People have been speculating for a while on what someone would want a tablet computer for and how they would use it. While considering those questions, I put together a list of use cases. It should be noted that this list is purely speculation and in many cases wishful thinking. Having said that, the exercise of brainstorming these use cases helped clarify exactly the business opportunity the tablet represents and why people are so excited about the potential.
Mobile Internet Surfing
- Living room
- Bedroom or hospital bed
- Bathroom
- Kitchen (to look up recipes and view demonstrations)
Desktop
- Desktop VOIP phone (utilizing a stand and maybe a bluetooth headset) with video calling
- Basic video editing (like in iPhone and Quicktime)
- Drawing surface for artistic software
- Digital picture frame
- Document review, digital signing and sending
Note Taking
- Doctors and nurses taking down patient notes
- Classroom (students taking notes, making flash cards, recording lectures)
- Business meetings
- notepad for handwritten notes
Car
- Infotainment system for car; GPS navigation, etc.
- Screen to control external devices and car hardware
Business
- hotel personnel visiting rooms (housekeepers, managers, etc)
- Mobile POS system
Mobile
- Augmented reality device
- Handheld maps
- Guided museum tours
Miscellaneous
- Sports playbook
- Sports statistics aggregation
- Real estate agents showing houses or buildings
- Architects demoing the finished product
- eReader for books, magazines, etc
- Bathroom/kitchen/mobile tv
- Kiosks at a conference
- Video camera
- Hikers navigating using the map/gps
- Instruction manuals for operating electronic devices, assembling furniture (think Ikea), etc
I think the big problem is text entry. Maybe 10 finger typing on a glass screen can work, but if not, it’s a huge problem. People can type on an iphone because they cradle it in their two hands and type with two thumbs. A tablet would be too large for such an activity. (Maybe you could split the keyboard in half and put them in the bottom left and right corners, but that seems awkward as well.) Having a physical keyboard seems to ruin the benefits. A popout keyboard? Unlikely to fit the Apple design aesthetic. And… that’s where I get stuck and run out of ideas.
