Even if Apple were to announce something entirely different on Jan 27 (just love the idea of the biggest headfake yet) it is clear that 2010 will be the year of slates, with Ballmer showing off HP’s upcoming Windows 7-based slate. So much has been written that I won’t even try to link to any of it. I have read a bunch but it’s impossible to have read it all and so the following points may well have been covered by a bunch of other people. Instead of speculation about what capabilities will be delivered by whom, I have been spending time thinking about what capabilities I would like to see personally.
First is price. I really want a price point where I could get a bunch of them – there should be no “hogging” the slate. I want there to be a slate in reach easily in any part of the house. That will make it useful at all those times where you’d like to quickly access something (middle of dinner conversation, homework, watching TV, etc).
Second is user modes. This is closely related to the first point. I would like the slate to not be tied to a person. Instead, when you could pick up any slate in the house, select your icon and be where you left off. Ideally, there would also be an obvious guest mode. So you can leave the slate around the house the same way you might leave books or magazines.
Third is durability and battery life. The thing shouldn’t scratch super easily – it will be lying around in unpredictable places. Having to plug it in every night would be annoying at best. Built-in support for plug-less charging via a mat or a cradle would also be highly desirable.
Fourth is connectivity. I don’t see carrying the slate with me outside of the house – maybe that is simply shortsighted on my part and I am prepared to be blown away – and so don’t care about 3G. But for the use cases that I would love a slate for, killer strong and fast wifi is an absolute must. I don’t want to sit in the garden and have to go inside to get to the next page of something I am reading.
Fifth is simplicity. This is probably the most important by far. I don’t want to have to trouble shoot another set of devices around the house. The kids should be able to use them out of the box. And I am not just talking about our own house. There are my parents (in Germany – another reason why wifi is more important than 3G) and my mother-in-law. They all use computers and so I am not asking for miracles here, just a real consumer device.
Those are my personal key requirements. I could see getting three or four slates just for our house if they meet those requirements. Having written about it I am now more curious than before about what will actually be available (so that really backfired!).
