When Steve Jobs unveiled the iPad nine years ago, many people thought it heralded the end of laptop computers. Many electronic manufacturers also thought so, as every second company in the industry came up with its own version of the iPad. None of them clicked; most sank without a trace. Even the mighty Samsung could not give a semblance of competition to Apple.
Google, which made the Android operating system that powered most of these tablets, was not very helpful, either. While Google steadily improved Android for smartphones, it mostly ignored the tablet version. Things did not change even after Google launched its own tablet, the Pixel C, in 2015. Last year, it came up with the ambitious Pixel Slate, a two-in-one (tablet and laptop) which ran the Chrome OS, but failed once again to make any impact.
Google announced a week ago that it was stopping making tablets. It will, however, continue making smartphones and laptops. That decision raises serious questions about the future of tablets.
iPad sales peaked in 2013-14, and steadily declined in the following three years. Apple tried to breathe new life into the product with the beefed-up iPad Pro, which was a step closer to laptops in power and productivity. But sales never went back to the good old days.
Tablets are still the best devices for media consumption. But they stand on the thin ice—between smartphones that are getting bigger and laptops that are getting lighter. Apple still seems to have faith in the tablet story, and it has been packing the iPad with more power and features. It recently introduced a dedicated operating system for tablets, iPadOS. Though it is a tablet-tuned version of iOS, it makes better use of the bigger screen and offers “desk-top class” experience, at least occasionally. Many tech reviewers have admitted that it makes a strong case for leaving the laptop at home.