Worth Reading: ‘Nobody Knows What An iPad Is Good For Anymore’

There are enough pundits who are chiming in (or will soon do so) on the fact that iPad sales have declined year-over-year yet again, so I’ll save you from trudging through my take for the time being and point you to this piece from Wired’s Kyle Vanhemert instead:

“In 2010, the year the iPad debuted, Steve Jobs famously compared tablets to PCs using the analogy of cars and trucks. Trucks were essential when we were all farmers, Jobs said, but as we moved to cities and the suburbs surrounding them, nimbler vehicles became more practical. Innovations like automatic transmission and power steering made cars even more attractive. PCs and Macs, Jobs said, were going to be like trucks. They’d stick around, they just wouldn’t be for everyone. Eventually, tablets would take over.

“Jobs might’ve been right about PCs, but he got the analogy wrong. Smartphones are cars. Today, tablets are looking a little more like mini-vans, or motorcycles.”

I know a number of people for whom their phone has become their primary computing device. I can’t think of anyone offhand that I know personally who are tablet users first and foremost.

Nick spends way too much time in front of a computer, so he figures he may as well write about it. He's previously written for IDG's PCWorld and TechHive.