Great, a stand, at an angle that you have to be within a few feet of to enjoy, then you have to have a separate controller that happens to be with you wherever you've taken the pad and make sure both are charged and don't die out.  sounds ideal....enjoy your aching back 
 
Look brother, I'm not really arguing with 
you 
... but there will never be a day where kids no longer want to sit on the couch and play games on a TV in favor of using a small form factor. The landscape is changing there is no doubt about it, but games are expanding and it's not taking over consoles, it's complimenting them.  So the same kid who has an Xbox also plays games on his phone or tablet, they do not ditch the console for the tablet, 
casual gamers may do that.
I like to play angry birds as much as the next guy on my phone when I am not in front of my computer or my living room, but, it will never supersede console/pc play.  It is a different animal entirely.  Personally I am not interested in buying a separate controller that I have to carry with me along with my pad device to play games on a 10" screen, I'd rather hit the power button on my Xbox and start playing. The hype is just that, hype, it seems all the articles forget to mention that this is an 
expansion of gaming not a 
consolidation.
will it change to cloud services?  Sure, but they'll still be a TV involved and  content "box" or a large screen at least.  It doesn't matter how the content is delivered, when I say XBOX I am not saying it will never morph in to cloud/streaming services because it already is. I think you're mixing the issue we are talking about here.  Do you really think small form play is killing (will kill) TV/large screen play?  The xbox, whatever form it comes in next will be streaming device, able to stream content from the box to any device and that includes the tablets and phones but it's still a box, attached to your TV and that experience on a big screen TV will never be replicated by a handheld device.
who wants to play COD on a pad for real?
It's not my opinion, it just sensible, I'm not against small form factor gaming, just don't think it's going to push out "console" based. . Besides Engadget is pro apple anti-microsoft, that's a terrible place to link to for an unbiased opinion. 
 
PS.. how is diablo III on the iPad?