gdgt

I think a tablet is the ultimate bed device. Pretty much every night I'm using my iPad to watch a video or check twitter/facebook before I go to sleep. It's much easier to do that kind of stuff with a tablet than a laptop.

When I need to do work, I'll always grab the laptop, but for moments where I'm in bed, want to sit in my kitchen, or watch something with a friend, I think the portability/size of a tablet can't be beat.

I think it depends on what you do on the internet. Personally I read a ton of articles and browse a lot of news sites, and to me that experience is vastly superior on a tablet than it is on a laptop. Especially lounging around on the couch. I hate fighting with the position of a laptop while on the couch, fighting with scrolling, etc. I think the reading experience on a tablet is lot more comfortable.

If you don't do a lot of reading on the net, then you may not think a tablet provides any convenience for you.

I love using my iPhone on the couch so I think if you have a smartphone that you love, then you don't NEED a tablet. However, I understand how people would love the bigger screen and more power. Also the fact that using it doesn't take up your phone battery and you can have your iPhone docked to a stereo so you can listen to music and still use your tablet. I think in the next 2 years there will be a race to the bottom with tablets because I really see them being valuable in the kitchen and carried around frequently. They won't become GPS or alarm clocks or even event planners the way smartphones have, but they will be portable information viewers.

Right now tablets are a novelty the way that the iPod was a novelty. They are more necessary for people who aren't in love with their smartphones in my opinion. Also when you spend $500 on something, you aren't likely you use it as much while cooking/preparing in the kitchen like I see people using them when they are cheaper. If I bought an iPad2 today for $500 I would never take it to a place like Starbucks, the library, subway, a friend's house or any place where I could get water damage or crack the screen when someone bumped into my bag. If it were as cheap as a Kindle I wouldn't be as hesitant to bring it outside of my house. I realize there are cases and covers, but spending over $500 on something so easily stolen, dropped or cracked that's not really necessary to begin with makes me nervous and I think lots of mainstream people think the same way.

A laptop is a little less fragile but certainly more necessary. When you bring your laptop somewhere it's different because it's not viewed as a toy. I am not someone to bring my laptop on the subway just because, but I would like to have a tablet on the subway as a bigger version of my smartphone.

Right now tablets are a novelty and at best a bigger version of our smartphones. Hopefully they become more powerful so they can be used similar to the Motorola Atrix in that you have something you carry around that fits in your pocket, you can dock it and make it be more powerful with a bigger screen.

I would like to take it a step further like Sony does with the Vaio Z and have a phone that docks to a portable tablet for carrying around for leisure/class/subway/car, but then at home it docks to a full keyboard and full size screen and gets added horsepower. Obviously the big downfall with that is that when your phone breaks your SOL, but with flash memory hopefully it won't be that way. I really see people being able to walk around with something the size of our wallet in our pants (maybe it replaces our wallet), then having a larger case to dock it in to view on a bigger screen that would also add battery life, extra buttons, more power etc that would fit in a small backpack or even a large coat. Then being able to put that small wallet sized phone into a docking station at our work/home to sync everything and get added power plus the benefit of full size peripherals.