Tablets - The Device of Yesterday's Future

I remember the release of the iPad quite vividly. I was in business school at the time, and the one question that I kept coming back to was, "What does it do?" With the data unfolding that tablet sales have stagnated, this is a worthy question to revisit.

What makes a tablet different from similar devices?
- Loads up faster than a computer
- Data input and data interaction is slower than a PC (typing wpm, transfer of files, raw processing power), but faster than a smartphone
- Bigger than a smartphone, so it's easier for those lacking coordination, older, and farsighted, but not quite so large as to lug around a laptop. However, it's still inconvenient to carry out and about, at least for those who do not carry a decent sized purse.
- Easy finger and camera interaction, slightly superior to the PC and smartphone alternatives
- Much more expensive than a smart phone, but generally slightly cheaper than a PC

Given this, what is the competitive advantage of a tablet?
- As an e-reader for email, newspapers, books, magazines, and web surfing
- As a gaming device
- As a device for those that cannot easily use a smart phone or PC

In effect, a personal tablet is a consumption device, and not a creation device. A smart phone is portable and easier to integrate into people's lives. A PC has both a mouse and a keyboard, which are both "ancient" technologies, but they have withstood the test of time as highly efficient data input devices. A tablet falls in this reverse "baby bear" space where it is okay but not great at data input and processing, but also not as convenient or cost-efficient as a smart phone. However, touch screen technology is spreading quickly across developed and developing markets as a part of the customer experience, including airlines, medicine, grocers, restaurants, and museums.

So, in which direction are tablet sales heading? If tablet sales include the varying forms of touch screen technology, then tablets are being incorporated as part of the customer experience across nearly every industry. Tablets will become ever more omnipresent and adopted by corporations. However, if a tablet is considered the traditional Apple/Samsung full functioning product, we may have just reached market maturity with more stable growth rates.

Savings Premium, Piketty, and Inequality

This is a follow up on the previous post. To recap, we are in an unprecedented economic situation. The "premium" on savings has flipped negative in most of the developed world. P/E ratios have skyrocketed. Chasing the little yield there is has opened up economies to systemic financial risks. Pensions are chasing yield on underfunded liabilities. Governments are more leveraged compared to historical averages and are dependent on low rates to remain sustainable. 

In the middle of these nebulous conditions an economics bestseller hits the world declaring that capital returns are greater than economic growth and the capital is sucking up wealth and exacerbating inequality. Thomas Piketty's book Capital in the 21st Century dissects data across countries extending back as far as the data can go, and he sees the existing wealth dominating the world economy because of "r>g."

Are these theories applicable today? Perhaps this is a bit like "always fighting the last war." Before declaring that this is one of the most important books of the century (assuming everything he said is 100% right and we ignore other viewpoints), we should first look at whether the findings are applicable to today and in the near future. First, the savings premium is gone. Second, the new age of billionaires is emerging and they could hardly be called trust fund babies. The information age has empowered the smart and the lucky to capture huge amounts of value.

Of course, the data gathering and insights are a few more bricks added to the home of economic knowledge. However, perhaps 20 years from now we will look back on Picketty's conclusions as a more sophisticated version of Dow 40,000 and other "if we extrapolate this trend out" type of book.

(Disclaimer: I haven't read Capital in the 21st Century, but then again, the vast majority of people that buy the book don't either. However, I've listened to a few hours of interviews with Thomas Piketty over the last year or so. This is my way of saying yes, I am ignorant, but not completely ignorant.)