And The Tablet Revolution Will Be Lead By...

...Women.

As much as an always connected device that has easy access to apps, books, and news appeals to me, I don't expect to be onboard the first wave of these devices.

Why? My pockets are too small. I am not talking about dough, ray, mi, though that is certainly one reason I will be watching from the sidelines. I am literally talking about the size limitations that Levi's jeans have.

I need to have serious processing power for Photoshop, Excel, etc. Giving up my laptop is not an option. The Apple tablet doesn't appear to be targeted as a laptop replacement anyways. I don't carry around notebooks and organizers other than my iPhone. Yes it will be super light and slim and all that, but on the go, the iPhone serves as a viable temporary computing device until I can reach the office or home and get on the laptop.

Here's a purchase decision flow chart I envision for an iSlate customer:

1. Do you take a purse, backpack or briefcase with you the majority of the time? If yes, then...


2. Are you willing to add another $30-$40 charge to your AT&T phone bill? If yes, then...


3. Are you willing to pay $799-$999 for a cool, big-ass iPhone-ish device? If yes, then...
   

Take out your credit card, and enjoy!

My answers to the above questions are 1) No, 2) Would consider, 3) Probably Not.

The fact that my first answer is "no", kind of leaves me out of the mix here. Will students (backpacks) want to say yes to question 3? Depends on how big their trust-fund, or how long they want to finance their student loan.

Although there are a lot of road-warriors who can answer yes to all three questions, the number of road-warriors pales in comparison to the population of the fairer sex.

PURSES!!! The killer iSlate companion. The answer to question 1 will almost always be yes for an American woman. So the decision to buy/not buy comes down to economics. That is a battle that Apple often wins.

Will we see an explosion of man-purses to accomodate these new tablets? Probably not.

Time to put it on the line. My crystal ball is guessing that 60-65% of the iSlates will be toted by females.