I remember the Newton, Apple’s infamous first attempt at a ultra-portable, hand-held computing. It was not altogether a bad idea, although it wasn’t integrated or compelling enough to win over a large base of users. Alas, Newton is now (and frankly, has been for a long time) a relic.

What might have been Newton’s domain, the medical world, has now been populated by tablet computers running various Microsoft operating systems. My own physician uses a Fujitsu )?) tablet to track my physical data-points, and can update things easily with a few touches of the stylus. Not elegant, but good enough. If only Apple had seen this niche and gone for it with some seriousness. Oh well.

More recently, netbooks have made advances in business and personal use, although I know only a handful of folks who use their handful of netbook to…check email and look at the web as they travel. I don’t know of anyone who raves about their netbook. Nobody who likes it half as much as their laptop. In fact, netbooks seem tethered, if you will, to laptops. Min-laptops. Cute little laptops. Cheap laptops. But not a serious computer, or a replacement for laptop, or for that matter, a replacement for even a smart phone. Caught in the in-between world, that’s where netbooks seem to be in life.

And smartphones are..well, phones that do more. I love my iPhone. I have friends who love their Blackberries. And some industry pundits (here, here and here, for instance) are suggesting that Palm is going to die, if it isn’t already in its final gasps. Still, my middle-aged eyes need reading glasses to see my contacts and email. Sorry, but the screen on that thing is just a tad too small for my taste. Not that I want it any bigger. No, I like putting it into my pocket, and I like its interface, and I like its apps, and so much more about my smartphone. But that’s a phone, not a replacement for a standard computer.

Which leads us to…the possible future of computing, that new category that many want to establish, but which will likely be won (at least initially) by the Apple iPad. (BTW, I hate the name, but I love the concept). What will the iPad do that makes for something really new, and as Steve Jobs suggests, “magical?” Why, just about anything and everything! Surf, watch videos, read books, and eventually, make calls via Skype using that built-in camera (oh wait, that’s not until next year’s iPad). For a more reasoned assessment of what it’ll do, read this perspective to see where iPad – and some other bold offerings like Google’s Chrome – will take computing in the coming years. Eventually, suggests author Steven Levy, the desktop computer I’m using to type this post, and the GUI with which you are reading it, will be gone. “Dead, deceased, it has gone to meet its maker,” as John Cleese might say.

And, by the way, no offense to Microsoft, but many think they’ll remain stuck to the cash-generating Windows model of computing until the very end. Maybe, maybe not. But it is difficult to envision a future with Windows 10, don’t you think?

So, where will tablets lead us? Hard to say. But it surely seems to be a promising future. Fun, even. That is, if these things deliver even half of what Genie Steve promises.

So far, Levy’s argument for the death of GUI seems credible and yet…maybe I’m not ready to give up that laptop. I like its powerful processing and elegant and all-encompassing “all in one portable box” design.

Just in case, though, I’m thinking of getting a pad, er, tablet, sooner rather than later. I’ll admit I’m intrigued. It’ll take a bit of getting used to, and I may pay a price for being an early adopter. Perhaps I’ll find it all pretty shallow, as empty as cotton candy at the county fair. But at least I’ll have a head start on the future.