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Few product categories get a second chance to make it big. Wristwatch calculators, 8-track tapes, mopeds, unicycles and Polaroid film are never going to be wildly popular again. But tablets are poised to make the kind of comeback that would make Robert Downey Jr. proud.
PC makers have offered slates and convertible notebooks for nearly a decade, and they've never caught on. But now, a new generation of attractively designed and low-priced screens are looking to lure in consumers. Most of these sleek slabs of glass rely on simplified touch interfaces and will probably work best as content consumption devices: Something you'd use for reading, web browsing and watching movies.
The new generation of tablets might just pull it off. So far, Apple has sold more than 500,000 iPads and it says it can't keep up with the demand, suggesting that computer makers are right to jump on this trend now.
As they do, they're exploiting the iPad's weaknesses. Typing on the iPad isn't easy and it is an underpowered device for its price tag — the same money could buy you a nice laptop. Its browser doesn't support Adobe Flash, and you can't run software on it unless that software comes from Apple's App Store.
So if you don't want to buy into the Apple hype machine, there are plenty of alternatives. From Dell to HP, almost every major PC manufacturer is working on a tablet. And there's no dearth of upstarts. Asian brands and European startups are vying to get their tablets out, too.
Wired looks at some of the most interesting screens that will get into consumers' hands this year.
Above:
JooJoo
JooJoo (nee CrunchPad), the tablet from the Singapore company Fusion Garage, is an ostensible competitor to the iPad. It launched on the same weekend as the iPad and is very Apple-esque in its hardware design. But the JooJoo is far from being a device that could change the future of computing.
With its 12.1-inch display, JooJoo is a plus-sized monster that is almost a pound heavier than the iPad and offers half the battery life. It runs a custom operating system based on Linux and supports HD videos and Flash.
But in the days after its release, JooJoo has been buggy with surprising user interface glitches and at times difficult-to-navigate screen. And without access to apps or the ability to install your own software, JooJoo is a dumb terminal. It's good enough to check Facebook, Twitter and read websites, but not much more.
A few hours with the JooJoo and it raises the question: Do you really need a tablet? That's not the kind of question a tablet maker wants to raise.
Price: $500
Availability: Online order through JooJoo's website
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