It is true that tablets and smart phones are sufficient for people who do not need much computing power and who just need to surf the web, to send and receive emails, to check weather forecasts and stocks, etc.
This is a dubious and myopic viewpoint. Tablets and smart phones aren't "stuck" on some performance curve. It is more so people who are stuck on performance boundaries (e.g., have a fixed set of major apps they need and the work they need done is either constant or growing in demands at a relatively slow rate). The devices are getting better over time. Much better.
For example a Newton from 1994 couldn't possible surf the modern web (with HTML 5, javascript , java, and Flash ) well. Likewise could not deal with the common very large email messages. The Newton from 1994 couldn't run something like Photoshop 3.0 (when it picked up layers).
In contrast, the iPad does those things easily. It runs an Adobe Photoshop Express & Touch which in combination is more than competitive with Photoshop 3.0 on pre 2000 era hardware.
The amount of "computing power" that can be delivered in a smaller form factor expands every year.
The phones and iOS tablets are more limited by in device storage space than by computational limits.
For many occupations, laptops and/or desktops are a must. People who are working in those occupations still need laptops and/or desktops.
The work they need to get done is a must. The specific form factor of their tools isn't. There are relatively few occupations that absolutely require a "box with slots" of the size and dimensions of approximately a Mac II.
If I am allowed to define the post-PC era, I would like to say that the post-PC era is a time period during which people often use laptops and/or desktops
the Post-PC era is the era where people stop pigeon-holing personal computers are a legacy DOS/Windows Box with slots. Where the form factor of the first IBM PC and the early Compaq "luggables" drive the title of Personal Computer. It is the era where the computer truly become personal because the majority of the people on the planet can afford and have one; not just some relative elite few. It will be the "personal computer" era which will be "Post-Windows PC" era.
Laptops and/or desktops in some form will survive along with all the mobile devices.
They will survive. Just as Mainframes, Supercomputers , and "mini-computers" (large servers ... mini relative to the mainframes ) survived.
Right sized tool for the right job.
To encourage Apple to put more R&D into desktop computers, the desktop computer users may consider stopping using Apple mobile devices and also provide input to family members and friends so that they will not use Apple mobile devices.
This is a poster child for the "If all you have is a hammer everything is a nail" syndrome. It is wrong. Right tool for the right job. Apple is never going to bend to this, because few are going to throw themselves under to bus just so a disproportionally small group of folks can get a disproportionally large share of the R&D money. What you are asking folks to do is screw up their computer selection so you can have a better one. That's narcissistic, not a likely market force.
Apple will also share equally its R&D dollars between desktop computers and mobile devices.
The iOS products aren't really mobile devices. They are mobile computers.
And no the iOS products purpose is at Apple is not to raise money for Mac Pro R&D. Neither is the reverse. They are both products that generate enough money for their own R&D that serve different computer markets growing at different rates.
The R&D fund/defund rate is driven far more by the underlying markets grow rate and grow potential. If want to change Mac Pro R&D, folks would better served by finding new customers/jobs for which the Mac Pro is the most appropriate tool for the job. Not just the box that most resembles the computers from the past so "should buy it".
I don't even bother playing FPS on a console since it's just too painful.
