2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Article in the NY Times here:

Oddly enough, it doesn't seem to be POCKETABLE. I guess the writers weren't reading this site.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Indeed. So are we to expect Nokia to release one in 2012? After all, they did release a netbook and a new touch-screen computer-smartphone recently, about two years after similar devices had become commonplace, and squandered the awesome advantage they had with 770, N800, and N810.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

I wonder if POCKETABLE is part of the criteria these manufacturers are apply. I mean, you don't get much larger than the n800 before it isn't pocketable (I said n800 because the n810 and n900 are substantially smaller of course). That market space is pretty well defined and is crowded as it is with the high end smart phones. From the HD2 to the x10 to the Nexus to the n900, the "tablet" space as Nokia defined it it pretty saturated nowadays. The space that seems to be targeted now from the JOJO to Notion Ink's to Camangi's webstation, seems to be more in the 7-10inch screen size, which is of course the size of a netbook, sans keyboard. Of course there are hold outs, namely Archos, and maybe Motorola with it's Sholes offering, but even that is likely to be classified as a high end smartphone rather than a "tablet". The idea of a netbook sized tablet always made more sense to me than a netbook, because it has USB or Bluetooth (as it almost certainly would, and as all of the prospective models seem to) you could use a full sized keyboad at will (both Apple and Microsoft make full sized portable bluetooth keyboards). Anyways, next year promises to be interesting at the very least.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

"Tablet" originally referred to a slate form factor about the size of a letter/A4 piece of paper running Windows XP Tablet Edition.

As far as pocketable computers, they were called UMPCs (Ultra Mobile PCs) but are now generally called MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) or, if they have voice capability, smartphones.

The big news in pocketable solutions at CES is the Viliv N5 and UMID M2. Both run the Intel Atom processor and are 5" clamshells. Dell is also rumored to be coming out with some kind of small tablet but I haven't seen any specs. Apple won't be at CES but has scheduled an announcement event for late January.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Dell's offering is called the Streak. 5 inch mulitouch ...err MID (I was going to say tablet :P) running Android. More specs are here:

http://www.slashgear.com/dell-streak...leaks-2161220/

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

That's the generally accepted rumor but Dell still isn't talking and they may just use CES to launch their smartphone.

Note that in the MID running Android category, Archos may be announcing Android 2.0 (and Android app store support) for its Archos 5.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

LoL, well, it's a bit more than a rumor at this point. Notion Ink's smart pad, that's a rumor, or render if you please (where's the physical evidence of it's existence?).Whether or not the streak will be officially release in the US, that's another story. Of course, that's not really an impediment ( my current phone wasn't released in the US either). I will grant you that I haven't seen it pass through the bowels of the FCC, so I'm slightly skeptical of it's imminent arrival. But then again, you can request non-disclosure from the FCC, so who knows. Come Jan. 7. we'll know I suppose.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

it'll be the year of the tablet for me, for sure. very happy with my n810.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

That's why I would classify a CES announcement as a rumor. The Dell Mini 3iX phone, OTOH, did get FCC approval and I would expext to see it at CES (and, hopefully, with a carrier other than the rumored ATT). January 7 can't come fast enough for me.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Can someone explain to me the use case for a letter size tablet?

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

The same as a smaller tablet, except the screen is bigger. Personally, anything more than cell phone calls or simple games are overkill in a pocket-size device for me. Would rather have everything in a larger tablet, and high-end stuff on my desktop.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

without wanting to sound like a fanboi...am rather looking forward to the Apple incarnation...you know its going to be overpriced...but heck my macbook hasnt died once in 3 years....the iSlate will push start the market and bypass the like of netbooks....although i love Nokia...somehow i very much doubt they will master it. Time will tell, lets hope they lear a LOT from the N900

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

I like the title of your thread. You seem to have learnt something at the OrangeBox Academy of Intelligent Writers.

For mastery, you could've written: 2010: year of the tablet except for Nokia

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Still not seeing it. Why not just a notebook w/touchscreen? I mean, we went through the tablet business before, every manufacturer had one - you flip and turn the screen so it covers the keyboard, like, say, http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/portege/M750. They just never caught fire, because IMHO, there's no use case.

