Tablets – How We Bought Lean Mean Purchasing Machines

Last week, the Wall Street Journal promptly informed me that Tablet-PC owners had sectioned itself off as a new, wealthier trigger happy group of consumers. According to the article, they occupy more than their fair share of the online shopping space, making retailers strive especially hard to create apps that will allow owners to do exactly what they want to do – shop.

When you think about it, why else would you buy a tablet-pc other than to shop? Even though the tablet is a sleek new piece of technology that allows you to have access to an application environment  that provides more tools than you’d ever need, it’s inherently a handheld mall. It’s two tiered shopping:

Long Live Personal Computing

This past weekend, HP’s CEO announced that they were discontinuing the sale of their HP TouchPad. As a fan of HP, this news was a bit disheartening. Even though their webOS wasn’t necessarily competing with the Apple or Google’s operating systems, I always cheer for the little guy. Ten years ago, Apple didn’t seem like it was going to make it in the Windows-dominated computer market, but obviously things change. What’s worse is that this might be a preface to the end of HP’s commercial computing line.

Ever since I’ve been able to choose which computer I want to use, it has always been HP. Not only were these machines affordable and aesthetically pleasing, they worked! They were and still are good computers. After I gleefully traded-in my Macbook last month, my choices were between a Lenovo Laptop and an HP. Smart people recognize that Apple isn’t some be-all-end-all computer god that we all have to praise. It’s a choice, and an extremely pricey one too.