Unlike smartphones and laptops, which replaced analog phones, typewriters, and
filing cabinets, the tablet is pure digital abstraction -- the love-child of two
digital devices
The answer is that our current digital ecosystem of smartphone + laptop
doesn’t really fill our needs. Our phones aren’t good at making phone calls, and
our laptops don’t share well. Both cost a lot but use only a fraction of their
features. So much has changed since these platforms were originally defined that
it’s time for a major re-adjustment, and the tablet is the first step. It’s the
tip of the iceberg.
The tablet’s greatest impact on the technology ecosystem was in pointing out
this weakness
. Tasks that had been split between two devices can be distributed among three.
So what happens next? As a result of the tablet, your smartphone is going to get
a bit dumber. It won’t lose all of its functions, but most ancillary features
will drop deeper back in the user interface, bringing the two killer apps of
phone and camera to the surface.