But hey, make it hospital like white and externally featureless, and the distortion-fielders will swoon over it, I suppose.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Thank you, OrangeBox, you are an inspiration to me.

Also, I copied the headline from the NY Times.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

So what's the use of such tablet? It underpowered compared to notebook yet haves similar size. Nokia tablets were able to fit pocket. This one would be unable to do so. So it's better to carry notebook then, Why buy sych thing? "Just because it is Apple"?

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Since I wrote the top message, rumors seem to have pretty much established that the Apple offering is going to be called the Slate and it will be a 10" tablet.

I want something Kindle-sized but not e-ink, color, for reading and general computer activities, maybe even movies. I don't mind onscreen keyboards, so a big tablet would be great. But I'm not willing to pay an "Apple-charge" of a few hundred dollars that you typically pay.

I think it's sort of sick the way that the modern world puts so much energy and thought into phones. Is it so we can fantasize about sitting by a campfire and planning the takeover of the world from the wilderness?

I guess when Moses brought the tablet from the mountain, the Bible forgot to mention that it was a 2001-style obleisk (but smaller) with a splash screen of the Ten Commandments on it, but it was too early to say "Thou shalt love no God before Jobs," because they didn't know his name yet.

Hey, maybe there's an Apple commercial buried somewhere in the last paragraph...

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Those were fine. But overkill, they're still over $1000. The keyboard is good, but some people would rather use USB or Bluetooth or on-screen. They're too heavy for some people. Don't know if battery life has been an issue. The main thing is there hasn't been a tablet with a great touchscreen OS yet. I can afford a $1000+ tablet, but any tablet with current Windows would just feel like a rip-off, and possibly something much cheaper can do everything I want.

That's like saying all small touch-screen devices have no use-case because the first Newton didn't sell billions of devices. Personally I just want a much larger N800, or maybe a clamshell tablet. That said, I don't think I'll see anything I really want in 2010 either.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

[QUOTE=Nexus7;446709]Still not seeing it. Why not just a notebook w/touchscreen? I mean, we went through the tablet business before, every manufacturer had one - you flip and turn the screen so it covers the keyboard, like, say, http://laptops.toshiba.com/laptops/portege/M750. They just never caught fire, because IMHO, there's no use case.

I've started wondering why notebooks have keyboards. I'm starting to think about carrying a tablet. When I need a keyboard, I can use a wireless one. Better yet, I can use the same model KB on my desktop and enjoy the same layout in two places.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Well, keyboard layouts are fairly standardized. One might want a better keyboard (physically, such as a Thinkpad or IBM buckling spring one), but that's not possible with on-screen ones anyway.

But as to your point, this was available, even back in the infant years of the internet. For example, http://shopping.yahoo.com/p:Fujitsu%...ter:1994887887

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

[QUOTE=Jobester;446749]Those were fine. But overkill, they're still over $1000. The keyboard is good, but some people would rather use USB or Bluetooth or on-screen. They're too heavy for some people. Don't know if battery life has been an issue. The main thing is there hasn't been a tablet with a great touchscreen OS yet.
/QUOTE]

A keyboard, by itself, is like 50 grams (WAG). So everything else being equal, a tablet PC of yesteryear would be about as heavy as a keboard-less device of the same era, say maybe 200 g more, for the pivoting mechanism and such. In other words, we've been here before, they just didn't catch on. As for "there just hasn't been a great touchscreen OS yet," I think we all know where that argument is headed.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Mentioned weight because everything you're referring to is at least 3.5 pounds, which gets bad reviews nowadays. And why would anyone pay over $1000 when netbooks are going for $200? Adding a touchscreen doesn't cost hundreds of dollars. And any tablet that comes out with the current version of Windows isn't good enough for me. I can run Linux flawless on a netbook, but I love working with a stylus much more.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Oh man, I would find so many uses for one around the house.

