On April 30, 2013 then BlackBerry CEO Thorsten Heins had some serious questions about the future of tablets. “In five years I don’t think there’ll be a reason to have a tablet anymore,” he said in an interview with Bloomberg. That statement alone rubbed a lot of people the wrong way, especially those supporters of the Blackberry Playbook and other tablet devices.
I mention that statement because as the years have gone by, smart phones have continued to get smarter and bigger in size. Some of today’s largest smart phones/phablet’s have even reached the 6″ mark in size which is much to be said about the current direction of smart phones.
With the current selection of 5-6″ smart phones on the market and the emergence of faster and more powerful processors, a majority of smart phones now pack the punch to directly compete and actually out perform most tablets on the market today.
I have a total of 3 tablets ( iPad Mini, Nexus 7 & the Playbook ) in which I haven’t had a use for any of them in more than 3-4 months. With the recent addition of the BlackBerry Passport to my smart phone family, I have all but abandoned my tablets as there is no real need or want to actually use any of them other than to keep them charged in case I have to demo product software.
My son uses his Nexus 7 for nothing more than a gaming system and uses his Playbook occasionally as multimedia device. As a 13 yr old, his use case scenarios for tablets is very much different from what I would use a tablet for. I find myself way more productive on my BlackBerry Passport than I can ever be on my iPad Mini or Nexus 7.
I may be in the minority here, but there is NO way I can see myself investing in another tablet in the near future. Id rather spend the extra money and get me a decent laptop in which I have no limitations as far as productivity and or invest in a new smart phone of my choice. The tablets of today all seem the same, nothing different bringing the same amount of options as the rest; Movies, Games, Facebook, Twitter etc…I can do all that and more on my BlackBerry Passport while truly remaining mobile.
If mobile computing is really the future are tablets included? Leave your comments below and let us know what you think.
agree completely. selling an iPad mini 2 lte 32 fb mint condition for 400 including a native Union cover. if anybody in the market. love my passport. Heinz was right after all.
Honestly man, try something other than a BlackBerry every once and again. I don’t think people will buy as many tablets as they do phones because they last longer and I think that most people will get a phone before they get a tablet, but, you can’t dismiss all tablets because BlackBerry killed theirs. I use my iPad way more than I use my laptop. Not so much to get work done, but for web browsing, gaming, and watching movies, its the real deal.
Thanks for the feedback. I actually have an iPhone 5s, windows phone and most recently owned a Note 3. I also have an iPad mini and a Nexus 7 as tablets. I am in no way dismissing tablets based on the Playbook debacle just stating from my user point if view of how I feel where we are with tablets and the uses. I agree that for entertainment purposes a tablet is nice but as far as what my uses are they serve me no immediate purpose. If whatever phones we choose provides us with what a tablet can do I just see no need.
Tablets are useful for what you use them for. The question is if you use them enough to warrant having them. In your case, I am guessing no, but, entertainment on the go is one heck of a use case..