I think they are a phase, too.  Basically too big to be useful.  People carry 'em around for the same reason they used to carry Filofaxes and the big old Motorola cell phones.  They'll put up with a little inconvenience for the pose value.

Fast forward a few years and the tech will be really old hat; everyone and their granny will have one and the pose value will be in the minus.  Along comes the shiny new must have gadget and everyone drops the tablet like the wrong end of a shitty stick.

The real advance in portable computing/entertainment/comms will be, IMO, something about the size and shape of a ballpoint pen.  In fact, you'll probably be able to write with it, too.  Have all the power of a current top spec PC, Terabytes of storage and the ability to communicate with just about any device anywhere.

You need a big screen for that?  Simples.  Just pull the flexible panel out of the slot in the side, or tell it to talk to the display device in your Ray Bans.  Keyboard, Sir?   Certainly, press that button there and you'll get one projected onto a flat surface.  The tech for both those things exists now.  :)

I predicted the flat TV, the Kindle and SS storage for music and photos over 30 years ago.  Bet you I'm right this time, too.

Coppula eam se non posit acceptera jocularum.

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