Just what is it about the phrase get stuffed you don't understand?
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Ipad killers will come in many forms
AT IFA 2010 IN BERLIN J K Shin, the president of Samsung's mobile telecommunications business confidently told the audience at the Galaxy Tab launch event, “Between smartphones and PCs the tablet market is going to grow very quickly.“
That might be wishful thinking on his part but the outpouring of tablet designs this year and at IFA in particular means that either everyone’s market research is saying the same thing or the tablet phenomena will be the worst case of herd mentality since the NINJA mortgage lending that caused the worldwide financial meltdown.
Whichever it is, the logic of tablets could equally be a case of self serving corporate interests persuading a populace to buy into a technology they don’t need. It wouldn’t be the first time. The conspiracy theory is this, in a world where everyone has a smartphone and they would not want to use such a small screen to access the services mobile broadband internet will bring, the next best form factor can only be the tablet.
Then again HTC said earlier this year that it sees tablet users as mostly female. Finally IT may have found a product that is as friendly for the handbag, as they have been for the manbag, aka laptop case. In his confident statement Shin referred to 13 million sales in 2010, a figure he is likely to have got from an August Isuppli report that goes on to predict 30 million sales by 2012.
As such the likes of Shin are promoting tablets as if everything including their investment in 3D tellies depended on it. While surveys show that 3D is likely to be shunned by all but the most dedicated of early adopters, tablets are getting off to a better start after years of dead ends.
After the demise of Microsoft’s various attempts with its Windows for pen computing, its Tablet PC and then the Courier, which died before it even reached the market, the prospect of internet access and ergonomically friendly touch screens has led to a more positive reception this year. But Microsoft is still in the wilderness.
Beyond Apple’s Ipad and it’s built in market of fanbois other companies have been lining up to garner the moniker “Ipad killer”. This would seem to be a moniker too far if Isuppli’s report is to believed, that the Ipad will lead for years.
This is based on an analysis that concluded that the Iphone led the smartphone market because nothing had features to compare. But what IFA showed is that there are tablets already out there with more functions than the Ipad and 2011 might even see the first stereoscopic, that’s no glasses required, 3D displays.
So what do Apple’s competitors have to beat? Apple’s Ipad for UK consumers will cost £699 for a 13.4mm thick 730g slab that has 64GB of storage, WiFi, 3G, a 1GHz A4 chip powering GPS, Bluetooth and a 1024x768 resolution 9.7-inch touch screen. And the pad has a nine hour battery life when surfing the web via WiFi. A criticism of the Ipad has been its lack of Flash and few ports with no USB. It only has a dock connector port, a 3.5mm stereo headphone jack and a micro SIM card tray. But this SIM card tray only comes with the WiFi and 3G model.
Most prominent of the Ipad challengers is the Samsung Galaxy Tab, to some degree because of the huge marketing spend the company can support its new product with. But there are also tech spec reasons why Isuppli is very probably wrong and Apple could see it lose the tablet battle.
The Tab uses the hugely popular Android 2.2 OS, its processor has a clock speed of 1GHz, a model with a 32GB of storage, an SD card slot for a further 32GB, GPS, it can be used as a phone, including video conferencing, with a Bluetooth headset, and can use its front and back 3MP cameras with a LED flash for photos, video and augmented reality for navigation enhancement. Its screen is TFT and while it can’t show 720p like Ipad it can output all HD content through its 30pin connector with a special cable. The Tab can play all the music files Ipad can and also has a 3.5mm earjack socket. The Tab has a 4,000mAh battery providing 7 hours of movie playing, however it is only a 7-inch WSVGA 1024x600 multi-touch TFT screen display but its only 380g in weight. And it has Flash 10.1.
While one report put its price at £670 others put it at half that. Either way, despite 30 per cent less screen and sub-720p resolution there is still more functionality and more ports for what will likely be a competitive price when the network operator contracts are finally announced. During its press conference Samsung was also pushing the Tab for business users. Samsung says it will only sell the Tab through network operators and Vodafone is already advertising it, suggesting third party confidence in Samsung’s marketing, or perhaps Ipad’s initial success.
Screen size and portability then could be the deciding factors for the winner of that Ipad killer mantle. Toshiba’s Folio 100 has aimed directly at challenging the 9.7-inches Ipad has to offer. The Folio has a 10.1-inch 1024 x 600 resolution touch screen, like the Tab it has Android 2.2 and supports Flash 10.1, has an Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU, 16GB of storage, WIFI, Bluetooth, accelerometers, has 1.3MP cameras, is videoconferencing capable and has ports such as mini HDMI for outputting 1080p, USB and an SD card reader able to take up to 32GB. While it can boot up in 30 seconds it doesn’t have 3G, which comes with a future model. It does weigh in at a hefty 780g but you get all of the above for a mere €399, which will probably mean £399 in the UK when it goes on sale in the fourth quarter.
