My roommate recently got a new toy in the mail. It’s a Chinese product called the APad which is a little tablet computer running Android 1.6. Yes, you read that right, there are other tablets out there not created by Apple, running a variety of different platforms. The two most popular platforms are the iPhone OS and Android, but there are some newer tablets predicted to come out by the end of the year that run Windows 7 or Windows CE, and even a rumored Blackberry tablet. There are also projects like MeeGo that run on mobile phones, tablets, netbooks and carputers.

The early 1990s had a big rush of Tablet computers, and a lot of money was thrown at tech companies to develop handwriting recognition software, and tablet-style interfaces. These were the days of Windows 3.1, with big clunky machines running at sub-Ghz speeds (we had a Pentium 2 90Mhz computer with one gig of RAM at my house). Now that we can all hold a >1Ghz computer in our palms, the tablet rush is back. Add the ability for anyone to write an App and get it into the hands of millions of users, and it’s no wonder why this time around the Tablet rush is looking to explode.

I’m curious to see how this Tablet trend is going to effect the future of programming. Will we begin to see mobile app development courses show up in CS degree programs? What do you think? Is this just another fad?