At the very least, sliding a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse next to your tablet then having it turn into "laptop mode" would solve the problem.
I don't really disagree. This might well be what the reconvergence looks like--in combination with software changes that better bridge different modes of operation.
That said, you may also be right that enhancements to interfaces could make a tablet-type device qualitatively better than today while also pushing it in directions that are fundamentally different from the type of device needed to do the types of tasks we mostly use laptops for today.
Microsoft is approaching the tablet by scaling down a laptop. I like it but it needs more work.
I tend to agree. The only tablet I own and use is a Surface Pro 3 (and not because of Windows, rather in spite of it--it's a great Photoshop machine for the money, and happens to be pretty good at some other stuff on top of that). I've got Visual Studio on it too, though I don't use it for development much because the Type Cover is crap. If I could get a stiff-hinge keyboard dock for the thing, it would probably be my primary game development machine (I use C# for that, day job stuff and web stuff is on my Mac). As-is, Photoshop and light browsing are what it's good for. And I think that's the basic point of overlap for bringing tablets into "work" modes - the transformable tablet/laptop, only actually good.
The 2nd gen (non-Retina) iPads make my eyes bleed. They are terrible devices.
I had a 3rd gen and after a year, websites became more complicated and it just felt 'slow', so I sold it and got the Retina Mini.
That said, sales have plateaued at best and there are probably a lot of contributors:
- Slow upgrade cycle as you suggest. I have a 2nd or 3rd gen iPad and I have absolutely zero reason to upgrade at this point.
- They are probably being squeezed to a certain degree. I find that, even with just an iPhone 6 rather than a Plus, I'm often more inclined to just read on my phone than go grab my tablet.
- I've probably become more quick to grab a Chromebook or some other laptop I have laying around than do anything half-way complicated on my tablet. So there may be some realization that tablets are sometimes more trouble than they're worth even for more complex mostly-consumption tasks.
- I suspect that we may end up with some sort of tablet and laptop reconvergence even though tablets took off in large part because the convergence between the two devices was broken.