2014 will be the year of big tablets

2014 looks to be the year for tablets larger than the norm. At least if we would believe all the rumors.

Apple is rumored to release a 12-inch iPad that I personally believe is a new kind of Macbook Air with touch display though, and Samsung is believed to launch a tablet with a 10.5-inch AMOLED display on CES 2014. That is just two examples of rumors of large tablets.

Personally I can see the need for larger tablets if they should replace laptops in the future, but when it comes to Android we still have the problems with apps. Android needs a lot more tablet optimized apps. And it will be interesting to see how Apple will handle one more app size if they launch a 12-inch iPad…

Bigger tablets also needs to still be very light to hold, because you hold a tablet and not having it on your knee or stomach as I do with my 11-inch MacBook Air for example. That is a quite important difference. It is actually a lot more comfortable to handle the 11-inch MacBook Air than a 10-inch or bigger tablet because you don’t have to hold it.

So if we will see bigger tablets we also need to see smarter keyboard solutions for them. We need snap on keyboards that are sturdy enough to have on your knee or stomach when sitting or laying down.

I think the future is moving more and more to a new kind of device, an iPad-like device but with a keyboard attached. My dream device would be a 11-inch MacBook Air with touch, running a hybrid OS of iOS combined with OS X, so that we can run iOS apps on it, without feeling so closed like you do on iOS with all the restrictions.

Anyway, the future looks highly mobile and very interesting.

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