Tablets and Phablets

A tablet computer, is a mobile computer with display, circuitry and battery in a single unit. Tablets are equipped with sensors, including cameras, microphone, and touchscreen. The touch screen replaces a computer mouse and keyboard with finger gestures on the screen. Tablets also have physical buttons that control the volume and power. There is a pop up virtual keyboard that is primarily used for typing. Tablets are usually bigger than smart phones that can be larger than 7 inches diagonally. The devices started to become popular in 2010. As of March 2012, 31% of U.S. Internet users were reported to have a tablet, which was used mainly for viewing published content such as video and news. In 2012, the top-selling line of devices was Apple's iPad with 100 million sold by mid October 2012 since its release in April, followed by Amazon's Kindle Fire with 7 million, and Barnes & Noble's Nook with 5 million. Over 70 percent of mobile developers were targeting tablets since May 2013.
There was many manufacturers that jumped on the Tablet computer industry and tried to develop their own type of Tablet. In September 1989, GriDPad Systems developed their first tablet computer. It was called the GriDPad. Earlier they had developed some tablet computer products called the Pencept and the CIC Handwriter. These systems didn’t have the same capabilities as the Tablet has today. The GriDPad is the closest item to today’s tablet you could have found back then. All three products were based on extended versions of the MS-DOS operating system. The Microsoft Disk Operating System was the main operating system for IBM PC compatible personal computers during the 1980’s to the mid-1990’s. After this many companies started to produce and create ideas for their own types of tablet computers. In 1991 AT&T released their first EO Personal Communicator. This was one of the first commercially available tablets. Apple Computers launched the Apple Newton stylus based computer in 1993. It utilized Apple's own new Newton OS, which was the operating system for the Apple Newton PDAs produced by Apple in 1993. It was initially running on hardware manufactured by Motorola, that Apple had specifically co-developed with Acorn Computers. The operating system and design were later licensed to Sharp and Digital Ocean, who went on to manufacture their own. In April 2000 Microsoft launched the Pocket PC 2000. This was the first product for Microsoft that utilized their touch capable Windows CE 3.0 operating system. In 2002, Microsoft attempted to define the Microsoft Tablet PC as a mobile computer for field work in business. Their devices eventually failed, due to pricing and usability decisions that limited them to their original purpose. Even though some of these manufacturers were successful with their own product similar to the tablet, Android was one of the first company to actually reach the market. In 2008 the first plans for Android-based tablets appeared. The first products were released in 2009. Among them was the Archos 5 that had the Android 1.4 operating system. It was the first Android tablet to have the 1.4 operating system in it. The first LTE Android tablet appeared late 2009 and was made by ICD for Verizon. This unit was called the Ultra, but a version called Vega was released around the same time. Ultra had a 7 inch display while Vega's was 15 inches. Many more products followed in 2010. Several manufacturers waited for Android Honeycomb, specifically adapted for use with tablets, which debuted in February 2011. Today's tablets use capacitive touchscreens with multi-touch programs. External USB and Bluetooth keyboards defined tablets today. Some have 3G mobile telephony applications.
Most tablets released since mid-2010 use a version of an ARM processor for longer battery life. The ARM Cortex family is powerful enough for tasks such as internet browsing, light production work and mobile games. Apple is credited for