Re: Wrong.
Spot on....
Tablets are ok for performing basic software input functions and consulting cloud data and apps, yada yada.
I think of mine as a bigger, slightly better, more visible smart phone I can use to check my email, social networks, skype, flight reservations, and ebay. It lets me play games on the train, occasionally take a poke at the Android OS or even read the Register.
I willingly accept its limitations.
Because of their small size, light-weight, decent battery life and mobility, tabs CAN BE marginally better (or just more convenient) for some tasks but that's where it stops for me.
For real work, I still must go upstairs and fire up the big, fan-cooled iron/silcon beast sitting in my office.
That's why I'm now typing this post on a KVM guest session. Way easier and faster than typing it on my tab (and way, way faster and easier than typing it on a smart phone). And why is that so?
Primarily because it has a physical keyboard.
Do typing speed tests qualify as scientific proof? Methinks yes.
My laptop, desktops and servers can be used for testing, building VM environments and tools, doing backups, burning and storing media, developing/compiling code, or typing/creating documents and SO MANY, MANY other things.
A large percentage of tasks are too clumsy, slow or impossible to do on a tab. I'm still trying to teach mine to print, for heaven's sake.
Yeah yeah sure, I can SSH or RDP to another server from my tablet, but why would I bother?
It's like choosing a dial up network connection over a readily available 1 GB connection.
Maybe if both my legs were broken and I couldn't make it upstairs.
And if you needed any more evidence that touch hasn't quite conquered the world for anything more than the simplest tasks, try using a tablet with USB keyboard and kick stand for any length of time.
At first, the kludge is amusing. However, it will soon dawn on you that you've transformed your sweet little tablet into a mutant, bastard-child: a reduced-function, crippled, schizophrenic laptop.
And if you are like me, you will quickly return to finger mode and leave that bastard child alone, unless you have no other choice.
Chromebooks have combined the best features of both worlds (an Android OS and a physical keyboard) but still look like laptops without wifi hardware to me. I think we are still missing a few links in this technological evolution. It's either that or the economy has failed to cull enough marketing droids.
Tablets make sense if your business is delivering packages, taking notes, looking at pictures, reading web pages, taking opinion polls, taking bar/restaurant orders. visiting customers and so on.
They have their place in the data entry eco-system and that space will continue to grow.
But even today, I believe a web or graphics designer would balk at doing any serious work on a commodity tablet. As would most sys admins, developers or DBAs. I mean would you seriously drop a corporate database table with a finger swipe or from a mini keyboard?
Not on my tablet, you wouldn't, although it's OK for playing Angry Birds.
Will that ever change ?....... maybe one day.
However, there are good reasons why replacing the keyboard and mouse is not a trivial challenge, despite the hype.
Keyboards have existed since the 19th century and pointers have been around for decades.
This is because they work and are still the most efficient tools for data entry.
Such venerable devices need to be replaced by BETTER options before they can disappear completely.
In sum, when it becomes just as simple to do your job on a super-thin tab client as it is on a traditional thick desktop, you might. As long as the opposite is true, you, like me, will probably keep going back to that office/keyboard. And the five million souls who can only pay 30 quid for their tablet will still find its use restricted to certain tasks, at least for now.