The first iPad was released over a decade ago and pitched as a bold new frontier for consumer computing. It helped kill the netbook and spawned generations of copycat tablets from Android manufacturers and Microsoft.

But it hasn't really played out all that well. In fact – despite selling a healthy number of them – the iPad sometimes seems like a mostly forgotten product range, with confusing options and not much by way of innovation.

What gives? Are tablets in general a dead end? We discuss.