If it was much thinner and lighter than a notebook/netbook, with a really nice touchscreen and wifi, it would become my highly portable drawing tablet. And when I wasn't using it, hang it on the wall for a photo slide show.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Well, I think when people say tablet these days, they mean slate, i.e. sans keyboard. And I don't think that it can really be disputed that there is a market. The Kindle, nook, Sony reader, these are all tablet's without keyboards. People buy them to read books. I'm going to go out on a limb here are say that nowadays, there are more people reading webpages than there are reading books. News (cnn.com, bbc.co.uk, nytimes.com, telegragh.co.uk, etc), magazines (wired.com, popsci.com, sciam.com) , blogs (gizmodo, slashgear), whatever, people read. And no, a lot of the time, the keyboard isn't required or desired. Personally, I'm probably going to pick up the Notion Ink offering if or when it appears. It rarely takes me longer than 5-6 hours to read a book, so for me it would serve as an ebook reader as well as web tablet, etc.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

I still use my N800 and prefer the virtual keyboard.

I would use a bigger tablet for mind-mapping style notes, which like more room for creative line-drawing.

I'm pretty sure the color Kindle in about a year will have mindmapping and other additions that will appeal to users that aren't techies but want a smart notepad.

BTW: The Kindle does have a physical keyboard that seems primitive but works surprisingly well.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

There's always a use-case for simplicity in features and their access. Tablet devices are no different from any other in that a targeted feature set - not just ability but an actual solving of problems similar to how Texrat described his use case - is where tablets, smartphones, laptops, etc. derive their usefulness and market.

The fact that Apple has perfected that to the point of making an entire ecosystem around it means more that feature-itis is something that while admirable for a check-off list sucks for actually solving use-needs.

But then again, I was nearly blasted here for taking my N800 and restricting its use to being a scribble notepad, external HD and email terminal for enterprise use. The features don't need to be so expansive when the use is so targeted.
---

I disagree with 2010 being the year of the tablet for the same reasons I say that the year of the smartphone was actually two years - folks know what they want, companies have been trying to force more than what people would purchase. Thankfully, the highly turbulent economic climate which will continue for a while longer will force companies to develop more specific solutions, not simply catch-all devices which tickle a small and dwindling user base.

There's really no need for distinctions in computing devices when they are designed not around features, but around uses. Because at that point, the software will have been written from the ground up to respond to context - and the hardware, while a compromise on all levels, will always be a best case scenario. To that end, a dual-screened mobile device the size of a Nintendo DSi would be the ideal device form factor.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

Tablet computers will sell in their millions this year claims Deloitte

Tens of millions of tablet computers could be sold this year, kick-starting a £600 million industry, business advisory firm Deloitte has predicted.

Deloitte's annual Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT) predictions said the tablet computer or NetTab - smaller than a netbook, larger than a smartphone and boasting wireless connection with a touchscreen display - will have its ''breakout year'' over the next 12 months.

''NetTabs will be purchased by tens of millions of people in 2010,'' Deloitte's TMT report said. ''NetTabs are expected to meet specific consumer needs compared to smartphones on the one hand - which are still a bit small for watching videos or even Web browsing - and notebooks, netbooks, and ultra-thin PCs, on the other - which are too big, heavy, or expensive.''

Computer giants Apple and Microsoft - in partnership with Hewlett-Packard - are both expected to launch rival tablet systems later this year.

And the competition will only increase the tablet's popularity, according to TMT predictions report author Paul Lee, who believes the tablet boom could launch a market worth more than £612 million worldwide.

Mr Lee, Deloitte's director of knowledge and research, said: ''While it is difficult to forecast sales of devices whose specifications are unknown, some analysts estimate 12-month sales from launch of over one billion dollars. This is larger than global sales of personal navigation devices.''

Mr Lee refers to the tablet as a ''Goldilocks device'' - not too big and not too small.

He added: ''The tablet fills a hole, in terms of its size, that has existed in the market for a while. New technology seems to appear out of the blue, but it actually has a very long gestation period.''

Mr Lee believes the increased coverage and speed of wireless networks combined with improvements in hardware and battery life have created the perfect storm for the tablet's emergence.

Re: 2010: Year of the Tablet
 

The one thing the analysis misses is the growing market for DRMed ebooks. A tablet that can offer you Barnes and Noble's new book catalog plus the various TV shows that are becoming available on the Internet could be a big seller.