At IFA Archos also produced a 10.1-inch touch screen tablet, its Archos 101 model, which is 12mm thick and weighs only 480g but it has also launched a series of other smaller “Internet tablets”. They are the 70, which is 7-inches, the 43, which is 4.3-inches, the 30 for 3-inches and the 28 for 2.8-inches. But which size will be the winner? This range of sizes is not unique, Viewsonic has launched a 7-inch Viewpad 7 and 10-inch Viewpad 100 tablet and Samsung is to unveil a family of tablets next year. Shin told the Tab press conference that a larger tablet that used Android 3.5, also known as Honeycombe, would be launched next year.
Then there is the emergence of what might be called the near-tablet products. Pandigital’s 7-inch Novel has all the hallmarks of a tablet, a Samsung ARM 11 mobile processor, 1GB of memory, Android 2.1 for its OS, a 800x600 colour TFT LCD touch screen, virtual keyboard, web browsing, it plays MP3, WAV and AAC files and MPEG4 video, has a 1,600mAhr battery, accelerometers for portrait or landscape orientation and an SD card slot for up to 32GB. And it will likely sell for under £200 as its $150 in the US. But for all that it is a hefty 540g.
However even these could pale in comparison with the tablet that will use Sharp’s stereoscopic 3D technology. Its IFA stand had a 10-inch stereoscopic 3D screen and Sharp told The INQUIRER a tablet product could appear next year. Apple may come to regret the market success that its Ipad had, because it has given companies the confidence to invest in products that beat Steve Jobs 720p drinks tray hands down in features and price. IFA could make 2010 be remembered as the year Apple’s gadget leadership began to falter. µ
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Argueing about which tablet is best in terms of stats is totally missing the point of the device. It is a non-stat computer, that is its reason for existing.
Recently bought a tablet and after looking at the choices there was really only one and that was the ipad.
Love that 10" screen especially for reading etc, the galaxy tab is overpriced when the screen estate comes in at 3" less and as for Motorola's Xoom...their prices are ridiculous..
Ignore the apple/android fanbois..those fools are blinkered and won't admit any mistakes.
Yes Apple's iOS can be a bitch to get used to..having to use itunes etc to copy content to it but once you jailbreak you really open it up.
For Google for Android to get more optimized they need to start locking hardware specs on so the experience matches Apple's and they need to push manufacturers on the updates which they are brutally slow on.
HA HA HA YOU FOOLISH WRITER. ID BE SHOCKIF A YEAR FROM NOW WE HAD EVEN ONE CREDIBLE COMPETITOR TO IPAD
While you muppets argue about how great or shite Apple is, I'd just like to point out that the inq has the definition of manbag waaaaaaaaaay wrong.
The iPad was not the first tablet, like the iPod was not the first mp3 player. The iPod won big. So clearly, Apple knows a couple of things about something called "user experience", their products stands out from the rest. The competition makes a big risk entering the tablet arena, Android barely has one application that is tablet specific, while Apples app store has thousands. The iPad is also well integrated with the Apple entertainment ecosystem, while the Android users have to pick something here and there. The ease of purchasing all kinds of content is something the Android world need to establish, otherwise many hopeful hardware vendors will bleed. If you want to make $ the mass consumers matter, not the little group of gadget freaks and hackers. Apple understand $.
The iPad can not do 720p. Not on screen, nor output. The highest resolution it can display on screen or via VGA output is 1024x768.
If only those other tablets you mentioned had true multi-touch, then Apple should be worried. Apple always wins on interface and it's still ahead of any other manufacturer in that department.
"..Isuppli is very probably wrong and Apple could see it lose the tablet battle."
I think I see what you meant to write there, but perhaps you should proof read a little more?
P.S. IMHO tablets are just toys at the moment - they aren't practical or cost effective and I'd far rather have a netbook. However, if tablets come down into the same price range as netbooks then they might be worth looking at.
I have trouble comprehending what the author is trying to say: "Apple may come to regret the market success that its Ipad had, because it has given companies the confidence to invest in products that beat Steve Jobs 720p drinks tray hands down in features and price."
So, noone should ever introduce a new product, because someone will eventually come up with something better. What? Really?
Sharps 3D offering? We'll see. I sincerely doubt it.
Oh, and the iPad killer? iPad 2, of course, wonder why that option isn't on the list?
Competition is great. But as with the iPhone, Apple has come up with a great new concept, which will take competitors some time to catch up with. Hardware is one thing, the whole ecosystem another. I don't foresee any tablet selling more than the iPad for at least another couple of years.
I think the author is confused as to what 720p is... thats 1280x720, 1024x768 while having the vertical resolution to match 720p doesnt have the horizontal... the ipad may well be able to output 720p externally, so can most of the others mentioned though..
I've seen an asian droid ipad wannabe and like someone said the screen is lower quality. Even though the resolution is pretty high, the readability factor isn't all that good. The ipad has a fairly good quality screen to read small text. This is an area these cheaper screens are deal breakers for me. I don't need the eye strain. Give me a quality product at a reasonable price rather than a sub-par product for cheap. It actually surprises me how many companies don't understand this.
