In the Market Crash the buttons banish? D:

This guy should be a sarcastic comedian.

As far as reaching the mass market with hardcore games goes, this is the end game. Between Android and iOS there will be 100's of millions, if not more than a billion devices on the market that can play yearly releases of games at a level most people will be satisfied with.

What is the difference going to be in the next 5 years when we have;

Home Console
-4 Core CPU with 4GB RAM
-GTX 580ish GPU with 2GB RAM

Tablet
-CPU between Gen 7 and Gen 8 console plus 4GB RAM
-GPU between Gen 7 and Gen 8 console plus 2GB RAM

The tablets will do more of the multi-functional things people want, and the graphics will be so marginally better on the consoles that it will not be logical for a normal family to own one.

When you put the brunt of EA, Activision, Epic, Sony, Microsoft, Ubisoft and more behind this and they will make sure the games are compatible. If this was not a threat, then Sony and MS would not leaning so strongly on Playstation Suite and Windows Mobile.

Sorry to those that want to reject this, but consoles as we know them are nearing their end.

Many of these, They have Sonic kart online too! And unlike phones, there is a big room for buttons. Don't think apple is willing to include them though. Maybe android and windows tablets will have them.

This idea is sort of true while at the same time false.

Dedicated gaming consoles are merging with media/web devices in the long run. This is why MS entered the home console market and this is why the rumor of the neXtBox not having an optical media drive may have some weight.

Some of you already know my argument on PSV and smartphones, well its the same idea here.

In portables, the market is moving towards the smartphone and tablet simply being the one device type to rule it all. In a year's time their hardware capabilities will enable them to be equal or greater than anything in the dedicated gaming market, except built in controls. However, any of these devices can easily be paired with bluetooth controllers. This is the exact reason MS never made a dedicated portable console, MS fully intends Windows8 phones and tablets to be that device.

In home consoles, MS is forcing the market to be a fully integrated Web centric, media/gaming device. Apple and Google are doing the same thing with their respective TV based products. From iTV to GoogleTV to the rumored Apple actual television sets, by next year all will have high end gaming products from 3rd parties as well as standardized bluetooth enabled controls.

The only difference in all of these scenarios is first party content. MS, Sony, and Nintendo will still have their respective edges in this category, however 3rd party content will be essentially equal across all platforms, including Apple and Google's. (Apple already has strong and steadily growing 3rd party support and Google had a presentation last week stating they will have a unified large gaming division in 2013)

As for the big players; Apple, MS, and Google all stand to win big with this as this type of environment IS their bread and butter. Nintendo will largely be unaffected solely due to their amazingly recognized and desired first party products. They will move to continue to expand their media capabilities along with gaming, but they will remain the only fully gaming centric provider and will do well.

Sony on the other hand has the hardest route. They are not a PC/OS maker, they are a general electronics producer. They will continue their Android linkage and continue to keep the Playstation environment separate from general Android offerings, but PSN won't survive as Sony will be forced to continue to offer its massive nonGaming IP library to the general Apple/MS/Android stores. They can't leverage it in their market only and on top of that, unlike Nintendo, their gaming IPs, while many are very good, are simply not in the same league as Mario, Zelda, Kart, etc. They cannot hold up their hardware solely on their software when everything else is available everywhere else. Sony's best bet, to me, is that they make the PS4 as a GoogleTV device (to gain all it has and will continue to offer) with an obvious Playstation unique modification for gaming.

So back to the OP. It is right in that general media devices like the iPad will be the future of this market, but it is wrong in that it will be the "iPad" itself. Personally, I will own the Nintendo devices and likely a GoogleTV device. The latter will heavily depend on what actually emerges with Windows8. As I will continue to own Windows PCs and if the integrations is simply too superior, I may go that route and potentially even forgo Android as a platform I use. But that would require Windows8 being integrated with Google's services in some for as well. (i.e. Chrome, gmail, G+, etc)

Some things missing.
First of all, tablets cost more (sometimes twice as much) as consoles.
Second, if Dad wants the iPad x for work, then junior can't play games on the TV
(in other words, multi-functionality) here is a problem.
Third, at some point, annual replacement will slow or stall. Many of the tablets are bought by businesses/firms for which an annual update is an unwarranted, unnecessary or unsupportable expense.
Related to that, how much would people be willing to spend on gaming for a unit that is not their own.
(For example, I type this on a work-purchased iPad2. There is no plan to buy iPad3s.
I also refrain from buying games for something that I don't own (I have spent $2 in apps in a year).

Finally, if you read those comments, they were long term conjecture. I would love to know the context.

Mike from Morgantown

You'd like to think I don't know the future... bwhahahahaahahahha..

"The market experienced stronger-than-expected growth across many regions and at many price points, leading to a full-year 2011 total of 68.7 million units. Based upon the markets' strong 2011 finish, and the clear demand expected in 2012, IDC has increased its 2012 forecast to 106.1 million units, up from its previous forecast of 87.7 million units."  source

"Apple will sell 55 million iPads this year, with sales driven by a "significant" upgrade in the shape of the iPad 3, an analyst has predicted."  source

..anyone who has their head in the sand enough to think console gaming isn't going to be significantly impacted in apple/smartphones/tablets should ask themselves questions like what happend to the dedicated cd/mp3 player??  what's behind the garmin stock crash??  how come camera sales are down so much??  gaming is next i tell you.  yes, there are those (like you can me) that would by dedicated games devises but i'm quite sure that the size of the market isn't big enough to be able to withstand (finacially) loosing 25-50% of it's market.  the dedicated gaming machine concept is already crashing all around us. 

I think you're right, and I believe the big differentiator will be dedicated, exclusive content. I believe these emergent platforms will be so submerged with shovelware, consumers will be lost, unless Apple or Google come up with some branding strategy. Right now, the one thing you get from a dedicated consoles is working games out of the box. No need to buy a bluetooth controller to play games properly. All you need is games and you're good to go.

Anyway, I think the player in the best situation against this is Nintendo, but Sony is on the right path with Uncharted on the Vita and how it's making its brands more recognizable. Gran Turismo is sadly being met by Forza.

No, tablets and phones are eating into the handheld market but not consoles or PC. The handheld market and console/PC market have always existed side by side and both have done well. The only difference in the future will that the markets will be; the consoles/PC market and the tablets/phones/some kind of less important handheld market.
The consoles will simply adapt and become even more reliant on multimedia and online functionality as a counter-measure and the PC will always live in some form.

To think that tablets and phones will devour the gaming industry is silly.
kitler53: MP3 players and cameras are different, you can implement decent cameras and MP3 players in other devices. Gaming as a media will lose all its impact and sense in tablet/phone-only form, the huge screens, tight controls, massive sound etc. It would be like saying that the cinema is soon dead because everything will be on small handheld devices; too much of the experience will be lost in translation for media as big as movies and games and a screen with a few inches across and pathetic sound output and silly controls will never be able to replace that. One could argue that; well, you just hook your device to the TV or use portable speakers for the device (but the sound and picture output won't be very good compared to a dedicated device). Well, then that sort of removes the purpose of the device, doesn't it?

No, games in their current form will survive and so will movies.