Lots of tablets are being promised but there’s many a slip twixt cup and lip. More tablets coming to market will cause more consumer confusion, which helps strengthen Apple’s iPad message.
Current tablets fall into one of three categories based on their OS:
1. Processor and mobile-friendly Android. They can use ARM-designed processors that use less power and are less expensive than Intel’s Atom processors.
2. Processor-intensive, touchscreen-unfriendly but full-function Windows 7 that require the pricier and power-hungry Atom processors.
3. Proprietary OSs such as Apple’s iOS4, HP’s Palm webOS, the Intel-Nokia-owned MeeGo and RIM’s Blackberry OS. All can use ARM-designed processors, although MeeGo is also expected to run on Atom processors as well.
Initial indications are that Windows 7 and the current version of Android do not have the necessary oomph to compete with iPad. However, technology companies have a way of surprising so we shall see what we shall see.
Here are the main contenders:
* Acer is expected to have a tablet in this year’s fourth quarter.
* Asus has two models in the works: an Android-based tablet with a 7-inch screen and a Windows 7 Premium model that uses Intel’s Dual Core processor.
* Best Buy’s CTO Robert Stevens has been using Twitter to provide links to a mockup of a tablet. ‘Not guts inside, but coming soon,’ Stevens said.
* Dell’s small 5-inch screen Streak is a tablet and a mobile phone. It launched in the UK in June and is now in the US. It has an ARM-designed and Qualcomm-made processor, runs Android 1.6 (the most recent version is 2.2) and has two cameras: 5-megapixel on the back and a front-facing VGA. Sold in the UK through O2, it’s free with a £25 ($39) and up 24-month contract and £399 ($620) with no contract. Dell launched the Streak in the US this week for $299.99 with a two-year AT&T contract and $549.99 without.
* HP has promised a tablet based on Android and one with the webOS that came with its acquisition of Palm. The Android one may never make it to market if HP can do with the webOS what it needs to do to compete with iPad. Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer said last week that HP will have a Windows 7-based tablet, probably intended for the corporate market.
* US retailer Kmart started selling Augen’s Gentouch78, a 7-inch tablet for $150 on July 31. It has an 800MHz processor, Android, 256MBs of RAM ,and 2GBs of expandable memory.
* LG has promised one based on Android.
* Lenovo’s LePad uses Android.
* Microsoft said there’ll be 20 tablets based on Windows 7.
* Motorola has said it’ll have a tablet but it’s expected to work only with its pay-TV set-top boxes. It’s working with Verizon on a mobile TV-like tablet for watching FiOS pay TV.
* Nokia has said it’ll have one this year that’s based on its MeeGo OS.
* RIM has promised a Blackberry-flavored tablet. The description makes it sound like an 8.9-inch screen that has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth but could connect to a Blackberry for 3G. Reportedly made by Taiwan’s Quanta, they’re expected in November for about $500. RIM may also be developing a 7-inch touchscreen tablet for 2011 that has an ARM-designed chip that Marvell makes and front and rear facing cameras.
* Samsung confirmed it’ll ship an Android/ARM-based tablet with a 7-inch display by the end of September. It previously said it would have a Windows 7 tablet that uses Intel’s Atom chips.
* Sony will have a Windows 7-based tablet, according to Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer.
* Toshiba has said it’ll have Android and Windows tablets in September-October of this year. It waved one at the press in Australia the third week of July but did not demonstrate it.
* In May Verizon Wireless CEO Lowell McAdam said Google and Verizon were working together on a tablet. It could be the two Verizons (Vodafone owns 45% of Verizon Wireless) are working on separate tablets, one best suited for cellcos and the other for pay TV.
* Telcos such as BT and DoCoMo are expected to launch tablets also.
Wannabes
There are a myriad of Android-based wannabes, mostly in the $50 to $150 price range. Most have 7-inch screens, are made in China or Taiwan and use older ARM-designed processors from Via Technologies. They also come with prior versions of Android.
