A Tablet A Day?

It may be starting to rain tablets as manufactures line up to take on Apple and its iPad. The game may be more about getting to market quickly than getting all the bells and whistles into the devices. The Android platform has clearly shown that Apple is not without strong competitors and its adoption onto the tablet market may be interesting to watch. So who is bring what to the tablet wars?

Google / Verizon
The week that Google pulled out of direct retailing its Nesus One and admitted that others can do it better is one aspect to consider. The other is that Google let HTC design its Nexus One and anyone with a HTC Android will tell you it’s a HTC phone.
However Google has some great things to build into the tablet; email, search, maps, office and an apps store and well as a cloud approach and that is without YouTube, Google Editions etc.

Acer
Acer is rumoured to be almost ready to launch and they have the channel distribution and technology competency to make a good splash. There are questions as to whether they will use Google’s Android or Chrome platforms but you can see a trend developing in the Google versus Apple wars.

RIM Blackberry
We like the name BlackPad or BlackSlate and it certainly would be interesting to see RIM move up to compete outside their comfort zone. They did make the transition from email to smartphone and from keypad to touch but this will seriously take them into the PC world and it will be very interesting to watch whether their corporate base continues to remain loyal or as some have already started ditches them for generic safety. It is rumoured that the tablet will not be 3G network connected and will be a 8.9” screen and will not be on the market till the end of the year.

Dell
Dell appear to have interestingly chosen to take on the iPad in Europe first with their 5 inch Mini 5 tablet running on Android. The real question is whether a 5” screen is big enough to differentiate it from a phone and to compete with the larger screens. Dell again has marketing clout and and a very strong distribution and sales operation.It will be interesting if they also can apply some of their good design concepts to the Mini 5.

HP
HP announce their intentions early and also announced their changes early too! It is unclear what operating system they intend to use but they surely can’t afford to be late to the party and will certainly throw money at their sales and marketing operation.

MSI
Micro-Star International is launching a tablet powered by the powerful Nvidia Tegra chip. It appears they are caught between operating systems and have both an 8.9” and 10” models and the user can then chose between Android and Windows 7. We would suggest that if they can’t make up their minds its not always wise to leave it to the consumer. It also demonstrates that Microsoft is loosing the plot.

BT
Apparently it is reported in The Telegraph that BT has announced it will be releasing a touchscreen tablet PC that can apparently make and receive phone calls via built in speaker/ microphone or bluetooth. What operating system it will be based on is unclear but the logical move to integrate telephony makes sense and will wake others up to what their offers should be. It doesn’t make any sense to have to pay twice for the internet service as in the Apple model and either loose tethering could have strong financial appeal. However BT is not strong in this market and although it does have distribution and channels its brand is somewhat unaligned.

The tablet, which will be launched later this year, will be offered as part of a BT package and targeted at the family and home users market. This narrow perspective could make it an also ran before it even gets to market.

Trends

Industry analysts Gartner and IDC are now making a distinction between tablet PCs and tablet Pad devices The tablet PC use an x86-based processor and a full operating system, such as Windows, whilst the tablet Pad devices use ARM-based cell-phone and smart-phone chips and mobile operating systems such as Android, Web OS or the iPhone’s OS. This is a significant step change in the market and starts to confirm that Microsoft is on the decline and seriously threatened as computing starts to converge on the mobile.

IDC project that 6 million tablet devices will ship this year and that 4 million will be iPads. Interestingly they also see HP as the main threat to Apple. Our money would be on sitting tight and waiting till its time to do the Christmas shopping when things may be a bit clearer!

Choosing Tablets

The Fusion Garage JOOJOO tablet is now shipping to U.S. customers who pre-ordered them.

But we have to ask why anyone would want a JooJoo when they can have an iPad?

The device has the largest capacitive touch screen of any tablet on the market and measures 12.1” in length - but does size matter?

It supports Flash 10.1 and is Java compliant - but the iconic Steve Jobs says the Flash world is dead and HTML5 is the future and who would argue with the man?
It comes equipped with a built-in, rechargeable lithium-polymer battery - so what?

The issue is simple and comes down to Appleworld and a relatively safe bet , versus the Internet and uncertainty? The truth lies somewhere in between and is down to whether we believe apps, or the web as we know it today, is the future. This is an interesting debate in its own right and will have many high profile supporters on both sides of the fence.

We personally believe that the sound-bite application world of the apps is good but does not provide the full answer today. Its like having a specific app to do one thing and needing another , then another to complete to process. Its not a joined up world. Today we have the emergence of the cloud world and also need joined up thinking and solutions. The debate on Flash and HTML5 is somewhat premature and is like saying that the world tomorrow will travel in faster planes whilst living in the reality of today. HTML5 may be the answer but today we have to recognise that unlike consultants and industry gurus we wake up in yesterday’s sheets. MP3 and DRM free dominate today’s music, not because of the Ipod, but despite of it. We have to accept the Apple has changed much ,but like its high profile Air laptop, sometimes Apple gets it wrong in getting it right.

We note today that AppAdvice.com report that Apple has already listed over 30,000 free ebooks on the iBook store. These aren’t the latest best sellers but public domain fillers from the Project Gutenberg library. Do they really count, or are they merely there to make up the claim that ‘my repository is bigger than yours’. Perhaps the move is designed to stop the iPad's ebook library from being overrun with multiple versions of public domain books wrapped up in a app package by 3rd parties after a quick and easy buck.

