I thoroughly enjoyed reading that -- spot on. Just for kicks, here's my more optimistic vision for the future:
1) HP/WebOS focuses it's marketing message on using "open" tech (HTML, CSS, JS). Some iOS/android developers convert apps, some web devs convert websites, most don't bother.
2) People pick these up as they are in stock and get to the sites people need with flash as a big selling point as well (news, mail, youtube, hulu, entertainment, etc).
3) Google releases a ChromeOS Tablet, using point 2 above to their advantage by claiming compatibility with all internet sites (even flash!). They sell quickly and cheaply, as google takes a loss on each tablet in hope of gaining market share and increasing google search usage (it's the default home-page on this device).
4) More hardware / software manufacturers follow Google's lead, and momentum shifts towards using tablets mainly as dumb web-clients (with offline storage, better graphics, and other "native" features provided by HTML5 APIs).
5) Apple raises the bar by releasing an extremely-polished-at-this-point itunes.com and a super-cheap "air/cloud" tablet (similar to chromeOS's offer), allowing you to buy and sell "cloud" apps (HTML CSS JS) with existing app store rules and credit cards on itunes.com or in the "cloud" app store. Buy once, use on all your iOS and Mac devices (includes apps, music, video).
6) Tablets aren't bought and sold based on whether angry birds runs on them (its a web-app and runs everywhere), but instead on hardware features and performance (battery-life, screen size/resolution, heat, weight, etc.). Forced to compete on these grounds, hardware manufacturers invent better batteries, hybrid color e-ink/lcd screens that can be used in the sun, better speakers, and maybe even something crazy like user-replaceable batteries, RAM, and hard disks.
1) HP/WebOS focuses it's marketing message on using "open" tech (HTML, CSS, JS). Some iOS/android developers convert apps, some web devs convert websites, most don't bother.
2) People pick these up as they are in stock and get to the sites people need with flash as a big selling point as well (news, mail, youtube, hulu, entertainment, etc).
3) Google releases a ChromeOS Tablet, using point 2 above to their advantage by claiming compatibility with all internet sites (even flash!). They sell quickly and cheaply, as google takes a loss on each tablet in hope of gaining market share and increasing google search usage (it's the default home-page on this device).
4) More hardware / software manufacturers follow Google's lead, and momentum shifts towards using tablets mainly as dumb web-clients (with offline storage, better graphics, and other "native" features provided by HTML5 APIs).
5) Apple raises the bar by releasing an extremely-polished-at-this-point itunes.com and a super-cheap "air/cloud" tablet (similar to chromeOS's offer), allowing you to buy and sell "cloud" apps (HTML CSS JS) with existing app store rules and credit cards on itunes.com or in the "cloud" app store. Buy once, use on all your iOS and Mac devices (includes apps, music, video).
6) Tablets aren't bought and sold based on whether angry birds runs on them (its a web-app and runs everywhere), but instead on hardware features and performance (battery-life, screen size/resolution, heat, weight, etc.). Forced to compete on these grounds, hardware manufacturers invent better batteries, hybrid color e-ink/lcd screens that can be used in the sun, better speakers, and maybe even something crazy like user-replaceable batteries, RAM, and hard disks.
One can dream, anyway...