Paper... we love it and we loathe it. It still exists because we've built a dependance on it despite the fact that we have technology that renders it null and void. We have document formats like ePUB and PDF that allow us to carry around books wherever we go. We have the ability to create these forms of documents so easily especially with the latest update to iWork. We read on the internet and we read e-mails. Our communication has gone from slow pieces of paper being delivered by people on pushbikes to wires that move data in seconds not days. In fact the only real requirement for paper is mopping up spills and wiping our bums.

But reading on screens is hard because screens are in landscape and we read documents in portrait. Reading in portrait on a screen that's in landscape means a lot of scrolling or reducing the text to such a level that we can't read it properly anyway and so many people print stuff out because it's simply too hard to do onscreen.

In ten years of Microsoft trying to push the tablet as a computer the tablet just hasn't ever taken off. The one thing the naysayers of the iPad have never asked themselves is why has tablet computing failed up until this point?

The answer is simple... they're too under powered to do the work people think they should be doing. Essentially what is happening is people expect to work on a tablet the same way they do on a laptop but the specs of a tablet and the ridiculous price of these tablets make them useless for a computer replacement. In fact the idea that the tablet is meant to replace the computer is actually proof that no one really understands the concept of the tablet.

A tablet computer is not designed to replace computers but to act as a compliment to computers. It's best to think of it as a compliment to a desktop rather than a compliment to a laptop because as soon as you introduce a laptop into the equation people will think it makes no sense to replace the laptop with something so under powered. And to a lesser extent they would be right. That being said though a tablet does make a pretty good alternative to a laptop when conjoined with a desktop.