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Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

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11–20 of 201 posts

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#11

I bought a tablet for travel because I don't really care if I have a smart phone or not. I didn't really think it would replace things with keyboards and I still really like it for travel. The real problem is that cross device integration is so awful, hopefully the future has us configuring environments instead of devices (environment there being the software I want to see when I look at a small touch screen or the s…

I think the battery life is the one thing tablets are still great for, if I traveled a lot I'd consider owning one for long media playback sessions a necessity

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#12
post #7

I never really got tablets - too big to be portable and crippled by the lack of usable input devices. My 11" Macbook Air is just about as portable as an iPad, but is way easier to use, not just for streaming, but even for coding, etc. Of course, I've been wrong about things before and I'm not really a typical consumer user, but I just can't imagine a future for tablets with phones getting as good as they are, and sma…

Have you ever seen a child use a tablet?

It's mind-blowing to see a 3 year old use one better than their parents.

I don't think tablets will ever replace laptops, but that's not the point of consumption is it. They'd rather you buy a laptop for "work" a tablet for "consumption" and a phone, and...

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#13
post #2

The initial tablet market struck me as a very boomer focused device, one that made computing easy for a limited subset of tasks. I think he's wrong that tablets have peaked. As the software and hardware on tablets catches up to the capability of a full laptop, they are a much more compelling device for use at home or at work. Content creation, software development and file management are still a challenge but these c…

I'm a Linux user and very much addicted to the CLI. For any kind of work, a tablet isn't really right for me. I'm getting by okay with two laptops at the office: An MBP that weighs at least 7 lbs and a 2.2 lb ThinkPad. All my work stuff is on my MBP which stays on my desk. I take my ThinkPad to meetings, and if I need to reference something off the MBP I simply ssh into it. That would be a pain without a keyboard.

So being a Linux CLI guy puts me at something like 1% of computer users. I agree that the tablet content creation interface can be fixed for most of the rest of the 99%. I expect that soon the only distinction between a tablet and a laptop is whether or not the keyboard is attached.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#14
post #7

I never really got tablets - too big to be portable and crippled by the lack of usable input devices. My 11" Macbook Air is just about as portable as an iPad, but is way easier to use, not just for streaming, but even for coding, etc. Of course, I've been wrong about things before and I'm not really a typical consumer user, but I just can't imagine a future for tablets with phones getting as good as they are, and sma…

For me the form factor is better for any situation where I don't have a table to set a laptop on and my primary task is consuming data. In public transit, in bed, etc.

If I have to enter data tablets are pretty much always out as I hate on screen keyboards and getting an extra one means you might as well just get an ultraportable laptop and if I have a tablet to set something on the benefit to form factor doesn't come into play since I'm not holding the device.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#16
post #7

I never really got tablets - too big to be portable and crippled by the lack of usable input devices. My 11" Macbook Air is just about as portable as an iPad, but is way easier to use, not just for streaming, but even for coding, etc. Of course, I've been wrong about things before and I'm not really a typical consumer user, but I just can't imagine a future for tablets with phones getting as good as they are, and sma…

You know, that's all people say is that "I'm not an average consumer". If everyone isn't, then who is?

Averages lie.

Show me a bell curve any day.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#17
post #2

The initial tablet market struck me as a very boomer focused device, one that made computing easy for a limited subset of tasks. I think he's wrong that tablets have peaked. As the software and hardware on tablets catches up to the capability of a full laptop, they are a much more compelling device for use at home or at work. Content creation, software development and file management are still a challenge but these c…

[deleted]

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#19
post #7

I never really got tablets - too big to be portable and crippled by the lack of usable input devices. My 11" Macbook Air is just about as portable as an iPad, but is way easier to use, not just for streaming, but even for coding, etc. Of course, I've been wrong about things before and I'm not really a typical consumer user, but I just can't imagine a future for tablets with phones getting as good as they are, and sma…

An MBA is easier than an iPad to use for coding? Crazytalk.

Re: Our Love Affair With the Tablet Is Over

#20
post #16
post #7

I never really got tablets - too big to be portable and crippled by the lack of usable input devices. My 11" Macbook Air is just about as portable as an iPad, but is way easier to use, not just for streaming, but even for coding, etc. Of course, I've been wrong about things before and I'm not really a typical consumer user, but I just can't imagine a future for tablets with phones getting as good as they are, and sma…

You know, that's all people say is that "I'm not an average consumer". If everyone isn't, then who is? Averages lie. Show me a bell curve any day.

What I really should have said was that whenever I use myself as an example of the "typical consumer", I'm inevitably making a wrong decision based on some idiosyncrasy.
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