Interesting take from The Man Himself (No, not that man. Er, I mean that one.). I think Gruber’s idea that the Tablet ultimately becomes most people’s idea of the PC over the next few years is insightful. The MacBook ratchets up a notch in performance to become the mobile version of a Mac Pro, for power users. The Tablet becomes a computer for the rest of the world. I could see that happening in the next few years.

The point I failed to hammer down as securely as Gruber is that the Tablet won’t be an e-book reader or an iPod, but a general computing device. My own conviction is that it will be a media portal for the iTunes store (along with iPod Touch-like computing power) first, and a replacement for the PC second, in terms of how it is marketed. Stealing market share from Netflix is more lucrative than stealing market share from themselves. But when the time comes, I have no doubt that Apple will put a bullet in whatever the Tablet replaces without hesitation or remorse. Like any smart company should.