I'm planning on getting a tablet this year, probably the upcoming Apple iSlate (or whatever it will be called). [1]
My primary use case is compelling and simple, albeit not for everyone: following a baby around the house.
Eli ikes to crawl (almost walk!) around the entire house most of his waking hours. Usually this crawling is accompanied with parental entertainment. Sometimes, however, he entertains himself.
When entertaining himself, he of course still requires watching, but it is more an out-of-one-eye thing. During these times, I routinely catch up on email, RSS, HN, Twitter, and Facebook.
I currently use my Android phone (G2) and sometimes my laptop (HP Envy 13). Each is far from ideal for this use case.
The phone is too slow and too small. It's a pain to visit sites, and even more of a pain to use to compose an email or comment. It's pretty good at reading things though, especially within a native app.
The laptop is too big. It attracts Eli, who wants to come over and bend it backwards or type on the keys. (I think that may have to do with it doubling as a video phone with his grandparents.)
You also have to keep taking the laptop off of standby and it too difficult to put down fast, which is sometimes necessary if Eli is about to get in to trouble.
I am hopeful that the tablet form factor will be all of the good and none of the bad. I envision it fast and easy to browse on. I imagine composing with its virtual keyboard will be less effective than a laptop, but still effective enough to not be annoying. And I believe it will be easy to put down quickly. I can't wait!
[1] I'm planning on waiting until it actually goes on sale, i.e. not pre-order. At that point, it's possible that there will be other options. This happened to me with the Macbook Air. By the time I went to purchase it, I instead opted for the Lenovo ideapad U110, which eventually became my wife's laptop when I recently replaced it with the HP Envy 13.
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