Tablets Move into the Mainstream - Will They Reach Escape Velocity?

It's difficult to remember a time before tablets, but it's been just over five short years since the original Apple iPad hit the scene, and the current tablet market was born. Since then, we've seen scores of manufacturers trying to snag a slice of the tablet pie.

There's no denying the tablet is here to stay. The greatest strength of Apple's iOS, the operating system on the iPad Air and iPad mini tablet lines, is twofold: It's very clean and intuitive, and the wide selection of iPad apps that you can buy right on your tablet—more than one million iPad-specific titles at the time of this writing—work uniformly well with very few exceptions. Google's Android mobile OS gives you a choice of hardware from several different manufacturers and offers maximum configurability, a top-notch notification system, fast and smooth Web browsing, and seamless integration with Google applications like Gmail, Google Maps, and Hangouts for video chat. Android also includes support for multiple user logins so you can share your tablet with a friend or family member, a useful feature that's missing in Apple tablets. What is your choice for the highest value/most cost-effective tablet on the market today? Share your comments with the Smartphone and Tablet Emporium. View PC Magazine's Top 10 Tablets for 2015: http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2413145,00.asp