity on them than tablets. The downside to netbooks is that tablets will soon catch them. Once we can get some free market tablets without 2 year leases and data plans netbooks will go by the way side.

Laptops are the king in this world of mobile computer. Not as robust as a desktop in terms of upgradability, but for the person on the run a laptop is their main weapon of choice. The amount of laptops out there is staggering. Laptop technology has become so cheap that they are almost a dime a dozen (which is good for the consumer). The biggest point in buying a laptop is making sure that it will do what you want it to do. Memory, video card, hard drive space are all important qualities. While some features can be upgraded they can also be expensive to do so. While the heaviest of our three contenders laptops are also the most robust and versatile as well. Tablets are catching up but have a long way to go.

Now that the bell has rung lets take a look. In 1st place we have the laptop. It will be a while before laptops get replaced for another device. Their wide range of flexibility and versatility is going to keep them in the game. The fact that they can do everything the others can do and more puts the laptop in the number 1 spot. In a close second come are netbook. They are usually less expensive than a laptop in fact they are down right cheap. They have more storage than a tablet does and can pretty much do everything that a tablet does as well. The main reason that netbooks take 2^nd place is well cost. The average main stream tablet will run you 400-600 dollars. On top of that you have a 2 year agreement and a data plan that goes along with it. With netbooks making the use of wide range Wi-Fi connections it clearly puts the netbook up in front. Barely coming in 3^rd is our tablet. Tablet technology is catching up and quickly. It will soon replace the netbook as the device of choice for people not wanting a laptop. The biggest thing that is holding the tablets back are the price and the fact of subscription services to a wireless carrier. Once we can move onto a better deal tablets will replace the netbook for sure.