04 Feb Keep Taking The Tablets?
2011 may be set to be the battleground for a whole swathe of tablet PCs. The newly-popular format pioneered by Apple’s high-profile iPad will benefit through 2011 from the release of new models from Samsung, Acer, HP and Notion Ink, among others.
The battle looks set to be fought over the mix of specifications made available. Outdoor-viewable displays, camera count and quality, processing horsepower and battery life are all trade-offs against price, and with new technologies entering the market all the time (outdoor-viewable displays and ever-longer battery times are good examples) it should be a fascinating year.
But what are the implications for website owners? Until the dust settles we won’t really know, but it seems clear that web designers will have to pay attention to the demands of touchscreen users as well as those with a more familiar mouse. Buttons and links will need to be large enough to touch at the first attempt – and the ‘hover’ state doesn’t even exist for a touchscreen.
And with around 80% of the world’s population being right-handed (and therefore holding the tablet with their left), are we likely to see more menus moved to the right hand side to save reaching across the visible screen?
Too early to decide, perhaps, but not too early to start to wonder; perhaps before that site makeover you had planned for this year, you might want to visit your current site on a tablet PC and play a while?