So far, there is far more excitement in the tablet segment than choice of devices, but rumors about new products for early 2011 mount up. Palm is expected to follow Dell into the five-inch tablet/phone hybrid space, and even Apple, while refusing to consider a smaller screen format than its current iPad, may still update the product with a slimmer case and dual-mode GSM/CDMA support.
According to the GoRumors blog, HP/Palm is working on a five-inch device ‘ like the Dell Streak, somewhere between an outsized handset and a mobile tablet. This could be shown off at the Consumer Electronics Show in January and launched officially in February, trying to create a differentiated design to showcase Palm’s cloud-oriented software platform, webOS 2.0.
The device is codenamed Mansion (following Palm Pre’s codename of Castle), and will be touchscreen-only, with an 800 x 480 display but no physical keyboard ‘ unusual for a product that is likely to tap into the enterprise heritage of its parents. And there are serious doubts over the five-inch size ‘ the Dell Streak has not seen strong sales and the firm’s mobile chief, Ron Garriques, resigned last week.
Over at Apple, which has been scathing about smaller tablets, notably the popular seven-inch form factor, the Taiwanese manufacturing ecosystem whispers that the iPad 2 is already on the horizon. Local newspaper DigiTimes says Apple has chosen its suppliers, including circuit board makers Ibiden, Tripod Technology and TTM Technologies, and is gearing up for an April release.
This is not expected to mark a major iPad departure, but a tweaking of the existing product. It may well include CDMA and GSM support, to create a ‘worldpad’, which would give Qualcomm a slot in the CDMA modem, or possibly open iPad to the chip designer’s Gobi platform, which provides multimode CDMA/GSM support and is used in many notebooks.
Another observer with a crystal ball is Brian Blair of Wedge Partners, who told DigitalDaily Apple was planning to build 48 million iPads in 2011, and might use a slimline casing ‘essentially made from one piece of metal with no pins needed’ which would require a new manufacturing process from current or new suppliers.
One of the constraints on the tablet boom could be shortage of components, especially advanced touchscreens ‘ a factor that has hit many smartphones recently. Even Samsung Display, currently dominant in AMOLED screens (and the only manufacturer of Super AMOLED) cannot produce enough displays for the needs of its sister firm Samsung Mobile. The first Galaxy Tab tablet does not sport the super-bright technology, but it will soon, if the display maker’s showing at a recent conference is anything to go by.
Samsung Mobile Display (SMD) was showing off a wide variety of AMOLEDs at the FPD International event in Makuhari, Japan this month, as it prepares to go live with its new manufacturing facility for this technology, in mid-2011. Its demonstrations included a high quality seven-inch AMOLED for the next generation Tab, as well as prototypes of future AMOLED options such as transparent, flexible and printed displays.