Should Tablets Be Cool, Or Is It Good Enough to be a Toy?
Are tablets cool? Are they tools, or toys? And if tablets are ‘just toys’, is Influency* still part of the discussion?
I’ve owned my Nexus 7 for about nine months now. And as its gestation period has progressed I’ve noticed that this great little tablet has taken a position somewhere between tool and toy. This is partially a matter of practicality and what tablets are well suited for, and partially about my having started using a Chromebook when I’m on the road; the Chromebook is so much more like a ‘real’ computer than that little keyboard-less tablet can ever be and so easy to carry — and reliable for a full day’s battery — that my original plans for using the Nexus 7 have changed.
But I use that Nexus 7 every day. It’s a great get-a-few-minutes-of-entertainment machine, and it’s about perfect for reading news and checking on a few miscellaneous facts.
Because it’s a 7-inch tablet, and not a 10-inch beast like the iPad, or Google’s Nexus 10.
That’s right; the Nexus 7 is a great toy and a great tool because it’s smaller than the Mac-daddy of tablet sales. At 10 inches tablets may be better for watching movies, but that’s about it; they’re too large for a quick-reach-to-do-something-fast, too large to hold comfortably and use as a reader for any length of time, and too small to be a ‘real computer’.
In short, the iPad (and other 10 inch tablets) don’t really make sense. And as a result iPad sales are slowing, while 10-inch Android tablet sales just aren’t getting off the ground.
What does make sense? Making sense. (know what’s cool? a BILLION dollars . . . )
As we all fight our way through the Influency maze, trying different tactics to get peoples’ attention and hold it, we cycle through a lot of ideas. Remember the British judge who threw Apple’s patent claims against Samsung out of court, literally because iPads and iPhones are so much cooler than Android? Remember Windows tablets (it’s getting hard to . . . )? Remember the Android refrigerator?
Create enough Influency, and each success or failure, viewed through its own prism, stops being meaningful. Influency, like long-tail marketing, is about making more and more and more signs point to you. Start creating your Influency, today.
