People dismissed smartphones and tablets because they have bad text input, which isn't exactly the same, but the purpose of their statement is not to say "the l

People dismissed smartphones and tablets because they have bad text input, which isn't exactly the same, but the purpose of their statement is not to say "the literally exact same criticism was leveled at phones" but rather "people also had somewhat similar objections and look where we are now in spite of that". If you are being honest with yourself, you will remember that when the iPhone was first unveiled, you, I, and everyone that currently browses Hackernews thought the idea of a phone that was only a touchscreen and a few buttons was absurd. The iPad was similarly seen as ridiculous. We now live in a world where tablets, smartphones, laptops, and desktop computers all have their own niches and where a standalone desktop with a dedicated monitor, keyboard and mouse is seen as a specialist device. A headset may become yet another entrant in the "yes, and" world of computing. The historical experience suggests that we should have some humility around predicting what people will latch on to.