Have tablets died? Opinions welcomed!

[InfinitusEquitas]

It's 2016 and I still have not once, ever, paid for an app. Not that there aren't a few I haven't considered.

Also can't stand the pay to advance game model, and have that PC games are now getting in on that action by releasing additional content well after initial release. One thing to ask me to pay $60 for a game, fine, another to expect me to pay again and again for content that was clearly meant to be included to begin with.

This is also why I tend to be so late to games... have no issue with waiting a year or two, for a GOTY edition with everything included for a quarter of the price.

 

[Benm]

My opinion is that tablets are far too under-powered.

This depends on your application entirely. I have a first gen nexus 7 that i use to watch movies, for which it is well suited. Surely keep it on android 4, the "update" to 5 makes it completely unuable for any application other than a paperweight or doorstop.

As for battery life: I probably get something like 5-6 hours of video watching out of it at moderate brighness level and in airplane mode, but many carriers offer USB or AC power on long haul flights nowadays anyway, so this became less of a problem.

Then again, this is exactly why the tablet market could be considered dead: there is little need to replace existing tablets. People that have one are probably well off using their old one, and buying a new one just to have a screen a bit bigger than a modern large phone ones could be too much to ask.

I'm not sure the market will remain dead though: If they manage to pack a lot more processing power in the form factor, tablets could be a bit like laptops without a keyboard - basically a complete machine that is compact on the way but can be used as a fully powered workstation by plugging in a proper keyboard, mouse and monitor at the office or at home.