Why Tablets Finally Succeeded

If you look at the current media consumption habits of U.K. adults, you can see why PCs are becoming media consumption devices, and why tablets now have succeeded, when all efforts to create tablet markets have failed for the better part of a decade.

A new Ofcom report shows that media consumption is a big consumer activity, and most of the popular consumer media consumption activities increasingly can occur on a tablet or PC screen.

If you think back on the history of efforts to create mass markets for tablets, the notion was that "handwriting recognition" was a crucial capability, since it was expected that people would use tablets to "take notes," using a stylus.

In other words, tablets were conceived as "work devices." As it turns out, tablets are embraced precisely because they are convenient media consumption devices, using apps and touch, not a stylus, for interaction.