That same technology will drop in price as time goes on, so perhaps the argument is less about whether tablet computers are too expensive right now. The question is whether the hype can stick around for long enough for tablets still to be appealing when usable devices do eventually drop in price. That could take years, however.

The biggest risk is that the tablet computing niche being created right now could make people write off the entire nascent hardware platform as little more than a triviality for those with more money than sense.

Keir Thomas has been making known his opinion about computing matters since the last century, and more recently has written several best-selling books. You can learn more about him at . His Twitter feed is .