Tablet PC
A tablet computer, commonly shortened to tablet, is a mobile device, typically with a mobile operating system and touchscreen display processing circuitry, and a rechargeable battery in a single, thin and flat package. Tablets, being computers, do what other personal computers do, but lack some input/output (I/O) abilities that others have. Modern tablets largely resemble modern smartphones, the only difference being that tablets are relatively larger than smartphones, with screens 7 inches (18 cm) or larger, measured diagonally, and may not support access to a cellular network.
The touchscreen display is operated by gestures executed by finger or digital pen (stylus), instead of the mouse, trackpad, and keyboard of larger computers. Portable computers can be classified according to the presence and appearance of physical keyboards. Two species of a tablet, the slate and booklet, do not have physical keyboards and usually accept text and other input by use of a virtual keyboard shown on their touchscreen displays. To compensate for their lack of a physical keyboard, most tablets can connect to independent physical keyboards by Bluetooth or USB; 2-in-1 PCs have keyboards, distinct from tablets.
The form of the tablet was conceptualized in the middle of the 20th century (Stanley Kubrick depicted fictional tablets in the 1968 science fiction film A Space Odyssey) and prototyped and developed in the last two decades of that century. In 2010, Apple released the iPad, the first mass-market tablet to achieve widespread popularity. Thereafter tablets rapidly rose in ubiquity and soon became a large product category used for personal, educational and workplace applications, with sales stabilizing in the mid-2010s.
Android was the first of the 2000s-era dominating platforms for tablet computers to reach the market. In 2008, the first plans for Android-based tablets appeared. The first products were released in 2009. Among them was the Archos 5, a pocket-sized model with a 5-inch touchscreen, that was first released with a proprietary operating system and later (in 2009) released with Android 1.4. The Camangi WebStation was released in Q2 2009. The first LTE Android tablet appeared in late 2009 and was made by ICD for Verizon. This unit was called the Ultra, but a version called Vega was released around the same time. Ultra had a 7-inch display while Vega's was 15 inches. Many more products followed in 2010. Several manufacturers waited for Android Honeycomb, specifically adapted for use with tablets, which debuted in February 2011.
Apple is often credited for defining a new class of consumer device with the iPad, which shaped the commercial market for tablets in the following years, and was the most successful tablet at the time of its release. iPads and competing devices were tested by the US military in 2011 and cleared for secure use in 2013. Its debut in 2010 pushed tablets into the mainstream. Samsung's Galaxy Tab and others followed, continuing the trends towards the features listed above. In March 2012, PC Magazine reported that 31% of U.S. Internet users owned a tablet, used mainly for viewing published content such as video and news. The top-selling line of devices was Apple's iPad with 100 million sold between its release in April 2010 and mid-October 2012, but iPad market share (number of units) dropped to 36% in 2013 with Android tablets climbing to 62%. Android tablet sales volume was 121 million devices, plus 52 million, between 2012 and 2013 respectively. Individual brands of Android operating system devices or compatibles follow iPad with Amazon's Kindle Fire with 7 million, and Barnes & Noble's Nook with 5 million.
The BlackBerry PlayBook was announced in September 2010 that ran the BlackBerry Tablet OS. The BlackBerry PlayBook was officially released to US and Canadian consumers on April 19, 2011. Hewlett Packard announced that the TouchPad, running WebOS 3.0 on a 1.2 GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon CPU, would be released in June 2011. On August 18, 2011, HP announced the discontinuation of the TouchPad, due to sluggish sales.[66] In 2013, the Mozilla Foundation announced a prototype tablet model with Foxconn which ran on Firefox OS. Firefox OS was discontinued in 2016. The Canonical hinted that Ubuntu would be available on tablets by 2014. In February 2016 there was a commercial release of the BQ Aquaris Ubuntu tablet utilizing the Ubuntu Touch operating system. Canonical terminated support for the project due to lack of market interest on 5 April 2017 and it was then adopted by the UBports as a community project.
As of February 2014, 83% of mobile app developers were targeting tablets, but 93% of developers were targeting smartphones. By 2014 around 23% of B2B companies were said to have deployed tablets for sales-related activities, according to a survey report by Corporate Visions. The iPad held majority use in North America, Western Europe, Japan, Australia, and most of the Americas. Android tablets were more popular in most of Asia (China and Russia an exception), Africa and Eastern Europe. In 2015 tablet sales did not increase. Apple remained the largest seller but its market share declined below 25%. Samsung vice president Gary Riding said early in 2016 that tablets were only doing well among those using them for work. Newer models were more expensive and designed for a keyboard and stylus, which reflected the changing uses. As of early 2016, Android reigned over the market with 65%. Apple took the number 2 spot with 26%, and Windows took a distant third with the remaining 9%. In 2018, out of 4.4 billion computing devices, Android accounted for 2 billion, iOS for 1 billion, and the remainder were PCs, in various forms (desktop, notebook, or tablet), running various operating systems (Windows, macOS, ChromeOS, Linux, etc.).
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F.A.Q. about Tablet PC
Why are tablet PCs popular?
By definition, a tablet is a highly portable PC whose primary interface is a touch screen that occupies the full length/width of the device but whose speaker and microphone are not positioned for hand-held calling. In popular perception, however, tablets simply combine the best aspects of smartphones and laptop PCs, creating what tablet lovers consider the ultimate mobile computing experience:
- Compatible with home/office wireless and cellular data networks
- Portable, but with larger, clearer displays than earlier mobile devices
- Powerful, but lighter and easier to carry than traditional laptops
- Longer battery life and greater storage capacity than typical smartphones
Tablet owners can use touch commands or a virtual keyboard (sometimes a physical one) to run web browsers, email programs, and interactive games just like they do on a desktop PC or laptop. But when they're ready to move, they can keep working (or playing) simply by switching from a home/office wireless network to a cellular data network.
Are there different types of tablet PCs?
Yes and no, depending on the strictness of the definition.
Engineers used the term slate to describe the original, widely popularized tablet PC form factor-- thin and flat, one-sided, without a keyboard. That distinguished tablets from convertibles: full-fledged, keyboard-equipped laptops with hinges that allowed the cover/touch screen to flip 180 degrees -- creating a bulky but usable "tablet."
Today, the terminology has evolved -- adding the phrase "2-in-1" -- to better distinguish the different types of tablets and laptops. Note that within each category are models that run on mobile operating systems and others that run on regular PC operating systems:
- Laptop: The original, portable PC that opens partway, like a notebook, to reveal a screen and a keyboard.
- Tablet: The original, widely popularized slate tablet form factor: thin, flat, and without a keyboard.
- 2-in-1 Detachable (also called a "hybrid laptop" or "hybrid tablet"): A device whose keyboard and screen can be fully detached from each other. Depending on the manufacturer, 2-in-1 Detachables might be marketed as "tablets-with-optional-keyboards" or "laptops-with-detachable-tablets."
- 2-in-1 Attached (also called a "convertible laptop" or "convertible tablet"): A device with either a hinge/screen combination that flips around for use as a tablet or a keyboard that in some way folds out from the screen/body. While similar to the original convertibles, today's 2-in-1 Attached models are much thinner and lighter.
In addition, a new term -- Multimode Tablet -- has emerged to describe models with specialized hinge/handles that allow them to be used traditionally (directly in your hands) or in multiple different ways while propped on a desktop (in tilt mode for easier touch entry (or to project the screen on a nearby wall), in standing mode for touch screen-controlled presentations, or in tent mode for less interactive presentations). Some pc manufacturers even offer a "hanging mode" or include "tablet mode" and "laptop mode" among their list of available modes.
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