25% of Americans want Android Tablets?

About one in four Americans surveyed by Zogby on behalf of Sybase say they are open to some degree to buying an Android tablet device. About a quarter said they would consider replacing a notebook PC with a tablet if the features and apps were suitable.

It always is difficult to "operationalize" such findings, as those same respondents might "like" or "want" such devices, but be unwilling to spend $700 to acquire one.

The perhaps-useful findings were about screen size, which affects form factor. About half suggested they preferred a nine or 10-inch screen. More than a quarter wanted a 12-inch screen. Some 21 percent wanted a seven-inch screen and three percent wanted a five-inch screen.

Tablets might ultimately reflect a variety of form factors and lead applications, or some form factors might not get traction. The three-inch screen, for example, would seem to overlap almost directly with smartphones.

Survey shows one in four Americans want Android tablets

Rumored Specs for HTC Tablet

Though HTC has not formally announced any plans for an Android tablet, there are rumors a device of that type might be available as soon as early 2011.

Now Digitimes — the source of the original rumor — has their sources inside of Taiwanese device manufacturer Pegatron Technology saying the specs for the device are set.

The HTC tablet will feature the NVIDIA Tegra 2 chipset, a 1280 by 720 resolution touchscreen, 2 GBytes of RAM and 32GB SSD, WiFi, Bluetooth, and GPS.

An estimated price based on build cost suggests a device costing about $790.

Rumored Specs for HTC Tablet

Acer Launching Android 3.0 Tablets in 5, 7, and 10-inch Form Factors

Acer appears to readying Android-powered tablets in 5-inch, 7-inch, and 10-inch screen sizes. The 5-inch version is aimed at the same niche area as the Dell Streak. The largest version obviously will compete with the iPad.

The interesting developments to watch are how popular each of the form factors turns out to be. To the extent that a tablet is primarily a content consumption device, the issue then becomes which form factor is deemed most useful.

Personally, I find the 10-inch form factor unwieldy, for that purpose. On the other hand, a 4.5-inch screen often strikes me as a bit too small, though that isn't the only consideration.

Overall size, weight and battery life are important considerations as well. At the moment, I'd say the big issues are battery life and size. About seven inches seems to me the best compromise between extended battery life and screen size. Any bigger and I don't want to carry it routinely. Any smaller and I'll just use my Evo.

Acer Launching Android 3.0 Tablets in 5, 7, and 10-inch Form Factors

Europeans Want Android Tablets

What would the average eWEEK Europe reader want for leisure time? The answer, it turns out is an Android-based tablet along the lines of the recently announced Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Twenty-six percent of the people responding to eWEEK Europe’s gadget poll said they’d love an Android tablet like the Galaxy, while another 18 percent said their next personal-use gadget would be an Android phone.

Apple did poorly in the poll, even though the short list held three Apple devices, including the massively-hyped iPad, the recently re-launched iPod and the Apple TV, which is sure to spark another Apple frenzy.

eWEEK Europe Readers Want Android

iPad Users Change Reading, Browsing, Gaming Habits

If results of a U.K. consumer poll are any indication, tablet PCs are about to change Web browsing, gaming and reading preferences.

According to survey conducted by Cooper Murphy Webb, Apple’s iPad is the preferred method of reading newspapers and magazines among consumers already owning the device.

The poll also found that a plurality of iPad owners prefer the device for reading books and gaming. Perhaps surprisingly, respondents indicated they used their dedicated gaming consoles and iPads about equally when gaming. If that holds up, it could mean trouble for game console suppliers. 

And a significant percentage prefer the iPad for Web browsing as well. That finding is less surprising, if one assumes the tablet device is designed to be used as a content consumption device.

Cooper Murphy Webb  polled 1034 U.K. iPad owners.


It's hard to tell at the moment whether the behavior of early adopters will be the same, or similar to, habits of more mainstream users.


The results, if they are replicated by other surveys, suggest the tablet has potential to disrupt and replace user behaviors for any number of other consumer electronics devices. Mobile phones and MP3 players are probably safest. PCs, notebooks, netbooks, ebook readers and game consoles would seem to be most at risk.


That's a rather broad base of devices threatened by tablet devices.

iPad Consumer Usage Study | Cooper Murphy Webb

Apple's iPad Is Going To Destroy The Netbook Market, Says Goldman Sachs

Whether you believe the tablet PC is a substitute for, or a complement to, a netbook, it does seem clear that a tablet's function is different.

The iPad is focused squarely on information consumption versus information production, analysts at Goldman Sachs note. A device that looks like “just a big screen” suggests what users should do with the device: consume information, with limited ability to manipulate it.

The lack of a physical keyboard suggests that the primary purpose of the device is not for inputting large amounts of information, but instead selecting among options, or performing light editing using a soft keyboard, the analysts suggest.

If that is the case, a key element of the experience will be relatively tight integration with content sources. 

I'm not so sure the netbook is destined by be replaced by tablet devices, though it seems obvious that if the reason lots of people carry netbooks or notebooks is simply to consume information and content, that will be the case.

For users who still have to "work" and create content, a tablet simply isn't going to be a viable choice.

Apple's iPad Is Going To Destroy The Netbook Market, Says Goldman (Sorry, Microsoft):

Deja Vu All Over Again?

Some might argue that Apple's invention of an amazing new product will prove to be "deja vu all over again."

Though any such analysis has to account for the intervening success of the iPod, which completely dominates market share in the MP3 player market, what happened in the PC business could happen in the tablet PC market, some will argue.

Namely, Apple could wind up a niche supplier of high-end devices, rather than the dominant provider in the segment, because of its insistence on a "closed" model.

This Android Chart Should Scare The Bejesus Out Of Apple

Will iPad Be the Fastest-Adopted Mobile Device, Ever?

