| fastest 4G cellular chips, myriad screen size options, 3-D viewing, 3-D image capture or those retro stylus pens, tablet makers are hoping to mine a niche that Apple is ignoring.
Let's take a closer look at a couple of these points. "Myriad of screen sizes" = a mess for app developers. Try writing apps that need to be fit into that myriad. The Xoom is already having issues with controls in some apps being off the screen. "Retro stylus pens" - already been tried and flopped. There have been stylus tablets on the market for years before the iPad and they didn't sell beyond niche markets. Back to screen size - Apple did extensive research before settling on the 9" screen. Above that got too large and added too much weight, below that limits screen real estate. A 7" screen is a full 45% smaller than the iPad 9".
The new prototype, which was only shown behind glass recently at the CTIA Wireless conference in Orlando, packs the same components but is significantly thinner. "We went back to the drawing board," said Omar Khan, the strategy chief for Samsung Telecommunications.
Shown only behind glass? Vaporware.
"Changes in the industry," he said, referring to the iPad 2, "caused us to accelerate the development process."
That's it - rush it to market! Great strategy - worked really well for the original "iPhone Killer", the Droid 1 that I suffered with for way too long.
"Right now, if we talk about our friend in Cupertino: Hey, they built a pretty good product. They have a good ecosystem. But on the Android side, it has yet to be built up,"
At least they are starting to make sense now.
But Alain Mutricy, a senior vice president of product management for the company, highlighted the focus on 4G LTE technology as the Xoom's major competitive play. By contrast, Apple's iPads aren't capable of 4G access.
And there will go the battery life. That is the very reason Apple is waiting til 2012 to put 4G in the iPhone. Read the "cons" in the linked review below... Blazing fast connectivity is useless if your device has a dead battery.
http://www.mobilecrunch.com/2010/05/31/htc-evo-4g-sprint-review/
It will be very interesting to watch how this tablet competition pans out in comparison to phones. Tablet data plans do not have contracts where the device costs can be subsidized. The consumer has to pay full price up front. Apple is using its clout, cash, and volume to snatch up components at a steep discount that other companies cannot compete with. If they put their tablets on the market at prices competitive to the iPad, they don't make much money, PLUS the user experience needs to be very competitive to the iPad. Android phones - many are cheap devices that were given away and fully subsidized. There are a lot of consumers out there that are willing to put up with a less than stellar experience for free. That won't be happening in the tablet world. |
McCartman, this one is for you...
