Gadgetory

did the tablet die or just win I'm Brian Cooley from cnet in search of the next big thing tablet sales have been shrinking for some time the tech biz that's a def now even Apple's iPad line basically synonymous with the category has been on a lengthy sales slide that certainly wasn't tapered off in the most recent results down another twenty percent in volume in fact laptops and tablets are becoming the new battlefield this is a shift as opposed to a complete retreat notice how laptops are becoming more like tablets with detachable keyboards for example and often changing from a desktop style interface to a touch style one when you do the attachment or detachment you also find a lot of laptops now that emphasize their flexibility like what Lenovo does with their yoga line on the other hand look what's happening with tablets they're getting more powerful and more immersive and a little more serious in their use case than they used to be there for going after laptops examples of this would be the Apple iPad pro or microsoft surface pro 4 suitable for all but the most demanding computing and creative tasks something you wouldn't say about the earlier tablets and hit the market this all represents a shift in battlefield as the tablet is now less head-on against the smartphone trying to be a phone with a bigger screen and instead is becoming more of an alternative or complement to the laptop with greater usability portability and flexibility it looks a lot like chapter 2 and not chapter and know what's next at cnet com / next big thing I'm Brian cool