The Rise of Phones and the Inevitable Rise of Tablets.
Cellphones have undergone a radical evolution in my life. I had an old Motorola Microtac wedge shaped phone as my first phone. I was amazed that this thing could connect me to anyone and sat on my hip. I progressed through a few other Motorola's and even had pagers before becoming a Nokia fan.
I had a Nokia 5190 first then a 6185. These phones were notable for being small, good performing, and had interchangeable face plates and a ton of accessories. They had good reception could hold 100 numbers and even had a few games. They had a monochrome extremely low res screen and we thought that was great back then since it wasn't just text. They were the shit for a while. I still have an old Nokia as a backup to this day.
Then things started changing. Color screens, then cameras, and modern dumb phones were born. As recently as 5 years ago i was still rocking a dumb phone but it was a great one. The LG vx9800 or in Verizon parlance "The V" it was the precursor to the enV and it was great. I could surf the net, text message with the full keyboard, and even listen to my music on the thing like a mini boom box with its stereo speakers. I loved that phone immensely. 
I soon switched away from Verizon for a small start up that had better rates called Helio. I was with Helio for 3 years. I first had the Helio Ocean. That was a spiffy phone with a dual sliding design with a great camera, unlimited texting and unlimited internet. It had no tethering though and it would never get it. I then made the switch to the updated Ocean 2. Everything about the ocean I loved and a slightly prettier interface and sleeker design. You could even install some apps.
The little company though ended up getting bought by Virgin and the writing was on the wall. Helio was going to go away and become a prepaid service. I quickly made a jump to T-Mobile and to the venerable Google G1. Though I had coveted the original windows smart phones they cost too much and the plan was way too expensive.
Now my phone eclipses the Nexus specs and is closer to being a Nexus S, the new Google Android flagship phone.
Tablets, iPads, Galaxy Tabs, etc..
Then came the tablet. I initially scoffed at them as little more than a toy. I am not so sure now. These devices have large screens, fast processors, good amounts of ram, cameras, multitasking, and good touch screens. But they run essentially phone operating systems.
So what started as a phone OS, has become a good low power, long run time platform. It makes sense for them to be shoehorned into tablet style devices. Sure they have no cellular connectivity and it doesn't work as a phone but they have big screens. I'm convinced that the rise of tablets is simply because the operating systems and and low power processors combined with long run time and decent software and real browsing experience have created a perfect storm for the creation and flourishing of tablets.
Now, in a sense, the modern tablet is a large screen rebirth of decades past PDA's. It just took a long way about getting here. In a sense this is their second coming since large screen tablets have existed before and I lusted after them. PC Tablets seem to have failed before because of the windows interface but really they haven't. They became niche products and exist mainly in the enterprise and never really went mainstream.
Not that that is a bad thing. The tablet style computer while great may kill the venerable netbook, but I do not see it killing the regular laptop or desktop pc. The netbook still has a place since it has greater storage, usable for work interface, runs real pc applications, and is cheaper.
Categories: RP Author Dissident, Philosophy, Editorial, Gadgets
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