APPLE’S EXPECTED announcement of a tablet computer at the end of the month is the subject of fevered anticipation in the tech world. As a result, firms at CES were keen to show their own tablets and slates before Apple gets out of the traps.
The industry has gone down this route before – Microsoft had a tablet version of Windows XP which ran on notebooks that had a touchscreen and stylus, but they never took off.
The current crop of tablets, which Shawn DuBravac, director of research with the Consumer Electronics Association is dubbing “Tablet 2.0”, is a very different beast.
DuBravac says the CEA’s research has shown there is a “void in the screen spectrum”. While there are plenty of screens under 5in, such as those on mobile phones and GPSs, and while notebooks, desktop PCs, and TVs look after the space above 15in, there is nothing in between.
As a result, there is a gap for highly portable devices with screens of 8-15in, and this is only partially being served by mini-netbooks.
The new generation of tablets will look more like e-book readers such as Amazons Kindle but will have a touchscreen a la the iPhone. In fact, much of the speculation around Apples tablet is that it will be a larger format iPhone.
The most high-profile response to Apples imminent launch was from Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer. At the end of his Wednesday night address he briefly showed off what he called a slate PC from HP, which uses Windows 7 and was running Amazons Kindle e-book software.
But details were sketchy other than it will be available this year. The brief demo also included similar devices from Archos and Pegatron.
“Theyre more powerful than a phone and almost as powerful as a PC. Perfect for reading, surfing the web, and taking entertainment on the go,” said Ballmer.
While we wait, manufacturers have refinements of the current tablets, basically touchscreen netbooks, with HP, for instance, announcing the TouchSmart tm2 notebook that transforms from notebook to tablet with a twist of the screen to fold it on top of the keyboard.
It goes on sale here next month with prices starting at €799.
Lenovo provided a potential half-way house with the IdeaPad U1, a notebook with a detachable screen that can operate as a tablet on its own.
The question, of course, is: where would you use a tablet? Would you just carry it around the house or would you bring it to work or college as well? The devices are small enough to fit into a ladys handbag but certainly not a shirt or jacket pocket.
And what will all this mean for the nascent e-book market, since tablets will be able to act as an e-book reader and do so much more?
It looks like 2010 will see a genuinely exciting new category of computer hit the market.
