World+dog keep taking the tablets Annual shipments for tablet devices will reach 81 million by 2015, as new players and handset manufacturers flood the market. Competition to Apple is likely to arrive in earnest in 2011, according to the market watcher Juniper Research. But Apple should be prepared for the challenge and ready to launch a new version of the …
I am much more interested in tablets that do things that Apple has decided it won't do. I don't care quite so much if the tablet is a "proper knockoff of PhoneOS" or whatever other nonsense that the Jobs worshipping ninnies think. I am more interested in something that actually replaces a netbook and other devices like an Archos. These are things the iPad has failed to completely displace.
the trouble is, because they've all been so long to bring a product to the market, they're all going to assume that they have to fight with the iPad for the customer base. so they'll all be offering a hyped-up smartphone interface instead of a streamlined desktop OS
while a lot of IT people i know would like a tablet like you describe, i can only assume these companies have done their market research and discovered that what the majority of the population want is something like an iPad. but i'd have thought, if that were the case, then that research would have resulted in the answer "like an ipad but cheaper" but so far, no one seems to have solved that 2nd part
It's a matter of being designed to handle tablet hardware and software environments properly (even Google say that 2.2 and lower shouldn't be used on a tablet) and having a decent sized library of available software.
Unless a device has been Google certified (which they won't do unless it meets specs that pads are outside of, like a maximum of 850x480 screens) then it doesn't get access to the Google Marketplace, and the lack of that is the kiss of death to Android devices. Even if you load a hacked copy of Marketplace onto your non-compliant machine there's a fair chance that downloaded software won't work. Manufacturers who can't get Google Marketplace normally hack together some sort of store of their own, but having only a couple of thousand titles to chose from compared to 100,000 on Google Marketplace or 300,000 in the Apple App Store makes them look pretty sick.
Microsoft have tried pushing Windows in various forms for tablets. Windows 7 officially supports them out of the box. The problem is that the Windows UI is far from optimal for a touch environment. No Windows tablet to date has managed to attract serious attention because of this (despite Bill G enthusing over them every so often). The same problem applies to Linux, you need a proper touch optimised UI for Linux before you start.
There's no need to carry a full powered desktop OS with you when these devices are designed to provide you with cloud services OR remote access to your desktop PC. Now what is it that you think you can't do with that combination?
I seriously don't get this "Windows 7 is not good OS for tablets" bullshit that so many people seem to be spewing. I have a Hanvon B10 with Windows 7 which I've had for nearly 2 months now and it does everything I want, smoothly and beautifully. Have you people who think Windows 7 is crap on tablets actually TRIED using it, and I don't mean a 2-minute in-store demo, I mean serious day-to-day usage?
With the current very nasty trend in mobile OS makers to build in functionality to allow them to secretly delete/install applications on your device, coupled with the fact that I and many others need their existing desktop software to run on a mobile device, I think that Windows 7 is a very viable option for a tablet OS. It's familiar, it works well, and it runs the software you're used to. I wouldn't go any other way, and when Windows 7 gets replaced with Windows Phone 7 (which like iOS and Android allows the vendor to remote-access your device) I'll then be going to Linux - since by the time I need to upgrade from the Hanvon, Ubuntu for tablets should be well and truly out.
New operating systems...woooot! Nice but if I can't use it to take my favorite computer programs with me on the go and use them, well, no.
Perhaps if tables ran OSX10.6, Linux(normal PC variety), or even Windows 7 or XP. Otherwise...no.
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