In terms of real world usage, why would anyone use a (tablet/iPad/computer)?

Today’s opening question is deliberately obtuse, but only to highlight a really important point. We’re all different, with different experiences, interests, likes and mindsets. This is one of the things that people find really difficult to understand about technology design choices. In fact, difficult to understand about any choice in general that is made about things that they are invested in. When a large organisation makes decisions about how to spend your investment (whether it is financial, emotional or otherwise), you have to understand that they are not doing it just for you. You are a tiny, miniscule fraction of the overall number of investors and the organisation needs to provide you with just enough to keep you happy so that you stay invested. When people make comments like, “That’s not what I pay my taxes/license fee/subscription etc. for,” it’s important to ask, “While I might not make use of everything that organisation provides, does it provide enough for me?” I am probably not interested in 95% of the content on most major video subscription services, but I still keep a subscription because the remaining 5% is more than enough for me to justify the price and I understand that my 5% probably doesn’t overlap with many other people’s 5%.

So it is with technology. You might not see the value in having a tablet or a computer, but many other people do. Why is that?

Why might I need a computer?

Many people who have a tablet and phone will be asking why exactly they need a computer at all. A tablet can do pretty much everything a computer can do, right?

Well, I wouldn’t put it like that. I wouldn’t do any serious coding or writing on a tablet or phone for a start. Computers are (currently) way above tablets when it comes to productivity. A keyboard and mouse are much better tools for precision than touch screens or trackpads. Computers are generally much better at multitasking. Adding storage to a computer is easier and more reliable. And computers are usually more powerful. Much more powerful.

Why? Well, tablet and phone performance is capped by the form factor, for one thing. They must be light enough for you to hold, yet contain a battery that is large enough to power both the computer inside the device as well as the screen. The battery needs to last all day (at least), meaning the processor has to gently sip power throughout its usage. It must not get too hot in any one point – CPUs can easily go over 60 degrees Celcius under moderate usage and anything hotter than about 42 degrees is going to start to feel very hot if you’re holding it. There can rarely be cooling fans in a tablet as you would have in a laptop or desktop.

All this means that for anything more than basic, one-application-at-a-time usage, a computer will give you much better performance and, even though it is possible to connect a mouse and keyboard to a tablet, conventional wisdom dictates that you will need some form of computer for any serious levels of productivity.

So why might I need a tablet?

Tablets are fantastic at what they do. As portable media consumption devices, they are an outstanding proposition. Just turn it on, tap the screen and away you go. They are intuitive to the initiated and provide the ideal way to watch a video in bed, to receive and read a digital newspaper or magazine, to host a video call or to carry out your weekly shop. If I wanted to work for a sustained period of time, I would use a computer, but if I just wanted to check something quickly or perhaps watch a video in the kitchen, I would almost always use a tablet or phone.

I did say intuitive to the initiated for a reason. It doesn’t take long to get used to using a specific kind of tablet or phone but once you are, your investment of time and effort (and money) tends to lock you in to that device’s way of doing things. That’s one of the reasons people find it hard to switch between different brands of tablet – once you have a frame of reference, another brand’s slightly different way of doing things can be quite jarring. Once you have made your investment, there is also a significant amount of ingroup-outgroup effect. Why would anyone ever buy a xxxx tablet when my yyyy tablet works just the way I like it at a price I am happy to pay?

In truth, today’s opening paragraph hopefully illustrates that your preferred brand of tablet actually isn’t the only one for you. There are loads of reasons why another one is probably fine and, had you made another choice at another time, you would be in a different in-group making all the points they are and dismissing all the points you’re thinking of right now.

Yeah, but… I already know that I don’t need a tablet. I have a phone and a laptop.

I understand why someone in this position might dismiss tablets out of hand, but I would probably suggest that you keep an open mind. You don’t know where technology is going. When I was growing up, computers basically didn’t talk to each other and there was no internet. When I got a bit older, computers could connect, but you would have to watch photos take literal minutes to appear on screen line by line. The idea that one day we could not only watch TV on our computers, but that the internet would actually replace broadcast television (which it will) was fairly unbelievable.

However, technology changes and with it, we need to. The children born in this decade will be starting their working lives using technology remarkably different from that of today and they have to be ready to adapt to it. (They will, by the way. Far better than you will.) Think back 20 years – your phone could possibly play snake and maybe even access WAP-enabled services. You might have had an email address but there was very little social media outside of Friends Reunited – MySpace had yet to be launched, never mind Facebook or Twitter. We used textspeak in our SMS messages and most people used Ceefax or Teletext on their average 25″, analogue, 5-channel, non-widescreen, non-HD TV when they wanted to access quick information – who would ever wait for dial up to connect to the internet just to check the weather or the latest football headlines (P302)? You shopped in store or waited 28 days for your mail-order purchases to arrive (after paying by cheque). You needed to physically visit the bank or a cash machine just to find out your bank balance. Pagers were still a big deal. When you wanted to watch a film at home, where did you go? The technology world has arguably changed more in the last 20 years than it has in any other time in history. When the children of today start their working lives in 20 years’ time, what changes do you think those years will have brought?

Isn’t this supposed to be about laptops and tablets?

Yes, I’m nearly there now. The point is that you can’t restrict yourself to “I only use this form of technology.” Technology changes, whether you want it to or not. You have to find the technology that works for you, but be open to new experiences.

If you have adopted your phone as your only communication device, perhaps it’s worth considering a tablet. If you think that desktop computers are old fashioned and out of date, perhaps it’s worth investigating how others are using them. For context, my family got our first computer in around 1983 and I am unbelievably grateful to my parents for their foresight in not restricting us to a games console. I was programming on those magical rubber keys at the same age as I was learning my times tables. We didn’t know what for at the time. But now I understand – that’s very much the point.

James