7 ms·

2009 called and they want their "wants their comment" comment back. Seriously, there's doing "work" and doing work. I haven't been to Starbucks in the states,

2009 called and they want their "wants their comment" comment back. Seriously, there's doing "work" and doing work. I haven't been to Starbucks in the states, but I've been everywhere in Singapore and everytime I've seen people using tablets it's for entertainment, reading the news, or at the very most writing emails. If your job is writing emails, I concede, you're doing work. But if you're anything except a coffee shop writer then I doubt it. I've desperately tried to justify a tablet for years now but I barely have the motivation to type a text message on a phone and delay most else until I have a physical keyboard and an OS that has a proper window manager.

seanmcdirmid 14y ago
I observe the same thing happening in China (entertainment, no tablets used for work). I was talking about a trend in the states, we can only guess what it means for Asia. Many of them are writing papers, doing homework, whatever. You'd be surprised how much work just involves writing something. They almost always have physical keyboards attached to the iPad when they are writing, if you don't look close enough, they look like mini laptops.
- redact207 14y ago
  I spent a lot of time in China, but it was sadly before the tablet craze. I'd take a punt and say their cultural and business norms don't require so much writing and people would own it for the status - much like a designer handbag - and possibly QQ. Ironically it's the tablets that's much more compatible with their traditional written language. Sure you have pinyin/wubi based IMEs, and touch devices have had hand writing recognition for a long time but it's never really caught on. It's depressing when you're struggling to learn the language and you see native Chinese pull out their phone when they don't remember how to write a character.
  - seanmcdirmid 14y ago
    Most Chinese kids these days prefer phonetic keyboard input (pinyin) to writing characters, so they don't mind an iPad over something with a stylus. iPads are ubiquitous where I live (Beijing), so I wouldn't call it much of a handbag thing anymore. Maybe in a tier 2/3 city. If you are learning Chinese, I wouldn't bother on memorizing how to write the characters but rather focus on how to input the pinyin and recognize the right character to select (erm, reading). I know this sounds like giving up, but its the new way.
itsybitsycoder 14y ago
Tablets are becoming not uncommon in restaurants for order-taking, POS interfaces, etc. I've also heard of applications in other fields where employees need to be portable and carry around (or write down) a lot of information, like nursing and scientific field work. Not all work is office work.

seanmcdirmid 14y ago

I observe the same thing happening in China (entertainment, no tablets used for work). I was talking about a trend in the states, we can only guess what it means for Asia. Many of them are writing papers, doing homework, whatever. You'd be surprised how much work just involves writing something. They almost always have physical keyboards attached to the iPad when they are writing, if you don't look close enough, they look like mini laptops.

redact207 14y ago
I spent a lot of time in China, but it was sadly before the tablet craze. I'd take a punt and say their cultural and business norms don't require so much writing and people would own it for the status - much like a designer handbag - and possibly QQ. Ironically it's the tablets that's much more compatible with their traditional written language. Sure you have pinyin/wubi based IMEs, and touch devices have had hand writing recognition for a long time but it's never really caught on. It's depressing when you're struggling to learn the language and you see native Chinese pull out their phone when they don't remember how to write a character.
- seanmcdirmid 14y ago
  Most Chinese kids these days prefer phonetic keyboard input (pinyin) to writing characters, so they don't mind an iPad over something with a stylus. iPads are ubiquitous where I live (Beijing), so I wouldn't call it much of a handbag thing anymore. Maybe in a tier 2/3 city. If you are learning Chinese, I wouldn't bother on memorizing how to write the characters but rather focus on how to input the pinyin and recognize the right character to select (erm, reading). I know this sounds like giving up, but its the new way.

itsybitsycoder 14y ago

Tablets are becoming not uncommon in restaurants for order-taking, POS interfaces, etc. I've also heard of applications in other fields where employees need to be portable and carry around (or write down) a lot of information, like nursing and scientific field work. Not all work is office work.