The global success of tablet tech is evident: sales of residential PCs have plummeted and Microsoft has been forced to adjust their strategy in a preemptive effort to remain a household name.
As with most things in life, the impact of the shift isn’t felt until it directly affects yourself or those around you. Never mind my crumped-up thumbs and crooked neck… That’s expected of a nerd of my level…
Mother plays angry birds.
I mean, come on – In my lifetime the only electronic things mum has touched that don’t have knobs or dials are the TV and the microwave… and now she’s doing her banking online!
My true measure of the success of tablets will come down to how many phone calls I will receive about technical problems. So far, after setting it up for my parents initially 2 1/2 months ago… Zero. That’s pretty amazing. Is that good or bad for nerds the world over? Have things become so flawless out of the box that we basement-dwellers will have to up our game and build darker, more secluded sub-basements wherein we may tinker and toil, reconstructing our air of mystery?
Maybe. But we’re soooo lazy.
As a Web developer, the tablet (or smartphone) is now considered the primary vehicle of contact when a potential client lands on your site. You really need to know what you are doing these days. Sites need to be Responsive (looks decent on any resolution) and finger friendly (fat buttons for everyone!). I have mixed emotions on that subject.
Where a desktop computer has the resolution to display your site just as the designer envisioned it, menus and imagery sparkling, text blocks and columns drawing you in with Feng Shui artistry – tablet renders of the website (if responsive) fall flat and typically end up being columnar; nigh perfunctory. Significant attention and expertise is required to pull it off effectively.
In the end, we all win. I look like someone on Deep Space Nine when I use my Nexus (feel anyway) and my mom can enjoy the carpal-thumbal effects (totally made up) the rest of us are developing and destroy all of the little green pigs she wants and I no longer have to risk electrocution writing blog posts from my PC when I’m in the tub….
Most importantly, websites are being hit by a demographic that was previously unreachable – the computer paranoid.
The fallout of the paradigm shift is a puzzle – that’s what people like myself are for.