I think it’s safe to say that 2009 was truly the year of the netbook. Netbooks are essentially smaller and cheaper notebooks that, while lacking in power, were made for people in need of a portable and cheap solution for basic tasks such as web browsing, instant messaging, skyping, and some document editing with software such as Microsoft Office. In 2009, netbooks saw an increase in shipments of over 103%, and top OEM manufacturers were churning out netbooks like no tomorrow.

Why did netbooks see such a boom in popularity? Perhaps it mainly has to do with the deteriorating state of the global economy; as the majority of people only use their PCs for basic tasks, they didn’t need a powerful computing solution. On top of this, netbooks were portable. College students, traveling businessmen, and just about anyone who wanted a portable machine for light use flocked to get netbooks as they fit that bill rather well. However, netbooks, like anything else, did have their share of flaws: Their small keyboards aren’t exactly pleasant to type on, their small screens require you to squint at times, and most netbooks ship with either XP (an outdated OS), or Linux (which arguably isn’t as functional or preferred as Windows), or even Windows 7 Starter (which is a very stripped down SKU of Windows 7).

Yeah, netbooks did have their share of flaws, but ultimately people still enjoyed them which can easily be proved by statistics. What the netbook rush really shows is that people want portability. They want something that they can carry with them that places the web in their fingertips, and they want said machines to offer decent battery life, and it doesn’t matter if this comes at the cost of diminished performance. Fact is, the majority of PC users don’t need a powerful beast to undergo their work. All they need is to edit some spreadsheets, check their email, take a look at Facebook, and use Skype to talk to their friends. They don’t need a PC for hardcore gaming, photo/video editing, or extreme multitasking, and the fact that netbooks offer all of the above at a cheap cost is the icing on the cake.

People want a device that is portable, easy to use, fairly cheap, and for it to be powerful with top-notch hardware under the hood isn’t a requirement. That being said, while netbooks fulfilled this role for the past 2 years or so, there’s a new (but at the same time, not so new) kid on the block that aims to shove netbooks to the side and better assume this role. Tablets, well, they’ve certainly been around but they’ve never taken off to the extent that netbooks have perhaps because they’ve never been executed correctly to appeal to the majority of consumers out there.

With tablets, they’ve always been very expensive, they perhaps lacked a truly intuitive UX, and they’ve always been marketed more towards businesses than anything. CNET writer Ina Fried wrote an insightful article outlining a bit of the history on tablets throughout the course of time. Tablets were certainly appealing devices though, and the potential for the perfect mobile PC was present. All that it would take is someone to come along and bring something new to the table, someone to hype it up and get people excited, and someone to execute the creation of a tablet perfectly where, it’s within reach and appeals to the majority of computer users out there.

For any product to be a success, not only does it have to be good, but it also has to be hyped in a sense that people need to be excited about it, and it needs to appeal to the majority. At CES 2010 earlier this month, an array of “slate” tablet devices were announced. But even prior to CES, the blogosphere was buzzing about the possibility of the “Apple Tablet”, which is likely what kicked off the excitement about tablets. Rumors were being published left and right, people were debating what this possible tablet will have, people’s hopes were held high, the word spread about this device both throughout the technology scene and, in some cases, to non-geeks. Everyone was excited about a tablet that, for all we know, could have never existed. But it did.

At a press event on January 27th, 2010, Apple confirmed the rumor that they were working on a tablet by announcing and showcasing the iPad, which was their entry in the tablet sector. Featuring a 9.7” screen and running a modified version of the iPhone OS (specifics on the tablet may be found here), the tablet took quite a good deal of heat from the technology media upon being announced. Why? Perhaps it’s because initially, nobody saw where Apple was going with it, or what was so special about it. Essentially, the iPad is an enlarged iPod Touch with minor UI changes, some revised apps, iBooks, and iWork.

Initially, I completely ripped the iPad to bits. I didn’t see what market Apple was targeting with the iPad, how it was revolutionary, why it’s running a phone OS or what made it worth getting over an iPod touch? Over the days that followed its announcement however, I really tried to see what Apple intended to do. I watched the keynote a few times, I read posts and articles on it to see different viewpoints, and it really came to me what purpose it served.

The first thing on my mind was “oh God, this is running a phone OS, it’s useless”. However, one must ask, why is it running a modified version of the iPhone OS to begin with? Because it’s optimized for touch. The iPhone is such a success because they excelled at implementing the multi-touch, and they excelled at implementing the OS to go with it, both working hand in hand with each other to create a unique, unparalleled experience for end-users. OS X isn’t as touch friendly as it isn’t made for multi-touch machines, so Apple wouldn’t have been able to deliver as good of an experience without making some serious changes. With the iPad, Apple essentially took the iPhone OS, and made various changes to it to make it much more suitable for the tablet of course.

Next up is, what is the point of the iPad to begin with? This is exactly what I asked myself when I first set my eyes on it as well. I mean, why not buy an iPod touch instead and call it a day? For one, the screen size makes a big difference. Your web browsing, no, scratch that, your experience when it comes to everything is much better on a larger screen. Browsing the web is more intuitive, you’re able to read e-books much more easily, typing becomes easier which means you can use it more easily for mail and even use the iWork suite (optimized for the device, of course). The iPad is, as described by Steve Jobs, something in between a laptop and a smartphone.

A simple, intuitive device that provides end users with a quality experience, and one that does what the majority of people need it to do. Web browsing, check. Email, check. Viewing photos/video, check. Reading e-books, check. Very light gaming and some entertainment on the side from apps, check. So, what is the iPad’s market? The general population of people who, for the most part, this device does everything that they need it to do (which essentially means that the iPad, and perhaps the tablets to come target the very people who use netbooks). These people are seeking a device that does what they need it to do, and provides them with a quality experience at that.

However, the iPad does have its flaws. No multitasking, no flash (which is perhaps the worst feature that they could have excluded, seeing that web browsing is a priority with this device) and no camera are the ones that top everyone’s list. It’s still lacking in many key areas and it has MUCH room for improvement that will make it a more useful device. Despite these pitfalls – which us geeks will undoubtedly continue to mention and debate amongst each other – the iPad still appeals to the majority of people who simply don’t care. It offers a great user experience and it does what they need it to do, so despite us mentioning its rather big pitfalls, people will still go for it.

Putting aside the issues and benefits of the iPad aside though, something that it certainly did was stir up hype and interest for a tablet. With everyone reading about a mystical tablet device, and with it now being out at the decent price of $499, people are interested in tablets, and companies see that interest. Perhaps we’re going to see, thanks to the hype generated by the blogosphere on Apple’s tablet, a tablet arms race, where companies all rush to release the latest and greatest tablets to the market akin to what happened with netbooks. Hell, perhaps even Apple will improve its own offering and keep all the feedback posted now and in the future in mind for the iPad refresh.

We’ll see Microsoft work with OEMs to create tablets, some being better than others hardware-wise. There will be an array of tablets, from entry-level to higher-end tablets, and perhaps Microsoft will keep a multi-touch UX in mind for Windows 8, and seek to improve it in Windows 7 wherever possible. It’s still fairly early to predict whether or not the iPad will be a success, or if tablets will take the place of netbooks when it comes to a device in between a smartphone and a PC, but by the looks of it, the future of the tablet certainly looks bright.