They are:
* Ego-2010 has a pair of no-name tablets.
* Fusion Garage’s JooJoo is mainly intended to be an eBook reader.
* Goodstore-2010’s Apad and ePad.
* Hanvon, based in China, showed a Windows 7 during Microsoft’s Applications Developer conference in July.
* MSI’s Wind Pad.
* Neofonie’s WePad.
* Notion Ink’s Adam.
The list of who won’t have a tablet may be shorter than the list of who will. Retailer Best Buy seems certain to be joining the tablet parade. Last week Robert Stevens, CTO and founder of the company’s Geek Squad, posted a link to a photo of a tablet on his Twitter feed. He said the picture ‘is just a form factor proto[type]’ and ‘no guts inside, but coming soon.’
Best Buy sells consumer electronics gear under its Insignia private label. It uses Rocketfish as its brand for networking products.
Now that Kmart and Best Buy have a tablet, who’s next? Wal-Mart? Radio Shack?
Taiwan’s Quanta Computer will make RIM’s upcoming BlackBerry tablet, according the Chinese-language Apply Daily. It’ll launch in the US in November 2010 and retail for $499. Possibly called BlackPad, it’ll have 3G, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. The report said Quanta will start shipping in September. It’ll make two million units in 2010 and eight million units in 2011.
Wal-Mart wannabe Kmart beat other US retailers to the tablet market last week with the surprising launch of Augen’s Gentouch78 tablet for $150. It has a 7-inch screen ‘ la the Dell Streak and runs Android.
They sold well. Kmart’s blog said, ‘This product that was featured in the Kmart circular for $149.99 has currently sold out.’ It gave rain checks for disappointed buyers to buy the Augen tablet at the advertised price at a later date.
The Android 2.1 version it uses supports Flash, which the iPad doesn’t.
The 7-inch touch screen has an 800-pixel resolution. The unit’s 2 GB memory can be expanded to 16 GB.
Augen, based in Melbourne, Florida, mistakenly pre-installed Google’s Mobile Service Suite on the units it initially shipped to Kmart. Augen said it would not do that on future shipments until it gets Google’s permission.
Kmart is also selling Augen’s $89 e-book reader. It’s compatible with the Calibre e-book management service.
Gates Helping Microsoft with Tablets, Search
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates told CNET that he has been exchanging e-mail with Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer and the Windows development group about how to develop a Windows-based tablet that can take on Apple’s iPad. Gates said he spent more time with Microsoft on search, an area where the company badly lags Google.
Dell this week started taking orders in the US for its combination tablet/smartphone Streak. Its tiny 5-inch screen may be too small for a tablet and too large for a phone. And it’s pricey, too: $550 with no contract, about what an iPad at the low end goes for. It’s $299.99 with a two-year contract for AT&T’s less-than-perfect wireless network.
It runs the older 1.6 version of Android, not the newer 2.2 version, although Dell promised an upgrade later this year. It has two cameras, a 5-megapixel on the back and a front-facing VGA. That’s two more than the iPad. The question Dell has to answer is whether consumers will buy this instead of an iPad. We think they won’t.
The iPad may be sucking all the oxygen out of the netbook and tablet market, especially those that use Android. In a report on Intel this week, Barclays Capital’s semiconductor analyst Tim Luke said the iPad’s success has pushed PC and tablet makers to launch their ‘ARM, Atom and Android-based alternatives’ in the first quarter of 2011, later than planned.
They are also changing their target market to China, because ‘Apple’s dominant position in content’ is ‘less pronounced’ there. Luke said many manufacturers are aiming for a retail price of $299 for tablets and netbooks that run Android.
‘The iPad’s tablet momentum has pressured the broader netbook and lower-end notebook arena,’ Luke said. Uncertainties over Intel’s position in growth areas like tablets may restrain Intel’s earnings to share price multiple that investors attach to current earnings, Luke said.