Tablet sales may be up, but that doesn’t mean they are ‘the future’, at least not yet. Will they become more ubiquitous? Certainly. Will actual computers go extinct from the influx of these current portable touch devices? That’s a big no.

Tablets as we know it now are “toys”; nice to have but no substitute for a laptop. Tablets right now aren’t killing computers yet — ­computer sales are down because everyone already has one. And any PC that is five years old or newer is sufficiently powerful for most uses and web surfing. Tablets are a new thing, not many people had one and they weren’t as affordable back then.

Right now, tablets are for games, web surfing, reading e-books and checking stocks/emails/news. But they are no substitute for anyone who does real work — spreadsheets, design, reports, planning, video editing, any form of content production really.

But what about businesses “migrating” to tablets? They are the future! Hospitals are probably the most cited example. The truth is tablets merely act as digital organizers/clipboards that ultimately push information for real work to be done on a — you guessed it — computer!!

Tablets are currently disadvantaged in two ways: They are more powerful than smartphones but far weaker in processing power and they run mobile-based operating systems which don’t run full-fledged computer applications.

They may be heralded now as devices that will dominate in the business world and education sector, but in reality, their usefulness has limited applications. Today’s tablets are nothing to gloat about. We should instead look forward to laptop-tablet hybrids. These devices, which just made a debut a few months ago, are tablets which run laptop hardware and full operating systems — and that’s when real praise and credit should be delivered.