Is the tablet computer in your future? It's the new must-have

Dave Ginsburg has had iPhone 2, 3 and now 4, and he couldn't get the iPad fast enough when it debuted last year. He quickly upgraded when the 3G version arrived. And now he's replaced that with the ultimate iPad 3G with 64 gigabytes, won in a raffle.

So it's no surprise the computer professional from Mount Prospect plans to quickly buy the iPad2 when it becomes available on March 11.

Ginsburg is part of the drive behind the explosion of tablet offerings, as the newest iPad soon joins others already on the market and more to come as companies compete for this business.

Apple on Wednesday unveiled its iPad 2, a sleeker, lighter and more powerful tablet. Libertyville-based Motorola Mobility last week debuted Xoom. Then there's Samsung's Galaxy, Dell's Latitude, RIM's upcoming Playbook, Hewlett-Packard's upcoming Touch pad, and more. And these manufacturers are eager to make their tablet your must-have, cannot-live-without device that you use every day.

The tablet computer, as one expert said, is the smartphone/e-reader/laptop/mp3/gps all together, on steroids.

Already tablets are selling faster than wireless phones and smartphones did. About 200 million tablets are expected to be sold worldwide by 2015. Mobile phones had a slower start, with about 300 million sold by 1998-99, when they were on the market for about 15 years, according to data from IHS iSuppli, an El Segundo, Calif.-based market research firm.

“It's so much a part of our lives that I feel it's very important to be connected,” Ginsburg said of his devices.

Pete Occhipinti, an educational music store owner from Itasca, also wants to be connected, but he waited for the bugs to be worked out and for prices to drop. Now that iPad 2 is almost here, Occhipinti said he'll go to an Apple store after the crowds leave to buy his much-awaited device.

“I felt that eventually the iPad would get a camera and it does now,” he said. “I wanted to do FaceTime since my kids are out of state. It also has a lot of other features, everything that I expected.”

FaceTime is a new application on iPad 2 that works with the iPad2's camera and can interface with your phone and computer.

The Northwest of Us, a Mac user group in the suburbs, also will have many members eager to get the second iPad with more powerful features, said club President Roger Matthews.

“A lot of them will be waiting for it, especially to check out the new FaceTime feature,” Matthews said.

Tablets are expected to fill needs not done by other devices. For example, when you buy a car, you likely could use your tablet to get a download of the vehicle's manual instead of stuffing those heavy books into the glove compartment. Then, those virtual manuals can be updated with ease. And students at high schools and universities will download textbooks onto the tablet, said Sideco.

“What you have is a device that's adaptable and ‘re-wipeable,'” Sideco said. “You can make it into anything you want.”

The tablet provides a single device that can replace multiple devices many people use now. It can replace e-book readers, notebooks, desktops, laptops, smartphones, MP3 players and GPS devices. It also provides a bigger display, better graphics and better interface compared to these other devices, said Greg Brewster, DePaul University associate professor and director of the Center for Advanced Network Studies.

“For those of us who are dependent on any of these already, we could easily become dependent on a tablet instead,” said Brewster.

But the tablet likely won't be the only-have device, he said.

“It is too big to fit in a pocket,” Brewster said. “Cell phones still fulfill a more fundamental human need to communicate with anyone from any location than tablets do.”

The tablet has existed for about 20 years but was never fully functional enough to raise public interest. Now, many companies are making improvements to sell them, said Ray Wright, professor of computer science and information technology at Roosevelt University in Schaumburg.

The tablet's portability, improved productivity, longer battery life and adaptability, and access to various forms of information and entertainment will keep it around for a long time. Also, cheaper knock-offs from overseas likely will increase its mass appeal, said Wright, who soon will get the Dell tablet.

“As with most technology, people will become adapted to using one of these and tablets will be almost as common as the cell phone,” Wright said. “In fact, I see some day when they will replace most cell phones.”

The future is now. Tablets already are the can't-live-without device, said Ed Longanecker, executive director of TechAmerica in Naperville.

“As input devices and their functionality continue to evolve, tablets have the potential to become a greater share of the social, computing and media experience,” said Longanecker. “Even today they are quickly replacing computers for certain types of business and leisure activity.”

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