which several decades previous that was the case for microcomputers...
While now it is a given concept that there will be a consumer level device, but sooner or later a new generation of home-based hackers will work up some new ways to be productive within these walled gardens, those will be exploited into apps and companies will be doing business on them - and then it will have started all over again.
I wouldn't consider it an end but part of a progression.
Not just that but also the fact that the devices used for producing are much less likely to be bought in homes if they already have a consumption device.
In the post-PC world, a home(especially in low income homes and the developing world) having iPads are much less likely to have Windows or Mac machines (on which an enterprising kid might install and play with Eclipse, Visual Studio Express or XCode, or even Linux).
This effect will be further amplified when the PC prices rise to lower demand.
