They are neither full-fledged laptops nor small enough to be smartphones. But they are sleek, light to ferry around, aesthetic to look at, sport touch screens instead of built-in keyboards and entertain users the day long with a host of goodies like ebooks, music, videos, games and internet surfing.
It's hardly a surprise, then, that consumer electronic majors like Apple, HP, Dell, Lenovo, Acer, Asus, Fijitsu, IBM, LG Electronics, Toshiba and Panasonic have either recently introduced, or are talking about launching, these devices - known as tablet PCs - in the coming months.
Founded by Rohan Shravan, a 24-year-old engineering graduate from the Indian Institute of Technology-Kharagpur, the Adam Tablet is touted to be an 'iPad killer'.
"You will see the Adam Tablets in India by the end of this year. The pricing of the highest variant will be lower than that of the lowest iPad variant," says Shravan. Meanwhile, Asus too is planning two versions of the 3G-enabled Eee Pad tablet running on Windows 7 - one will sport a 10.1-inch display and the other a 12-inch display. The launch date has not been confirmed.
The first mover:
The term 'tablet PC' was made popular by Microsoft way back in 2001 when it announced a product that was defined as a pen-enabled computer conforming to hardware specifications devised by it and running mostly a licensed copy of a "Windows XP Tablet PC Edition".
The software giant, however, was not able to capitalise on its first mover advantage. Analysts attributed the failure to bad timing, high pricing and poor user interface (UI) design.
This January, Microsoft had another go at the tablet. HP's Slate device was demoed by Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at January's Consumer Electronic Show (CES), along with tablets from other vendors. Touting the HP Slate 500, an HP website page describes the device as powered by Windows 7 Premium and sporting an 8.9-inch screen with internet access and two cameras (still and video).
With the Apple iPad, though, tablet or media tablet PCs are making a comeback. Media tablets typically do not include built-in hardware keyboards but use a stylus/pen or finger for navigation and data input.
They provide a broad range of applications and connectivity, differentiating them from primarily single-function devices such as ereaders (Amazon's Kindle, for instance). They are primarily marketed as multifunction entertainment devices, but productivity applications will eventually be available to support consumer and enterprise users.
International Data Corporation (IDC) analysts contend the nascent market for media tablets, fostered by the launch of Apple's iPad, will be driven by the device's attributes as a content consumption platform and the compelling applications and services that will be created to take advantage of them.
"These are early days for media tablets, an altogether new device category that takes its place between smartphones and portable PCs. IDC expects consumer demand for media tablets to be strongly driven by the number and variety of compatible third-party apps for content and services," notes Susan Kevorkian, programme director, mobile media & entertainment.
Tablets or Media Tablets?
To begin with, depending on the categories that research firms devise, the iPad could either be a tablet PC or a media tablet PC. IDC, for instance, defines media tablets as tablet-form factor devices with 7- to 12-inch colour displays.
They are currently based on ARM processors and run lightweight operating systems (OSes) such as Apple's iPhone OS and Google's Android OS. This distinguishes them from tablet PCs, which are based on x86 processors and run full PC OSes.
Gartner, on its part, defines a tablet PC as having a touchscreen size of 5 inches or more, with a full-function operating system such as Windows 7, Windows Vista, Windows XP or Mac OS X.
A media tablet is defined as a device that has a screen size of 5 inch or larger but with a restricted-function OS, such as iPhone, Android or Chrome. Gartner includes Tablet PCs in its PC market statistics and forecasts. However, it excludes media tablets from both.
Booklet PCs: Dual-screen tablet PCs fold like a book. Typically equipped with multi-touch screens and pen writing recognition capabilities, they are designed to be used as digital day planners, internet surfing devices, project planners, music players, and displays for video, live TV, and e-reading.
Slates: They resemble writing slates, and do not have a dedicated keyboard. For text input, users rely on handwriting recognition via an active digitiser, touching an on-screen keyboard using fingertips or a stylus, or using an external keyboard that can usually be attached via a wireless or USB connection.
Source:Business Standard
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