Tablets and Smartphones, and I've talked about this before in the Technology subforum, is an inherently flawed and limited design, compared to something like a laptop or desktop computer, and can NEVER replace everything.
Here are some reasons:
- You will never have the level of precision from using a mouse, or even a motion control device (Wii Remote, Valve Index, LG/Samsung Magic Remotes), with a touch interface. You're touching glass. You have no feedback from glass, and if you were to invent an interface method with the express purpose of not giving the user any affirmation that the interface works without looking directly at it, you'd go with glass. Try doing CAD with just a touch screen. Try programming. Try just about any useful skill. You can add a keyboard and mouse, or a game controller, but at that point, why don't you just buy a laptop if you want to look at a tiny screen all day? At least then you can use big boy software.
- For that same reason, text input is INCREDIBLY slow, even with Swype. Software cannot always accurately guess what idea you're trying to put to words, and the time penalty incurred from fucking up with a touch interface is a million times worse than fixing a mistake with a single keystroke. This is my primary reason for hating the tech trend of having only a screen, and then iteratively limiting even the things you can do on that for the sake of a "clean interface". Fuck you!
- The hardware smartphones and tablets use, is designed explicitly for power efficiency. As such, it will always be the worst option for anything computationally intensive, unless you were to use a tablet to send a job out to a full-sized computer, server, or render farm. That doesn't solve the problem of having a one device solution, though, does it?
- The way the OSs are designed, the way the UI is designed, the rights and privileges of the end user, and the way that everything revolves on an external service, serves not only as proof that Tablets and Phones are currently NOT a single-device solution, but that reliance, and lack of general user access to the filesystem, root, and permissions structure, means that you can never take full advantage of the already limited hardware you have. There's a reason we've had 13 years of these devices, but the games on them still look like they're in Flash. Every app you make, especially in the Android world, must be tailor-made for that version of the OS, which includes every hardware tier, from the $30 Big Lots special, to a $2000 commercial-spec device. It doesn't matter if you have the nice and powerful one, you'll never be able to fully utilize its capabilities. Tablet-style devices are an input device, first, output device, third. You're meant to consume with one, not produce.
Now if we're talking about replacing all forms of entertainment? Well, that only works for as long as people are willing to derive enjoyment from a screen. That doesn't sate all needs.