[kalid]

> What am I missing?

How many people do you know under 10? That's the generation MSFT needs to worry about.

Anecdotally, the kids I've seen get tablets/phones/ipod touches and blast away on them. They'd vastly prefer a tablet to a laptop. Arguments like "You can do real work on a PC!" are not going to sway them. If anything, it reinforces "regular computers = drudgery, to be minimized as much as possible".

[marshray]

I have kids bracketing that age range. They all enjoy the family tablets.

However, as soon as they need to complete a school assignment, they have always used a desktop with a keyboard (we don't have floater laptops). This despite never having had any instruction on how to type. I have never heard them once consider using a tablet for this.

[kalid]

Ah, now we're getting away from PC (as defined by an OS) to PC as a synonym for having a keyboard :).

If your kids had a tablet with an excellent keyboard touch cover, would that be enough to never use a traditional PC? They aren't in a position to buy it themselves, of course, but if you had them side-by-side I wonder what they'd prefer.

[suresk]

If we're talking about differentiating features (at least at a hardware level), I think it would be:

- Larger display - Keyboard - Mouse - Power

It depends on what your usage requirements are, of course, but once you start carrying around one or more peripherals to make your tablet work for your situation, you have to start asking "Is this really better than a laptop?"

[ErikHuisman]

You forgot one: Better cut and paste..

[marshray]

We have a keyboard dock for our Galaxy Tab 10.1, but haven't used it much. When I've tried to use it, I've found that apps developed for the tablet tend to be clunky when used from the keyboard.

I have a Surface RT with touch cover, but haven't let the kids loose with it much. :-) It's not replacing any of my real PC gear, but mainly because it doesn't run any of my existing apps. However, the Surface Pro is going to be a very interesting mix of capabilities.

[WayneDB]

Once you add a keyboard to a tablet, it's just a laptop with a touch screen, but whatever you call it, I just hope the keyboard has tactile feedback, the screen is big enough to see what I want, I can add a mouse and most importantly: I can run a general-purpose operating system on it.

(My paranoid side is convinced that our NWO techno-slave-masters are simply using these new form-factors as an excuse to kill freedom.)

[rgbrenner]

Wait... 10 year old kids would prefer to play on a tablet rather than do WORK(!!) on a PC?! AND they are unswayed that they can do work on a PC?!

What is the world coming to? Next you'll be telling me kids no longer find their chores fun.

[kalid]

I'm confused by the sarcasm, since we seem to be in agreement on this "obvious" trend. Yes, tablets/phones are absorbing the "fun" computer scenarios and PCs are left with the "work" scenarios.

Over time, will people veer towards doing "more work" on a tablet or trying to have "more fun" on their PC? I know which side I'd bet on.

[rgbrenner]

>I'm confused by the sarcasm

10 year old kids might not be the best indicator of future trends. After all, we aren't doing our work on the Wii, building our homes using Legos, or any of the other things children spend their time on.

[kalid]

I think the change isn't in the exact use of the item, but expectations. Did the 80's Nintendo generation (me) expect more or less video games in their adult lives, compared to other types of recreation?

Kids won't do work on the wii... but will they expect (or demand) that devices be motion-aware by default? Screens be touchable by default? Have 10-hour battery life by default? Be comfortably handheld by default?

Think about how downtime has evolved. This century we went from "I'm bored, let me grab a newspaper" to "I'm bored, what's on the radio?" to "I'm bored, what's on TV?" to "I'm bored, what's on the desktop computer?" to "I'm bored, what's on my phone/tablet?"

The earlier industries are dead or stagnant (newspaper/radio), regular TV (at a specific time, interrupted by commercials) is on its way out, the growth is in the new form factor/experience Microsoft is barely relevant in. That's the nightmare.

[WayneDB]

If people start veering towards more work on a tablet, then the tablet is going to have to take on more characteristics of the PC like a keyboard and some of the features of a more flexible/general purpose OS.

So, what do we have then? Do we still have just a tablet? Maybe, but the definition will have changed.

[marshray]

A Microsoft Surface?

Disclosure: I recently accpeted a position at MSFT (not related to Surface) and am drinking the koolaid.

[pmelendez]

Congrats! I want to drink that koolaid too where I should send my resume? :P