On recent trips to the USA and UK I did not take my laptop with me but instead my tablet – the Apple iPad. Interestingly, on my long flight across the Atlantic I noticed more people using tablets than laptops. That doesn’t mean more people actually travel with tablets than laptops as they may have had them still packed away in their luggage, but it does mean people are turning to them as an alternative.

I have just read an article by Bill Detwiler of TechRepublic (www.techrepublic.com) where he held a live conference last September where he posed a similar question. He said the members were divided on the tablet’s usefulness “but the number of those who believe the devices are merely a passing fad is falling. Nearly 40 percent of respondents to an April, 2011 poll think tablets are the future, and 32 percent were on the fence. Only 28 percent felt that tablets were a fad.”

At the end of the same article Bill sums up, “Within five years, I believe many office workspaces will consist of a docking station, keyboard, mouse or trackpad, and large monitor(s).  Each morning, you’ll come in, place your tablet in the dock, and turn on the monitor. You’ll still use the keyboard, mouse, and monitor for creating content, but you’ll actually be doing it on a tablet (or maybe even a smartphone).”

I found the iPad less cumbersome than my laptop but the hotels I stayed in were not geared up for wifi, even the expensive rooms at the Hilton. You could obtain wifi (at a ridiculously inflated price) but not in your rooms!  Hopefully that will change.