Should I buy a tablet?

I get this query from time to time. (The frequency has increased to much more times in a day due to the recent rush of tablets in to the Indian market). I decided to write it once here and make them read it instead of repeating the same stuff every time.

The answer is – It Depends.

It depends on the purpose of your usage. PC users can be classified into broadly 2 types

  1. Information Consumers: – Web Browsing (Email, Blogs )etc.
  2. Information Producers: – Spreadsheets, Documentation,Designing, Programming etc.

If you are a information consumer i.e one who consumes information from Internet or various software applications then the tablets are for you. If you are a information producer then you should be really looking into a notebook/laptop or the plain old desktop.

Tablets such as the Apple Ipad, Samsung Galaxy tab, etc, etc are really good at Consumption but they fare poorly for Production. They lie somewhere between a smart Phone and a PC and therefore serves as a really great secondary computing device (if you do not mind spending the $ for the extra luxury).

To summarize Tablets are a great device for those who find PC too complicated/boring/overwhelming to use for tasks like checking Email or reading news on the Internet.