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> A tablet is nothing like as portable as a smartphone

A lot of people would disagree with you, perhaps most people. A tablet actually is VERY similar to a large portable smartphone - it doesn't fit in your pants pocket, but it does fit in almost any other purse.

In fact, Samsung makes an extremely popular device - the Samsung Note, which is halfway between a phone and a tablet. Do play with one. "nothing like" is a strong statement that I believe has no support in reality.

> So obviously nobody will ever buy a tablet. QED.

The logic that leads to that is flawed, even if one does accept the (wrong, IMHO) premise that a tablet is nothing like as portable as a smartphone.

And my answer to "are there any people ..." is simply "we'll soon see". I don't claim to know a definite answer -- unlike, e.g. Ballmer in response to the iPhone and iPad.




I was parodying your argument to make it look ridiculous, which it was, and I apologise if you missed the point. However, I agree that neither of us knows a definite answer ;-)

I'm not particularly optimistic about Surface sales myself, but it's an extremely interesting approach. I can certainly imagine that version 3 will be a killer product, and I hope it is, but I'm not putting any money on it.




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