Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Your vision for iPad!
- Thread starter osx11
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
Maybe there will be no more tablets. Everyone will get bored with them. Look what happened to NetBook? What happened to Pager? 
Maybe there will be no more tablets. Everyone will get bored with them. Look what happened to NetBook? What happened to Pager?
They got replaced by something better. Google thinks Glass is the future. It's certainly innovative. People have been predicting the death of paper, the keyboard and mice for years. Yet they still linger.
It's fun to speculate. I see modern sci if movies and those guys have ideas. Ender's Game anyone? Those interfaces are cool.
I sometime asked myself what would deaf people like myself do without keyboard? Kincet enabled keyboard? That would be cool!
Form factors should continue to slim down and battery life continue to increase. Also, we should see the advent of flexible displays down the road. That could allow for some innovative designs that make current day convertible laptops/tablets look extremely clunky. I can't help but think that something like the design of the Surface is not going to stand the test of time very well.
On the software side, i think you'll see continued convergence between iOS and OS X. iOS software will functionally end up doing 95-99% of what most people use a computer for.
But honestly, I think tablets will become more and more niche. I think smartphones are the wave of the future and I think they'll be dock-able (wirelessly, perhaps) with bigger monitors.
On the software side, i think you'll see continued convergence between iOS and OS X. iOS software will functionally end up doing 95-99% of what most people use a computer for.
But honestly, I think tablets will become more and more niche. I think smartphones are the wave of the future and I think they'll be dock-able (wirelessly, perhaps) with bigger monitors.
I think tablets are here to stay for now.
Wearable computing as it exists now is a gimmick. Glasses can display maps and text, fine, but how about movies, photos, games? Those media need opaque backgrounds, not transparency. And if the glasses can switch to opaque, they automatically become a safety problem outside the home. Imagine driving your car wearing Google Glass, when it accidentally starts playing Avatar 3D in both lenses.
Phones with bigger screens are fine, whatever. But if you want a larger than pocket sized screen, you will need a separate device.
Flexible displays seem cool on paper. But I think it's a case of "it's cool because we can do it". Ok, my tablet can bend. Now what? How do I flatten it out when I want to read or play a game? How do I keep it from bending when I don't want it to? A truly useful flexible tablet will have to be a lot more advanced than just having a bendable LCD. It will require a revolution in metallurgy and/or plastics that can facilitate multiple physical states besides just flexible.
In the near future, I think we'll see the current form factors refined. Lighter stronger metals and plastics. Wireless conductive charging with battery life that is measured in days, not hours. Advances in LCD manufacturing that produce homogenized flawless results. Screens that can be switched from backlit to e-ink at will.
Gestures will surpass physical touch. Scrolling will be done with the eyes, the wave of a finger, or a nod, as a seamless feature, not an accessibility toggle.
Maybe some day you will be able to interact with a scalable floating proxy of a screen, with the CPU existing as a small wireless transmitter that stays in your pocket. This issue of transparency comes up here too though. Not sure we'll ever get past that. Even Princess Leia was see through.
Wearable computing as it exists now is a gimmick. Glasses can display maps and text, fine, but how about movies, photos, games? Those media need opaque backgrounds, not transparency. And if the glasses can switch to opaque, they automatically become a safety problem outside the home. Imagine driving your car wearing Google Glass, when it accidentally starts playing Avatar 3D in both lenses.
Phones with bigger screens are fine, whatever. But if you want a larger than pocket sized screen, you will need a separate device.
Flexible displays seem cool on paper. But I think it's a case of "it's cool because we can do it". Ok, my tablet can bend. Now what? How do I flatten it out when I want to read or play a game? How do I keep it from bending when I don't want it to? A truly useful flexible tablet will have to be a lot more advanced than just having a bendable LCD. It will require a revolution in metallurgy and/or plastics that can facilitate multiple physical states besides just flexible.
In the near future, I think we'll see the current form factors refined. Lighter stronger metals and plastics. Wireless conductive charging with battery life that is measured in days, not hours. Advances in LCD manufacturing that produce homogenized flawless results. Screens that can be switched from backlit to e-ink at will.
Gestures will surpass physical touch. Scrolling will be done with the eyes, the wave of a finger, or a nod, as a seamless feature, not an accessibility toggle.
Maybe some day you will be able to interact with a scalable floating proxy of a screen, with the CPU existing as a small wireless transmitter that stays in your pocket. This issue of transparency comes up here too though. Not sure we'll ever get past that. Even Princess Leia was see through.
Last edited:
Hmmm...I would disagree. I think, if anything, it is the base Surface design that may have a future. But there will be, I think, an important modification. If you think of the current Surface 2 (not the Pro version) with the Touch keyboard (not the Type Keyboard), then think about the Keyboard being replaced by another screen - thinner and in time made of flexible materials. What you would have in effect would be a 2-screen tablet with one of the screen that can double up with a rather uncannily tactile virtual keyboard. Now, that would be a classy tablet. Single screen with an effective tactile keyboard when required and a two-screen device when watching media or reading... or, two independent screens (connected by BT or some such protocol) when used with a physical keyboard.