Are Smartphone & Tablet PC Devices Under-rated & Under-used? - iOS, Android, Blackberry
Modern Technology
Tablet PC's and smartphones are rapidly becoming extremely popular and the technology set for release during 2012 and 2013 is even more impressive. 'Tablet' is short for 'tabletop' and Microsoft are now showcasing tablet PC's that are literally being used as a table and others that are placed on the wall just as you would with your 50-inch television set. Microsoft are currently in possession of tablet PC's with screens as large as 110-inch.
In addition, after the success of Apple's iPhone and iPad plus the many Android smartphones and tablets out there this modern technology is set for a massive upgrade. 4g could see speeds as much as 500 times faster than standard 3g and solar panels are to be placed underneath screens so that the device's batteries can self-charge. Android Market is also open-source and therefore open for business to all new and upcoming developers and the market is literally flooded with new apps every day by beginners, in addition to the many apps created by professional developers.
There are thousands of free apps available and thousands of paid apps available on Android Market and whatever it is you want your tablet or smartphone to do, you can be sure that there is an app to do just that... and if there isn't you can just make it yourself and put it on there! The specifications, functions and features of many of these devices provides for a rich and high quality user experience. Technology has come a long way since the days of playing Snake on your Nokia 5230.
Current Technical Capabilities
In the case of low cost Tablet PC's and smartphones you basically get what you pay for. Some of the cheaper devices are obviously not as high spec as more expensive devices therefore any apps that are designed to use a lot of resources or have been designed for technically capable devices may not work or function properly on the low cost devices.
Apple's iPad 2 comes at a hefty cost but the device is very impressive. I was recently given a demonstration of how the iPad 2 can be used as a full-on recording, mixing, synthesizer and mastering studio simply by dragging and dropping and pressing a few buttons. Laying the iPad down flat on the table and using the touchscreen made everything astoundingly easier to use. The touchscreen is highly responsive, the operating system is efficient and all the features available are catered for. The device is perfect for musicians.
The only real difference between a smartphone and a tablet PC is basically that a tablet is not usually a phone. Cheaper devices are sometimes not compatible with Android Market or have Flash compatibility issues so not all apps work too well on them. But a device such as Google's Nexus 7 is almost a complete replacement for your computer. With a quad-core Tegra-3 processor and 1GB of DDR-3 RAM (virtual memory) the tablet is more than capable of handling most, if not all, Android apps and by using touchscreen combined with the accelerometer, gyroscope and the thousands of apps available on Android Market the sky is the limit as to what you can actually use such devices for.
Smartphones are better than computers
A smartphone is basically a small computer within itself but has more features available making it even more useful than a tablet PC. Computers, and most tablet devices, don't have GPS so they cannot be used for satellite navigation, a mobile network cannot be accessed with a computer or standard tablet PC and they don't have a SIM card or phone number or GPRS, etc.
Generally, you can use your smartphone to do anything you want. It's only limited by your imagination and if you can think of an idea that there isn't an app for then, as already suggested, you can make one.