Why not have both? It would be relatively straightforward for Roland to include a small tablet capable of playing high-quality software instruments. If they did it properly then there's no reason why it can't be every bit as reliable as the current module. Why not make it an extra accessory to the base kit?
Roland could do this easily - but they're not. Why? Profit margins.
Why has profit become a dirty word?
I want companies that make products to be able to sustain their business model.
Adding a tablet with a load of Superior drummer style plugin and all the sounds- not to mention the entire library of sounds (my Superior folder is something like 500GB and I don't own all the libraries) would be prohibitively expensive.
And you can't run something like Superior from a tablet- you need a fully fledged computer.
My main kit is something like 2GB with all the sympathetic sounds on.
Memory is cheaper than ever but the rule of thumb is if a feature costs the manufacturer $10 then at retail it needs to be 4 times that to account for all the incidental costs of producing said thing, marketing, shipping, returns etc.
Then people would accuse Roland of gouging them for the extra hardware and sounds.
And people can just use a midi cable to plug into their existing computer that they already own.
I don't gig with a laptop because I don't have the luxury of long set up times, but some folks do.
I don't think the TD50 on paper is a bad idea- I'll hopefully be able to get a look at it when I have a lesson next week with Craig Blundell.
My main issue with the TD30 is the machine-gunning.
I can fix that by taking a midi cable out to my DAW- but I live with it with the TD30 because I like to be able to just sit down and practice with no messing about, waiting for Logic to load, monitoring back to the drum brain from the DAW etc.