What is the point of a tablet?

I already have a macbook air and an iPhone. I personally don't see the point in getting a tablet (I guess it would be an iPad considering I'm already on the apple bandwagon) and to me it just seems like a bigger phone and a smaller laptop that does basically the same thing.

If i were to for some reason get a tablet down the road, what are the benefits?

*I'm going to be a college student soon if that means anything.

Ipad air is basically a tablet. You can just use that. There's no difference, the only thing is touch function instead of pointer function.

It is portable enough to carry with ease yet big enough to big enough to clearly see

You use an iPad in places and for functions where a laptop would be overkill and an iPhone would be underpowered. Besides, there's talk of Apple launching a bigger successor to the iPad Air which would be, in the truest sense, a laptop replacement.

See: http://tabletsecurity.ellsed.com/1/post/2014/01/ipad-pro-speculated-to-be-a-large-screen-12-inch-tablet-device-for-2014-release.html

Some people would prefer an in-between, hence the tablet category. Not all people need a laptop to browse the internet on occasion, so a tablet is a perfect device, to just pick up, use, put back down.

Its of course not for everyone, so if you don't see the need for it, then don't get one.