The Success of the Google Nexus and Microsoft Surface Tablets Would be Good For Everybody
The rise, or fall of the Microsoft Surface, and newly announced Nexus tablets could be the watershed event of the future success of tablet computers on the whole. Now I am not saying that tablets have been a flop, the Apple iPad has been one of the best selling and most popular gadgets of the millennium, and the popularity of the Amazon Fire has show that tablet computing can have a low entry point since introducing their budget tablet at $199 late last year.
But outside of the iPad and the Fire, there has not been much to be excited about in the realm of tablet computing. The Fire has been the only Android tablet to date to receive much acclaim. Its near impossible to make a tablet, like the iPad, your primary computing option. And cost so far has been an issue as well, besides the Fire and a few other low end tablets, the Barnes and Noble Nook would fall in her as well, the cost point for most high end tablets has been around $500, the same cost level as many, more useful, albeit spartan, laptops and PC's.
Here is where the success of Microsoft and Google's new tablets comes into play. Should the devices sell well and become popular, first and foremost, it will put Apple and Amazon on notice. A competitive market breeds ingenuity, by not allowing Apple to rest on their laurels, and by forcing the other tablet companies to step their game up, we the public could be in for a whole new generation of personal computing. Prices become more competitive, quality and functionality become higher, meaning we as consumers come out the winners, as do the tech companies who would be able to find a more receptive marketplace.
Should the Surface and Nexus flop, well, one only has to look at the rise and fall of the "netbook" to see the possible future of tablet computers. The small, portable, cheap, low powered laptops were very popular in the 2000's, as that popularity faded, the tablets step in to fill that void. With only one current dominant manufacturer in Apple the tablet computer could remain a fringe product, opening up the door for another product, or system to take its place.
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