Huh?

July 1st was a landmark day in tablet history. Hewlett Packard, one of the most innovative and respected players in the computer game for nearly a century, came out with their own take on the tablet PC. Slightly larger than the Apple iPad, much quicker, more versatile, and with the ability to handle Flash (a display animation product from Adobe that all computers except the iPad and iPhone can use), the HP Tablet PC promised to be one of the most formidable challengers to the dominant iPad.

On paper anyway.

It seems sales of this unit have been slow. Like nearly non-existent. I looked at one just yesterday and marveled at how good websites looked on its screen. I'm lucky I didn't buy one though, because today, they were discontinued. The groundbreaking new operating system (WebOS) - discontinued. The division that designed and manufactured the OS, and the phones and tablet that used it - about to be shut down or sold.

The people at Apple must be dancing in the street. Further confirmation that the iPad is the only tablet that people even think about came yesterday when it was reported that 95.4% of people who want to buy a tablet, want to buy the iPad. Mind you, there are a LOT of non-Apple phones out there, and the same program that powers those phones has been making its way into non-Apple tablets, but for now, Apple is king!

Tablet PC's are a real dilemma. They are not PC's. They don't run software programs like the ones traditionally found on your typical computer. They run "apps", small applications that can be easily purchased and downloaded from app stores online. They won't run your business software (at least not yet), but they make really cool ebook readers (which can be used to purchase and read books, magazines, and newspapers), web browsers, email devices, and game consoles for dumbed-down games.

But, despite their limitations, they are selling like hotcakes. Either people will eventually wake up from the novelty and realize these things are really not good at anything but entertainment, or the business community is going to start making REAL business applications web-capable, and you WILL be able to use business software on your tablet - over the web!

If I buy a tablet (strictly as a means of verifying what my websites will look like to people who use tablets), it probably will be an Android device. Not because it will eventually beat the iPad (remember that 95.4% figure), but because you get more tablet for the buck when you're buying an Android device. But, as of now, there are no Android devices that measure up to the overall capabilities of the iPad, so I'll continue to sit on the sidelines for a while longer.