Such a statement assumes that intelligence exists in the first place. Comments sections can work. But, as soon as a sufficiently large audience shows up, it devolves into cesspool of ridiculous, poorly thought through, extreme opinions, and personal attacks. *Insert something racist/homophobic/sexist/generally hateful here*

I think how the post-PC era develops is largely based on how much people want to compartmentalize their computing lives.

Right now, a half-decent laptop can more or less "do it all". It can run hardware intensive applications, crunch loads of data, play graphically rich games, store or create music, video, manage and edit photos. Or, on the other end of the spectrum, you can check your e-mail, and surf Facebook and look at photos of cats with inane subtitles. A half decent smartphone can fill in any other gaps, while providing a surprising amount of the same functionality in a pocketable form factor.

But, as my friend once observed, people like putting different parts of their lives in boxes. We have a vast array of different mediums for what basically comes down to sending text (and maybe attaching a few photos or videos) over the internet. E-mail, SMS, MMS, all manner of instant messaging applications, Twitter... Theoretically, any one of these services could completely replace the others. Most smartphones these days have e-mail on them. Why do people still use SMS? Because every variation on what is fundamentally the same thing has slightly different applications associated with them. We use SMS for idle chit-chat, or truly short messages that don't warrant a phone call. We use e-mail for more "involved", but often lower priority things. We use Twitter and Facebook to vomit our random thoughts at a massive audience. For whatever reason, social convention has dictated that each of these technologies be used slightly differently. Where am I going with this?

I'm fairly certain computing will develop in the same way. People don't seem to like a "one size fits all" approach. While a smart phone can do basically all the same things a tablet can, people still want that bigger screen around, and they use it differently. While a laptop can do anything a tablet can do, and way more, tablets are increasingly becoming the average person's go-to simple computing device. If someone needs to do some heavier computing, they'll use a laptop or a desktop. A lot of us seem to think that tablets are just for our grandparents. But, I see just as many geeks with iPads as I do grandparents. I don't think computing experience will dictate what people use. I think these subtle social conventions will tell us when we should use a tablet, when we should use a desktop, when we should use a laptop, when we should use a smartphone.

This is where I differ from the norm to some extent. I like to have everything as consolidated as possible. I started with a series of self built desktops years ago. Then I got a laptop when I needed a computer I could take places, and I realized I hated keeping the two synced up. I hated going back and forth. So, I basically just ended up using the laptop while my desktop sat there collecting dust. I eventually sold the desktop. Of course, I found the laptop (a 2008 Macbook) somewhat lacking in power lately, so I opted to retire it and get a laptop that would give me the same portability (more or less), while also giving me a pretty decent amount of power for recording/mixing music, gaming, working with Adobe's creative suite, etc.. So, I got a 15" Macbook Pro, and it's now my only computer. And I like it that way. I have an iPhone as well (yes, bit of an Apple fanboy, move past it!), and between that and my Macbook Pro, I just can't fathom adding another device for me to use. Were I to get a tablet, I'd either almost never touch it, or I'd have the urge to use it for everything... which is completely impossible with tablets in their current state.

But, as I said, I'm not the norm. I do think that tablets are currently building on and defining their role in our computing lives. And, since your average user doesn't program, record music, isn't a graphic designer, isn't a professional photographer, doesn't play demanding PC games, or any of that... I think these post-PC devices will become the norm pretty soon. Even geeks who still want the raw power of a PC will probably turn to tablets for their more basic computing needs, because just like everyone else, they like to divide their computing life up into a bunch context specific of boxes.