Are All Tablets Good For You?

It is somewhat sobering to read that Palm, the company behind the Pre and Pixi smartphones and heralded as a serious iPhone competitor only a year ago has warned that its sales for the year are likely to fall short of the projected target owing to the fact that its smartphones have failed to compete.

The return of the Tablet offers much but like 3D it has yet to deliver. It certainly will herald the rethinking, if not end, of those terrible ebook readers and their single application black and white world. Will the tablets been another transition of have they the legs to last a little longer? Mobile, screen and battery technology are certainly major factors and its also interesting to watch what will be the media or application driver.

This year promises many tablets. Some will be hard to swallow, others will not deliver the fix required but just like the eInk ‘lookie likies’ before them their will be many chancing their arm. Google, Mircosoft, HP, Sony, Samsung, LG, Dell and of course Apple will make their plays along with many smaller players such as Haleron, Freescale and the JooJoo. What will be the differentiator, the price, the applications, the media, the package, the look?

Are Apples Go For You?

We all watched and waited with open breath as Steve Jobs unveiled the latest iP – the iPad. So we started with the iPod, iTouch, iPhone now we have an iPad. We were asked by a good friend if we were getting one and found ourselves say yes with our mouth, but no with our head. Days later we probably say no on both counts. The truth is that we don’t like ‘Appleworld’ where we have to buy the tin from the shop and then go back to the shop to buy the goods and are not allowed to use anything that the shopkeeper doesn’t like or want to sell. It’s like being locked into one supermarket for all your food.

So we have 100,000 apps, 3 billion downloads, devices selling like hot cakes and a new release program which is obviously built to demand upgrades and replacement by holding back on the obvious. Our personal gripe is the attitude to competitors and widely adopted software such as Flash and the clear lack of devices that would help interoperability. Apple history is littered with its ‘control freak’ approach to the market and they are unlikely to change their spots.

Having inventing the iTouch, which looked just like a iPhone but was too small, they have now introduced the iPad (ironically conforming to the iP brand family). Unfortunately, when we look hard is just a bigger iTouch.

The iPad clearly heralds the end of the iEnk era of ‘lookie likie’ ebook readers which were becoming both boring and tiresome. Who wants to watch black and white TV in today’s colour world? Who wants a single program device when you can have a multi media and internet device. Apple has clearly moved the tablet goalposts but is it enough? Will students adopt a closed market? Will apps be enough to make the difference? Will all the other Computer manufacturers just give up and go away and leave the market to Apple? Will the netbook have a more open appeal? Will Android offer a more open option?

Remember Sony had the walkman but today…?

iSlate, iTablet iWant

Will they ,won’t they, is the question on everyone’s lips with respect to Apple and its tablet? After much talk it appears that it is now less of if and more a case of when. The latest predictions claim that Apple will bring the tablet to the market spotlight on 26th January in San Fransisco. The event would be at the same time as many would be at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, which Apple does not attend.

Apple always refuses to comment on speculation so we must wait and see.

The rumours continue; will it be named iSlate, a name Apple have grabbed some time ago? Will it have a 10in, or a 7in screen?

Will users would be able to download applications produced by third-party developers onto the device just as they can for the iPhone.

The tablet PC offers everyone something and would appear to be perfect convergence platform and kill the emerging netbook, offer more than any eInk reader, offer a true screen for games and video and importantly offer style and economy. Will the iSlate be an iPhone plus, or replace the iTouch, or start to redefine the Mac Air, or even become the new mobile TV platform? The OLPC OX3 we wrote about last week clearly shows the desire for such a platform and they are not alone as many major names start to line up to offer tablets.

Apple has the music content in iTunes, they also have been in discussions with book publishers for content and are rumoured to be trying to do a deal with American TV companies Disney and CBS. Apple understand content and unlike players such as Sony know how to deliver a well rounded offer. The challenge is matching the cost, the service, the design and the expectation.

We Are Waiting For Real News

First we had Barnes and Noble bragging about the size of their digital repository, 700,000 titles. Now we have Sony bragging that they are to offer 1 million titles. When you look closer, you soon discover that the vast majority are public domain works that are from the likes of Google's Book store. Public domain is what it says on the can, ‘in the public domain’, free to use and are 90 years or older, so although good many are in archaic language.

So is it news or mere public posturing like children in a playground arguing who is best or biggest?

Google and Sony have decided to be best buddies on more than just public domain titles and partnered on a promotional game, where users must use search Google Books to answer five book-related questions per day and write a brief note about books. The winner will receive a Sony Reader.

More interesting is the strong rumours circulating that Sony has a new ebook reader. We were asked to speculate on this but in today’s climate of a new eink ‘lookie likie’ every few weeks and the wider adoption of Adobe’s ACS4 DRM service by other device manufacturers, we wondered what they could do to excite the market. 1 million public domain books is hardly exciting. Maybe they could go wireless but again what’s so special when others have done it anyway? Now colour eink would be interesting but we know that isn’t going to happen soon. A media tablet to out manoeuvre Apple would be a smart move, but we doubt that this is for release today.

So its back to the playground and the wait for the Kindle in the UK and more importantly the Apple Touch tablet.