The announcement of the Note 10.1 from Samsung may be seen as insignificant in the wider world of tablets and smartphones, but it could be the first device to do something very special. The windowed approach to Android means that you can view more than one running task at a time which potentially lets you work as you would do on a normal desktop PC. It doesn’t sound like a significant change, but on a screen this large, the potential is great.
One important problem with tablet use is that you have to do one thing at a time and no more, but this simple change could let many more users utilise their tablets in much more productive ways. Add to this, the clever Note pen and we could be looking at a solution that entirely changes the tablet market and the way we use these devices.
The potential for multiple windows on a mobile operating system has not been recognised previously, but it is very real.