Then, Who Wants a Tablet?

Today, Tim Van Damme made a very compelling and in some ways exciting argument for an Apple Tablet that would not only compliment the desktop computing experience, but would integrate fully into it. An illustration below explains what that means:

Tablet Insert

Illustration by Tim Van Damme

While on one hand this solution seems, in my mind at least, to be the only viable solution speculated on so far, on the other hand it gives me yet another reason to ask “if this is it, then who the heck wants one of these?”

According to Tim’s argument, the Tablet would essentially “dock” itself into an iMac like docking station to create the “desktop” experience. For a more laptop-like experience, the Tablet would dock itself into the base of a laptop keyboard.

My argument is that we already have an experience like this.

I currently own a 15” Macbook Pro. I use this laptop at the office, at home, at coffee shops, on the sofa, etc. It pretty much follows wherever I go. Anywhere that is uncomfortable to use the Macbook Pro, I use my iPhone.

At the office, I have a 24” Dell monitor. Paired with an external keyboard and mouse, my laptop+monitor combination creates a truly desktop-like experience (without the hassle of a gigantic tower sitting at my feet). When I’m out and about I can use the Macbook Pro as a true laptop, with the best keyboard and trackpad experience available on any laptop today. In both circumstances, I have all of my files with me wherever I go.

“But”, one may argue, “the Tablet will let you sit on your couch! Don’t you get how cool that is?” To which I respond by simply pulling out my iPhone and showing how incredibly cool and powerful Mobile Safari and all of the other iPhone apps are, all while holding a drink in my other hand and sitting comfortably on my sofa.

I can think of no experience in my life where a Tablet makes sense. Maybe I’m the outlier here, and the general population could really use something like the Tablet. Unless, as I tweeted last week, the Apple Tablet can do something truly miraculous, I just don’t feel that same “I need to have that” feeling I get with most other Apple products.

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