When, in November 2011, I got my first tablet – an iPad 2 that I had won in a contest – I felt so ‘modern’. At the time tablet PCs were still quite new and always attracted a few jealous looks when used on the train or on a plane. After trying very hard to find a good use for it I ended up giving it to my children, and last spring it got binned. Today I read on the Internet that in 2016 tablet sales are expected to decline by 12%.

Does this confirm my 2011 feeling that tablet computers are, in fact, rather useless? Only to be used as an Internet terminal? In March 2012 I won a second tablet, an iPad Mini this time, and, without hesitation, immediately gave it to my wife. My children started to refer to our still pretty new iPad 2 as the “Giant iPad”, showing that, in their eyes, a tablet was nothing special anymore.

Since the introduction of the iPad in 2010 the whole world started frantically buying tablets and now, only six years later, the hype seems to be over. Today consumers prefer detachable tablets, and slim and convertible-type notebooks. No doubt the smartphone is the reason for the early demise of the tablet computer. Will they make a comeback some day or will they be forgotten like PDAs and Nokia?