I haven't posted in a long time, but with the iPad event coming soon, I had a thought I wanted to share. Looking back, I remember the former CEO of BlackBerry Thorsten Heins talking about the future of mobile, and saying this about tablets:
At the time, people pretty much took it as sour grapes over the PlayBook. I thought it was actually an astute observation. I had just switched off of the Bold 9930 to a Galaxy S4 and as a result, stopped using my tablet. The screen was big enough to handle most all the tasks I used my tablet for.
Fast forward a year and my sister, who was shopping for a tablet and a new phone, opted to just split the baby and get a Note 3 and hasn't regretted the decision in the slightest. My wife just recently spider webbed the screen on her HTC One (M7) and we managed to nab a Oneplus One invite. I cautioned her on the size, but she seems to not be concerned about it.
Now, where as I was one of the nay-sayers when the original Note came out, I find myself pretty much set on upgrading to a phablet come next contract time. Before, I was concerned about one handed usability and clumsyness. Now, my phone is pretty much too big for me to use one handed anyway, given that I have small hands, and yet I've found several workarounds for it that make it easier. To the point that now, since I'd have to use two hands on any flagship device anyway, I might as well get a beast.
I'm not the only one. The Note 4 is launching to universal praise, the iPhone is now venturing into phablet territory, and even the next Nexus (the device Google deems that all devices should aspire to be from a software standpoint) is a phablet. People are now comfortable using a giant phone.
All the while, iPad sales are down, tablet sales generally are also down. There could be a number of reasons for this. People might be waiting for the next iPad, knowing that a new one is due soon. People's upgrade cycle on a tablet might just be longer. But I don't think it's that.
So today, with a new iPad launching and people talking about whether or not demand for the iPad will recover, I just wanted to look back and give Thorsten a little credit. Who knows his motivations for the quote, but given the trends of bigger screens on peoples daily drivers, I think he's right about the downfall of tablets. So Thor, though things ended poorly in Waterloo with you, you get at least a little slow clap from me for calling it.
At the time, people pretty much took it as sour grapes over the PlayBook. I thought it was actually an astute observation. I had just switched off of the Bold 9930 to a Galaxy S4 and as a result, stopped using my tablet. The screen was big enough to handle most all the tasks I used my tablet for.
Fast forward a year and my sister, who was shopping for a tablet and a new phone, opted to just split the baby and get a Note 3 and hasn't regretted the decision in the slightest. My wife just recently spider webbed the screen on her HTC One (M7) and we managed to nab a Oneplus One invite. I cautioned her on the size, but she seems to not be concerned about it.
Now, where as I was one of the nay-sayers when the original Note came out, I find myself pretty much set on upgrading to a phablet come next contract time. Before, I was concerned about one handed usability and clumsyness. Now, my phone is pretty much too big for me to use one handed anyway, given that I have small hands, and yet I've found several workarounds for it that make it easier. To the point that now, since I'd have to use two hands on any flagship device anyway, I might as well get a beast.
I'm not the only one. The Note 4 is launching to universal praise, the iPhone is now venturing into phablet territory, and even the next Nexus (the device Google deems that all devices should aspire to be from a software standpoint) is a phablet. People are now comfortable using a giant phone.
All the while, iPad sales are down, tablet sales generally are also down. There could be a number of reasons for this. People might be waiting for the next iPad, knowing that a new one is due soon. People's upgrade cycle on a tablet might just be longer. But I don't think it's that.
So today, with a new iPad launching and people talking about whether or not demand for the iPad will recover, I just wanted to look back and give Thorsten a little credit. Who knows his motivations for the quote, but given the trends of bigger screens on peoples daily drivers, I think he's right about the downfall of tablets. So Thor, though things ended poorly in Waterloo with you, you get at least a little slow clap from me for calling it.
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