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Since 2015 or thereabouts, my opinion has been that tablets plateaued and have faltered because of what I call "Yet Another Application Platform Dilemma." [1]

by bhauer 7y ago

Since 2015 or thereabouts, my opinion has been that tablets plateaued and have faltered because of what I call "Yet Another Application Platform Dilemma." [1] Many people who already have a PC and phone don't really want, let alone need, another in-between device that they have to babysit and manage. That said, I agree with the OP's argument, which is effectively that if you have to go out of your way to say, "No really, you can do real work on an iPad," you have missed the point. Of course you can do real work on a lot of devices. Is the device particularly good at it, though? Maybe, in some cases. But for a large number of us—and apparently that number is large enough to slow tablet sales—doing work on a tablet is just not good enough. We're either in "Work mode" where a laptop is better or in "Consumption mode" where the laptop or phone is just fine. It's funny that in this thread people are saying the same thing that the OP pointed out. In effect: "You can do real work on an iPad." Great. But the topic at hand, whether you care about it or not, is conjecture about why the devices are not selling better. [1] https://tiamat.tsotech.com/why-tablet-sales-are-falling https://tiamat.tsotech.com/why-tablet-sales-are-falling

deleted 7y ago
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rossdavidh 7y ago
For about 20 years, I have been observing the paper-book-to-tablet ratio when I'm on the bus. Of course, back when I started it was because I was wondering if tablets would do away with paper books. Now it's just out of habit, because in fact the smartphone turned out to be an unintentional ally of paper books. I see people with both paper books and smartphones, but people don't normally want to carry two screen devices with them, and they sure aren't giving up their phones. So the tablet/e-reader/whatever-you-call-it peaked 5-10 years ago. Of course, this discussion is about work, not how one reads books, but I think something similar is happening. Tablets are too close to other devices (laptops, smartphones) which are not going away, and therefore they are appear to have hit a hard upper limit. My 14-year old daughter used to use tablets; now she uses her chromebook, her smartphone, and her desktop, but never an iPad. Most impressively, she even uses a Wacom tablet, which she plugs into her desktop, because she liked it better than the iPad for drawing. I think she is not alone, and people her age will go into the workforce more accustomed to using phones and laptops to get things done.

by bhauer 7y ago

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

rossdavidh 7y ago

For about 20 years, I have been observing the paper-book-to-tablet ratio when I'm on the bus. Of course, back when I started it was because I was wondering if tablets would do away with paper books. Now it's just out of habit, because in fact the smartphone turned out to be an unintentional ally of paper books. I see people with both paper books and smartphones, but people don't normally want to carry two screen devices with them, and they sure aren't giving up their phones. So the tablet/e-reader/whatever-you-call-it peaked 5-10 years ago. Of course, this discussion is about work, not how one reads books, but I think something similar is happening. Tablets are too close to other devices (laptops, smartphones) which are not going away, and therefore they are appear to have hit a hard upper limit. My 14-year old daughter used to use tablets; now she uses her chromebook, her smartphone, and her desktop, but never an iPad. Most impressively, she even uses a Wacom tablet, which she plugs into her desktop, because she liked it better than the iPad for drawing. I think she is not alone, and people her age will go into the workforce more accustomed to using phones and laptops to get things done.