Jean-Louis Gassée takes us on a walk through the history and creaky evolution of the tablet, then explores the future of the desktop and tablet lines.

If we consider that Mac unit sales grew 18% last quarter (year-to-year), the company’s game becomes clear: The sweet spot on Apple’s racket is the set of customers who, like Tim Cook, use MacBooks and iPads. It’s by no means the broadest segment, just the most profitable one. Naysayers will continue to contend that the prices of competing tablets are preordained to crash and will bring ruin to Apple’s Affordable Luxury product strategy…just as they predicted netbooks would inflict damage on MacBooks.

As always, Gassée is a seasoned voice of experience and an enjoyable and educational read.