I’m going to try writing longer form stuff for the weekends, sort of to stretch the old mental legs a bit and share a bit of the stuff that is floating through my transom, man, about tech and especially mobile and portable electronics.Come back with me to 2001. A young man got up on stage one afternoon in November to announce something new and amazing: an operating system dedicated to tablet computing. That young man was Microsoft’s Bill Gates and that operating system was Windows XP Tablet PC edition.
Chances are that is the first and last time you saw a working tablet computer. Laptops, then, were monsters. They were heavy – 10 pounds or more – had small, bad batteries, and WiFi was just a dream for most people. It seemed, in those dark years, that laptop manufacturers could shave off pounds and complexity by removing the keyboard and offer a pen-based OS. After all, this was a post-PalmOS era when handwriting recognition was an input option we all knew and understood.
The thinking was this: if you can streamline applications – data entry applications being the target here – you could sell smaller, more expensive computers to medical and business clients. It didn’t work and Windows Tablet PC has been little more than a clever solution to a nonexistent problem.
So what’s with all the tablet talk lately?
We have entered an era of the thin and light computer and, rather than worrying about power we’ve become obsessed with the concept of thinness. This is why Apple, in their wisdom, created the MacBook Air and the iPod Touch. This is the same reason we are all salivating over the thought of tablets thinner than an issue of BusinessWeek and this is why laptop manufacturers – and Michael Arrington – are rushing to make them.
The Apple Tablet (or iPad or Tapplet) is real. It will have a capacitive touch screen and manufacturing difficulties are slowing down the tablet’s release to a crawl, thereby preventing us all from having one. It will be thin and, like the abhorrent HP DreamScreen, will focus on media. The extant tablet verticals – mostly in the medical industry – will still exist.
Note this new focus. Rather than trying to create a business machine, manufacturers understand people want bigger screens on which to consume web and media content.
So what can we expect in the next year? Well, first we have the CrunchPad. When all the bugs are worked out, it will be an amazing device – I’ve seen it. And I’m not just saying that because I’ve been intimately involved in the design process, because I wasn’t – that gives me a bit of perspective. Expect the CrunchPad to be a excellent device for blogging – that’s what Mike made it for – and for web apps. Don’t Expect much in the way of media. [I was wrong.]
Then there’s the iPad. This will eclipse the industry and for the rest of the year that’s all you’ll hear about. Trust me. Apple could require you to give this device three drops of blood every morning in order to satisfy the demonic hell-beast soul trapped inside it and we would, gladly. The release will be on par with the iPhone release and they’ll sell a million of them.
Then you have Microsoft’s Courier. It’s impressive, but it’s Microsoft; don’t expect that thing to take shape for two years and don’t expect it to take off until the second generation. Like the Zune, Microsoft will make a product but they won’t make it good until they have a little time to mull it over. I don’t think the Courier will be a player in 2010.
As for the rest of the devices, expect slow uptake by price conscious consumers and folks who don’t think it’s “cool” to own “name brand” technology and are real “hackers” (read: teenagers and European students). Archos,
for example, is doing a lot of good work in the tablet space but they’re an also-ran. They are going the Tablet OS route, which is no good. Creative has some devices planned and it’s also clear that ChromeOS could power a nice device – provided HTC makes it.
As for connectivity most of these will have a 3G option – although I doubt the iPad will have 3G built-in. WiFi is an obvious second-best.
As for size, tablets, at least with capacitive screens, are weighed down by a huge hunk of metal that shields the electronics from the screen. This hunk of metal – and the glass – prevents us from getting a bigger iPod Touch and is what is keeping the iPad from coming out sooner. Once the world’s (i.e. China’s) scientists solve this problem we’ll get what we want. Until then it’s resistive all the way.
So prepare yourselves for the coming tablet wars and sock away a little cash because things are going to get interesting in 2010.
Category Archives: Tablet
The coming tablet wars
Leaked Tablet from Microsoft looks bookish
Is the Microsoft Courier a Tablet PC or a new category altogether?
The rush for Tablet PCs in the Cupertino rumor mill has so far produced zip, zero, nada. Donut hole. But now there comes word from Redmond that Microsoft may be working on a book like Tablet PC code named “Courier.”
Containing two seven inch multi touch screens in opposition, Courier has the promise to not only be an awesome computing device, but a fantastic tool for everyone from artists to movie makers to doctors. Users can draw and write using the included stylus, or navigate using the multi touch screen interface on both sides. Other features include a built in camera, home button on the inner spine, wireless internet access, GPS locator, simple note taking and handwriting recognition, and will no doublt include some interesting multimedia style applications.
No word on when Courier will be available or if it will run Vista or some proprietary OS, but the video over at The Giz shows something most decidedly un Vista like.
Worth keeping an eye on, but one has to wonder that since Apple has so far resisted Tablet fever, does Steve Jobs know something about this category of PCs we don’t?
On thing is certain, it’d make an awesome eBook reader.
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Archos 5 Android tablet pictured and priced
It’s… almost exactly what I would expect from an Archos-branded Android tablet. We saw it before via the FCC, but this is a much clearer picture. The device will be coming in four (if not more) flavors: two flash-based at 16GB and 32GB, and two HDD-based at 160GB and 500GB. It looks like a decent little device, but I don’t think I’ll ever understand the draw of this sort of device. If a nice Android-based phone does 85% of what this tablet does, what’s the point of this? A slightly bigger screen? More storage?
There’s a lot of speculation going on over at Archos Fans, from which the images originate. The pricing was also noted as follows:
- 16GB: $294
- 32GB: $370
- 160GB: $320
- 500GB: $420
My my, pricey! But Archos has never been into budget electronics that I know of. For that price you’ll probably be able to Get a CrunchPad.
[via the internet]
Nokia Announces N900 Tablet Running Maemo 5
Nokia Announces N900 Tablet Running Maemo 5
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posted Today, 7:18 AM by Eric M. Zeman
updated Today, 7:40 AM
Today Nokia announced its latest internet tablet, the N900. Similar to its predecessors, the N900 is a handheld computing device that has a 3.5-inch high-resolution 800×480 WVGA touch screen and a slide-out QWERTY keyboard to ease messaging tasks. Unlike its predecessors, the N900 has quad-band GSM/EDGE and 900/1700/2100MHz WCDMA/HSPA cellular radios on board. It also has Wi-Fi, GPS/aGPS, an FM transmitter and Bluetooth 2.1 with A2DP. The N900 has 5 megapixel camera with Carl Zeiss optics with dual LED flash and video capture. Other specs include 1GB of application memory and 32GB of built-in storage with support for 48GB. The N900 runs the latest version of Nokia’s mobile Linux platform, Maemo 5. With the large amount of available memory, the N900 can run multiple applications at once, and it has a dashboard that allows for easy switching between applications. The home screen is completely user customizable with widgets and applications. The N900 comes with a Mozilla-based browser and full Adobe Flash 9.4 support for a richer browsing experience. It will be able to update its system softeware directly over the internet. The N900 will be available in select markets starting in October for about $710.
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