Presumably more and more people are going for the “instant satisfaction lifestyle” where written communications are boring, yesterday was yesterday, email is old and who can be bothered to read past the first line anyway, and all that matters is instant messaging, one line at a time, which a smartphone does just fine 
Especially a big one.
I wonder where this will lead as far as products for more serious use e.g. aviation go?
Define “serious”.
But, since you read past the first line – I would say perhaps the market is simply saturated and in the decline part of the cycle. Tablets don’t get beat up as much as phones so they physically last longer, tablets are somewhat less critically mobile (a phone battery gets more abuse than a tablet; a phone gets carried around more than a tablet), people have been taught they “need” a new phone evey 2 years, much less so with tablets, which almost never got subsidized with a 2 year contract, etc, etc.
Tablets are useful, so they will be around.
True, a large phone is almost as useable in real life as a tablet, if you consume, but where does one draw the line – there are monstocities called phablets out there, further blurring the line.
If I had to pick just one, either a phone or a tablet, I probably would pick a phone.
In aviation too – a larger phone with a nice screen is perhaps more usable than a tablet. Depends on the particular plane and cockpit arrangement.
The “more affordable” product from Apple might be a “gateway drug” too…
ps. remember the netbook?
Peter wrote:
I wonder where this will lead as far as products for more serious use e.g. aviation go?
From the start I planned a phone in my Onex, not a tablet. Who wants a “dedicated” and restricted tablet anyway nowadays when there is the Microsoft Surface Pro which can do every single thing under the sun (and phones do the rest)? A surface is more expensive than a tablet, but if the use case is in an aircraft, that extra cost surely is no problem. The Surface is perhaps a bit large though?
I don’t know… As far as Apple is concerned (from here )
" On the face of it at least, iPads – which have been flat or declining for a while – are the stars of this quarter’s results, up an impressive 15 percent in unit sales (11.424 million units, compared to 9.950 million). But revenue was up only 2 percent, at $4.969bn. "
I’ve always found the 2 in 1 “phablets” hillarious when used as a phone. I was on a train and the guy sitting next to me answered his phablet and it covered his whole face.
My first foray into Android was with the Nexus 7. At the time is had a blackberry and once I started enjoying the OS I switched my mobile to the Nexus 4. I then upgraded to the Nexus 9 and my phone to the OnePlus One. At that point I started using the tablet less and less. It is now on my office desk and I can’t remember the last time I charged it.
I have an iPad for work, but again sat on my desk, battery flat.
I am now on the OnePlus 3T and is great for everyday use and longer browsing periods. Laptop for work and I don’t think that will change.
The screen size of the One Plus is in the sweet spot for portability and being able to view webpage comfortably.
I’ve tried and tried to replace a laptop with a tablet (win8 or android or ipad2) and basically can’t.
What I find is that – aside from running a GPS moving map, or talking to my Thuraya satphone – a tablet does very little which a decent phone (I have the S7) doesn’t do, but you would have to carry both because the tablet can’t be used for phone calls (as the above comical pics show). One does need a backup for one’s phone and I solve that by hanging onto my previous phone (S6) with a £8 contract SIM in it. At my age, reading glasses are needed for any detail anyway
So, on longer trips, I still carry my laptop (Lenovo X230 – a really powerful i7 machine).
So, I am not surprised tablets are being used less, and I am not surprised that people are still buying laptops because despite my above “caricature of modern people” it’s obvious that many people still need to do serious work and nearly all of that needs a proper keyboard, and by the time you have added a half usable keyboard to a tablet, you may as well get a decent laptop.
And you can get an excellent laptop for the price of some top-brand tablets.
So it doesn’t surprise me that after years of laptop decline, and almost nobody doing really nice slim laptops which were all the rage 10+ years ago, we are getting stuff like this.
