Research firm Gartner appears to predict the demise of the smartphone in a report on the future of tablet PCs.
The company predicts media tablets will become the de-facto device that consumers carry with them over the next five to ten years, and that the public will begin to expect touch-based user interfaces (UIs) on a larger variety of electronic products.
Within the next decade “media tablets will instigate change in computing form factors; modular designs will enable tablets to take on new functions, becoming the cross-platform controller and brain for hybrid consumer electronics and computers,” research director Angela McIntyre comments.
McIntyre believes future tablets will replace satellite navigation and entertainment consoles in cars, or become home health monitors by connecting to bathroom scales and blood-pressure sleeves. She predicts touch-based smartphones will co-exist with tablets, with the devices becoming the first point of entry for many new Web users due to the ease-of-use of the UI.
“The keyboard on PCs is a major barrier for those who have had no reason or opportunity to become facile with qwerty,” she says.