At the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas all possible competitors to Apple will try to showcase their Tablet-like PCs. Some like Dell Inc, Motorola Inc, Acer Inc and some not-so-popular companies will be there with different features and operating systems.
The two biggest attention grabbers will be Microsoft’s and Intel’s efforts to come up with something that can beat the Android onslaught and chips from ARM Holdings PLC; and whether the iPad still remains Tablet- King after the show.
“It’s a very new and emerging market,” said Nicholas DiCarlo, manager for new products of Samsung in the US. “It’s way early to call any judgments.” Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has so far been the sole contender against iPad. Its cheaper than iPad in more than one ways.
Prototypes of tablets (Streak) have been gladly displayed by Dell officials in the past costing $199 to $549. It is likely that that Dell will come up with more of that at the CES. “I don’t think anyone believes they can beat Apple, but they want to be Number Two,” said Gleacher & Co. analyst Brian Marshall. It is expected that more than 50 computer makers are ready with their respective tablets. This shows that confidence that makers have in the tablet market.
Many companies are adopting Android as the OS for their system since its cheap, has huge number of features and can do more things than the Apple OS. Adam Hanin of ViewSonic Corp has gibed at this idea. “If I have a Dell tablet or Samsung tablet and decide I want to have a ViewPad now, I want to be able to move all my apps and content,” Mr. Hanin said. “I want the transition to be easy.” Its line of tablets is called ViewPad. These are 7 inches big and cost $599. Analysts at Caris & co. think that tough competition in this space will see fall in prices as was indicated in the holiday season of 2010.
Honeycomb, from Google is the next generation software which is said to be specially designed for tablet devices. It will enable application creators to establish consistency over a range of devices. “That’s going to solidify the market in 2011,” says Bob Morris, director of mobile computing at ARM, whose chip designs are used by Apple and a majority of tablets announced so far.
Sometime back, a Google official displayed a Motorola device powered by Honeycomb. Motorola has recently released a video on YouTube showing glimpses of its device which will be released at the CES.
Many players are playing safe with both Android and Windows based models in the market. BlackBerry maker Research in Motion has disclosed that its Playbook will run on the QNX operating system produced by QNX Software Systems that it purchased sometime ago.
HP has been silently pushed aside by the competition in this market because of both, its OS and its price. Also lagging in the race are biggies like Microsoft Windows and Intel because of their inability to act fast. Android and ARM have taken away the cake in the smartphone segment.
Also Microsoft has alliances with AMD, ARM and Intel when it comes to chips used for running OS on a smartphone. Similarly Intel has been supporting Windows, Android, and one Meego. Its speculated that Microsoft will unveil it Windows designed specifically for tablets.
“They’ll raise the stakes somehow,” Roger Kay, an analyst at Endpoint Technologies Associates, said of Apple. “The game is always on.”
Comments like these hint that while competitors are ready to prowl, Apple also is getting its act together for releasing a new version of the highly acclaimed iPad. It will have its own hardware, software and ARM chips.
Another feature that differentiates many products from iPad is their size. The 7 inch models are being preferred to the 9.7 inch iPad. This has again caught the attention of hardware makers.
The competition is trying every trick in the hat to outsmart the iPad. Let’s see how Apple responds.