BTW, that last line about Apple regretting their success with the ipad, was just moronic. That's like saying Microsoft should regret their success with Office or Windows. Only an idiot would say that Apple should be scared now that it's made lots of money and success with a product. Do you even understand business let alone the tech sector? Just read the news like a good little boy.
As far as I'm concerned, I hope someone makes a great droid pad. The consumer only wins in a tech war.
Okay, not fear, but misinformation.....
Actual rez is 1024 x 600. NOT the best but better than this author stated.
I think the biggest factor is that the price points will be enough that one can buy an Android off contract, load up Skype, VoipCheap or whatever and goto whatever WIFI spot, on any given beach anyplace in the world, sip coffee and actually work with tethered USB / Bluetooth keyboard.
On Ebay there are HUNDREDS of examples. Let the DUST settle. Enough reviewers will look at the samller / off-brands and then show the way. Pricing thus far is sub 10- 299. OFF contract. Price difference with the Fruity Flavored Brand will buy a round-trip ticket to many far-away-places.. :)
Is anybody surprised there's lots of competition?
I'm sure there will be games ported to Android, we've seen nfs shift running on it already, and I'm sure unreal could be run on it as well. There is a wide variety in graphics hardware, but this is true of apple products as well, and is certainly nothing new to game developers like epic and id.
The better question is why would you want to play shift on your phone or tablet when you could play it on your pc/xbox..... I have an htc desire, it's a nice phone, I played a car racing game on it that was alright, but I have shift on my 52" tv...
I saw the epic citadel demo on the ipad, it's awesome that you can do it, it even looks pretty good, but we're going to need a new kind of game with a new interface. I don't think unreal tourament 3 can just be ported, it's going to need a complete interface redesign. Though with things like the wii, and kinect, there is a trend to new simpler interfaces.
In a nutshell, you're saying that Apple will 'regret' bringing out a really popular product that lots of competitors have rushed to match and exceed. This bizarre scenario means that the preferable alternatives for Apple would be either for the iPad to have sold less, or to not have been created in the first place. The whole argument just doesn't begin to make sense.
A key premise of the "iPad will be bettered by loads of other competitors" viewpoint assumes, oddly, that Apple won't be developing next-gen iPads. Judging by the iPhone product lifecycles it's a fairly safe bet that the v2 iPad will be available to buy in around 7 months from now at the very latest - which may or may not be in time to go head to head against Sharp's hypothetical 3D wonder tablet, who knows?
I don't own an iPad, or have any intention of buying one or any of its competitors until it can realistically replace my laptop. This article just irked me because of the sheer absurdity of its main argument.
All the tablets seem to have very crappy low res screens. I view tablets as a compromise between ereader and notebook and as such want them to be good for reading before I will even consider buying one. How can one read a PDF of something like a research paper on these things without getting tired of all the scrolling around? The pixel density on my mobile is so much higher than this thing they are trying to sell for ~ $600.
Hi,
As the Inquirer themselves pointed out the iPad has a higher quality screen that most of the Android stuff. At the 699 level you're paying top whack for the best.
As you have also reported Flash is virtually worthless on Android due to poor implementation.
But... all is irrelevant as box ticking specs is not what iPad type devices are about. Content and ease of use is where its at. Android implementations patchy at best and very hard to quantify in a quick review - e.g. the HTC desire actually slows its processor down if you ask it to do too much after 1 minute. This isn't in the spec and hard for reviewers to spot. The Motorola Droid does not. The Sony X10 Mini (1st edition) doesn't support horizontal rotates correctly. The Samsung Galaxy seems to freeze occasionally. 3d performance difference from software only in HTC Wildcat to the Samsung Galaxy S is about 50 fold.
The iPad unlike the iPhone is pretty useless out of the box - you buy it so that you can add content, and this is where the war must be fought.
The iPad is getting Unreal, and the ID Rage engine ported to it. If you haven't seen them the Epic Citadel looks head and shoulders better than any game out, and really stresses the pad.
Given that 50 fold performance difference, who's seriously going to port their best to a handful of top end devices at this time? The iPad has raised the lowest bar to the *top* of the available Android hardware, and made it consistent.
Finally iTunes is a safe place for copyright holders to actually sell their wares. People who own IP aren't going to forget the way the Google empire has run rickshaw over their rights, via search, aggregation or flat out copying and republishing. They are making responsible noises with the Android Licensing stuff, but their market is flaky and not even supported in most regions.
Any Android device has all these things to fix before they even get to compare basic specs with the iPad.
Ever have a computer with a second monitor? That's conceptually how the iPad is set up. It can output 1024x768 or 1280x720 externally.
As to anybody "killing" the iPad, that will happen shortly after somebody "kills" the iPod, which people have been trying ever since they were introduced in 2001. And Apple wasn't first to market in that area either.
How... exactly does the iPad do 720p when it doesn't have a screen capable of 1280x720 exactly?
The Galaxy Tab is capable of 720p, in the same bastardised way.
Oh, and to keep the same aspect ratio it will be running at 1024x576, which is pretty much widescreen PAL anyway.
So, really.. the iPad has a bigger screen, on the '720p' argument.