When you talk to IT pros and business managers about tablet computers, the first question they tend to ask is, “Looks cool, but what I do with it?” This conversation has been happening for a decade since Microsoft’s pen-based Tablet PC was introduced at Comdex 2001. There, Bill Gates declared, “Within five years I predict it will be the most popular form of PC sold in America.”

That turned out to be a false prophesy. Microsoft’s tablet never attracted a mass audience, although it has gained some niche adoption in industries such as health care, field service, and hospitality.

However, the Apple iPad and the new breed of slate computers that are hitting the market in 2010 are looking to revive the tablet concept. They are doing it with a lighter, thinner form factor that uses a touch-based interface rather than pen computing.

It’s way too early to predict whether the new tablets will be successful, but it’s easy to imagine some of the usage scenarios for them in the business world. Here are five to consider: (…)

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(From Tech Republic) – I love following smartphones. From the incredible hardware to the innovative operating systems and the strange and tumultuous companies that create and market them, it is an industry that always seems to be in flux. Where desktop hardware and software have more or less reached a peaceful détente between the major players, the smartphone industry looks like a map of post-WWII Europe, with borders, influences, and alliances changing almost weekly. Many in the corporate space have a love/hate relationship with these devices. With a rapidly shifting industry with no totally dominant player to new employee expectations about what they should be able to do with “their” phone, smartphones are just as much a source of potential headaches as they are productivity tools.

With that in mind, here are four wild predictions about what could happen in the smartphone industry in the next eighteen months. These are purely hypothetical but plausible scenarios based on my observations, rather than any insider information or sources within these companies. Disclaimer out of the way, here we go: (…)

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Generator Research, a small firm focused on digital media and the Internet, has released a new report predicting that the Apple iPhone’s current growth trajectory will enable it to catch and surpass Nokia for the top spot in the global smartphone market within three years.

The report sees iPhone growth accelerating due to a combination of the rapid multiplication of apps and the price drop of $99 for the lowest-priced iPhone. Meanwhile, Generator Research also predicts that Nokia will stumble and see its market share cut in half from 40% in 2008 to just 20% in 2013.

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