So, here's a thought:
iPad is the undisputed tablet king. No, that's not the thought, I just needed to lay that out as a bit of exposition.
iPad is the best tablet on the market today. But perhaps that says more about the industry than it does Apple's own design and marketing prowess.
Perhaps iPad is the best because tablets are not the future. Perhaps tablets existed to help us transition to larger screen phones. Apple capitalized on this the most. Other manufacturers, meanwhile, realized that this wasn't part of the long term tech end game, and put out half-hearted attempts or nothing at all.
Think about it, though: what were the best non-iPad tablets? The Nexus 7 lineup were the only good selling flagship tablets. Why did these devices sell well? Primarily, they sold well because they were (are?) cheap, but still work well enough. Google and Asus didn't build the Nexus 7 to radically alter what a tablet is or what we could/should do with it. The Nexus 7 is/was simply a device designed for content consumption.
I think size is relevant as well to this idea. Non-iPad tablets have never really been successful in the ~9-10" range, but sell acceptably in the sub-8" category. This is reflective of the idea that the tablets are for media consumption; these tablets are for doing things on the couch or in bed. iPad, on the other hand, tries to be more with its 9.7" screen. There's room to do more than just read and watch videos. Sure, the Surface Pro 3 has succeeded (on a curved grading scale) at being a "productive" tablet, but I would argue that particularly because of its unoptimized operating system, it's actually a touchscreen laptop, not a tablet.
One of the biggest problems with iPad, though, is that despite Apple's best efforts to make the tablet useful, and despite excellent efforts from developers, iPad is still not the *best* tool for a lot of jobs that I do. There are CAD apps for iPad, but my computer is better for that. There are video editing apps, but a Mac would be better for that. I can bang out a paper, blog post, or long email on my iPad, but my laptop is better for that.
I'd say there are only two areas where iPad is equal or better in experience to a laptop/computer, and those would be photo editing and music making. The caveat here is that I'm talking about photo editing for people who have insufficient experience with Adobe Lightroom, Aperture, and/or Photoshop for the desktop. User-friendly photo editing (you know, for amateurs) is excellent on iPad. Music making follows the same line, in that powerful composing apps like Logic Pro are only available, or just far better on a laptop/desktop. Even some of the more serious elements of Garage Band are just better with a mouse than with a touchscreen. That being said, there are some excellent composing apps like Novation Launchpad, Beatwave, and Figure for just goofing around with music, or composing amateur electronic beats. I imagine apps similar to Finale would work pretty well on a touch interface.
In any case, where tablets are great is reading, web browsing, and watching video. But really, for these things the best device for the task is the one that you have with you. And as a culture, we always have our phones with us. This is why Samsung is putting heart rate monitors on their flagships, and Apple, HTC, and LG are putting motion trackers in theirs (but that's a post for another day).
Because of this, our phones have been steadily growing in size, to the point where the 5.7" Samsung Galaxy Note 4 no longer seems like the giant it once did. I can definitely image a world and a day where the value of the tablet is miniscule. With proper interconnection between large phone, computer, watch, and television, there would be little need for the tablet.
So here's my thought: perhaps Google recognized this, and that's why they didn't make a more serious play at the market. I mean, they literally didn't update the Nexus 10 for three years. And the Nexus 7's were always meant as budget devices. Perhaps Google saw the long haul even as well all held out with our 3.5" iPhones claiming superiority. Perhaps Google was willing to watch the tablet market slip to Apple, because they knew it wouldn't matter in the long run.
And look, they may be starting to be right. Apple's iPad sales are slipping. Consumers aren't upgrading their iPads.
And sure, Google released the new Nexus 9 with HTC, but by most reviews and impressions, the tablet is a very budget device released at too high of a price point. I also think it's worth noting that the tablet only comes in 16 or 32 GB, which seems to place it in a less serious light than iPad, which you can get in 16, 64, and 128 GB.
Samsung hasn't been so willing to surrender the market, but I really hope that their tablet releases (up until the Galaxy Tab S) have not been an honest effort at winning the market, because they've been terrible across the board. The latest tablets from Samsung are only notable because of the thinness, light weight, and excellent (if oversaturated) screens.
This is just my thought, though. Let me know if you agree, disagree, or your feelings are more complicated than that in the comments. Do you think tablets have a future? Do you do awesome things with your iPad?
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