For established categories such
as laptops and their pared - down alter ego the
netbook, the advances are largely predictable: thinner,
lighter and more powerful.
At some point the «college student» crowd (read «those on a budget») may «switch» to tablets
as a «term paper machine» but that will only be when 1) these can run office - type apps; and 2) when the tablet, with a keyboard dock, can compete with
netbooks in providing close to the same functionality (word processing, working with PDF documents, presentation preparation,
light working with video, storage of gigabytes of files).