Not portable. The gamepad is completely tied to the main hardware, so it can't function on its own, like a legit tablet. It's more like a small wireless monitor.

I don think he provides any stats about tablets not leaving the home -  he said they stay home much of the time - but even if they are home much of the time it is pretty important they are mobile when they DO leave the home-   Also people that use tablets at home no doubt want to use them in more than 1 room- the gamepad has about a 12-20 ft range from the console 

there are many many reasons the gamepad is not marketed as a tAblet - it would prob be considered false advertising for 1 

Thick, limited to your house, resistive screen, low resolution, bad battery life. You can grab a Nexus 7 for US$ 200 that will give a capacitive 1920 x 1200 screen, quad core CPU, 2 GB RAM, 16 GB of storage and hundreds of thousands of apps.

Let's be honest, just the screen specs are a deal killer. It wasn't made for that, so it simply isn't adequate to most things people do. Who would want to replace an iPad or Android tablet with a device with resistive screen at 854 x 480 and only gets 5 hours of use? It won't display text or video with the quality people expect this days.

I've made my thoughts in the comment section of that article very clear already, but I'll sum it up here:

Instead of promoting the controller as a tablet-killer, it should promote it as a device that can do many things a tablet can, while also being able to play exclusive Nintendo games.

If I had a child or children, I would not buy them their very own tablet. If I did, then I certainly would not allow them to leave the house with it, and I would lock down the app store and place parental controls on it. But the Wii U's GamePad would be a good alternative, because it has parental controls and many of it's weaknesses (low battery life, no portability) wouldn't matter because it would never leave the house anyway.

Problem is the gamepad can barely leave the room, let alone the house. It's almost impossible to use it through walls. Not to mention it has almost nothing that regular tablets do other than a touchscreen. No app ecosystem is a big killer.

1. Can't extend beyond one room.
2. Doesn't have the large app store that other tablets have.
3. The OS is not quite as fast as others.
4. It lacks some standard features like pinch zoom.

The Wii U has some cool features, but on the whole, it'd make a pretty shitty tablet, which is why Nintendo isn't playing up that angle.

This is really nintendo's biggest failure in regards to the gamepad, they never viewed it as anything more than a controller for the wii u. The gamepad is a decent idea, in theory, but nintendo did a poor job in actualizing it.

lol, no. Even cheap tablets put the Wii U Gamepad to shame nowadays. It's just really outdated. Seriously. It's good for gaming, but not for anything else. Just like Vita. Both don't sell, go figure. ;P

Bolded: Could you do me a favor and acknowledge that I recognized this as an issue in my post? I pretty much said the same thing, so I don't understand why you feel the need to remind me. Nothing is more frustrating than when someone replies to you and feels the need to tell you what you just said.

I use the GamePad in my bedroom while the console sits in the living room, 20 feet away and through a wall, all the time. I also play Toki Tori while taking a shit. Everyone's mileage is different.

Like I said, the GamePad does enough for what I need for it, and for what I would want any young children to have for it. I am in no way saying it can do everything an actual tablet can. I'm saying that it can serve many of the most basic functions of a tablet: browsing the Web, streaming video and playing games. That's what Nintendo should be promoting.

Yes, my point was that not only can it not leave the house (like you mentioned), but it can't leave the room either (which you didn't).

Also, a tablet does all of the things you mentioned a thousand times better. Browsing the web on a resistive touch screen? Sreaming videos onto a tablet when you are in the same room as your TV? Playin games, sure, but tablets cater to a different type of game preference, a much more casual one.