At this rate, the Apple iPad might wind up becoming the fastest-growing mobile device ever.

Tablets Becoming a User's Second PC

Tablets will be used as a second computer, primarily for media consumption, with a laptop becoming their principal computing device, Forrester Research analyst Sarah Epps says.

Tablet computers like Apple's iPad will outsell netbooks by 2012 and surpass desktops by 2015, growing at a 42 percent compound annual growth rate between now and 2015. She estimates there will be about 3.5 million tablets sold in 2010.

By 2015, only laptops will have a greater share of the market, with 42 percent, versus a projected 23 percent market share for tablets.

Is Microsoft About to Fall Behind in Tablets AND Mobile Phones?

Goldman Sachs analysts caution that Microsoft is at risk of falling behind the iPad in the same way that the company fell behind the iPhone.

"Given iPad’s success, tablet PCs dominate many investor conversations, as it has created the potential of a fourth consumption device (PC, phone, TV and now tablet)," writes Goldman Sachs analyst Sarah Friar.

Microsoft seems to believe the tablet is simply another form factor for the PC. Apple perhaps doesn't agree, and maybe doesn't have to worry about which view is correct. If all Apple can do is make the absolute-best tablet PC, then it wins. If it uncovers the fourth media device, and executes, it also wins, and maybe wins even bigger.

But it is hard to see how Apple can lose, at this point. The bigger question is whether anybody else can win, and if they can, how big they can win.

As Ballmer shrugs off the iPad, Microsoft risks another late start:

Price is Key to Android Tablet Success

The latest Retrevo Pulse study asked over 1,000 people what phone they planned to buy this year and over 20 percent of the respondents indicated an iPhone. If that number holds up it could be another good year for Apple and the iPhone.

But the bigger issue is whether it already is essentially too late for other contestants to prevent Apple from dominating the category as it does MP3 players. So far, Apple, though a top contender, has not reached the level of market share domination in smartphones that it has in MP3 players. But nobody doubts Apple will try. And history suggests all other suppliers have to be worried about the sudden emergence of the tablet category as well.

Are we looking at another Apple dominated product category like the iPod did with MP3 players?

When Retrevo asked consumers what would prevent them from buying an iPad, the most common answer was “don’t need one,” followed by “too expensive.”

As most would have expected, users that already have an Apple PC or iPhone are more likely to think they need an iPad. When it looked at the iPhone owners, Retrevo found only 26 percent of those users thought they didn't “need” an iPad.

The Retrevo study also suggests that the e-book reader market and the tablet PC markets are distinct, to an extent. The company found a significant number (40 percent) of consumers who own or plan to own an e-Reader also plan to buy an iPad in 2010.

When Retrevo asked consumers what would get them to buy an Android-based tablet over an iPad, the number one answer was “price.”

While 53 percent of  respondents said they weren’t interested in buying a tablet at all, of the other 47 percent who wanted one, a little over half (53 percent of those who said they wanted a tablet PC) said they’d buy an Android tablet if it was less expensive than an iPad.

Also, 33 percent said they would buy if the tablet used the Verizon network.

If manufacturers of Android-based tablest want to grab significant share in the market, the poll suggests there is at least one thing they can do: create a device that doesn't cost as much as the iPad.

read more here

Windows 7 Tablet Demo

Everybody wants to be in the tablet game.

"Smartbook" Category Crushed by Tablets, at Least for the Moment

Whatever became of “smartbooks”? At last January’s Consumer Electronics Show, some big hardware companies were using that name to describe new low-end computing devices that look like small laptops but use different chips and software. But that was before the iPad.

Now industry buzz has shifted pretty dramatically away from smartbooks to forthcoming slate-style devices that are expected to challenge Apple’s latest hit. “It’s fair to say the iPad and tablets are resetting everybody’s roadmap and forcing them to think about they are going to do next in a different light,” says Henri Richard, senior vice president and chief sales and marketing officer for Freescale Semiconductor, which has been marketing chips for smartbooks.

But backers of the concept say it’s not so much that smartbooks are stalled. Rather, there are simply so many new hardware and software options–and consumer preferences are so uncertain–that it’s too early to tell exactly what the most popular designs will be and what people will wind up calling them.

“This market between the phone and the laptop is an area that is undefined,” says Steve Mollenkopf, a Qualcomm executive vice president who is also president of its chip unit. “You will see a proliferation of different devices.”

Whether there is a single tablet category or possibly multiple categories, or whether tablets simply reshape existing categories, is yet to be determined. What does seem to be clear is that all the devices are intended to be "always connected."

From a suppliers’ perspective, companies that make cellphones or components for them want to expand their turf into larger products. That includes companies like Qualcomm, Freescale, Nvidia and others that have offered chips for the handset market based on technology from ARM Holdings. They can’t offer the ability to run conventional PC programs, but can boast long battery life and stress the “instant-on” nature of their machines–two of the chief selling points of smartbooks.

At the same time, makers of conventional laptops and their suppliers are trying to get into smaller devices. Chip giant Intel, for example, has helped popularized low-priced laptops called netbooks that mainly run Microsoft Windows. Intel has also been talking for some time about an even smaller, keyboardless category called MIDS, or mobile Internet devices–a term that seems to have been overshadowed by small-sized tablets.

But another way to look at the situation stems from what tasks a user is tackling. For example, touching the screen is the most efficient way to get some kinds of things done; for some chores–like composing a long document–a physical keyboard is the way to go.

Either way, at least for the moment, tablets have sucked all the oxygen out of the room.

Dell Shows "Streak" Tablet

The new Dell "Streak" tablet will have quite a different form factor than the iPad.

Space Between Smartphone and Laptop Still in Flux

Suppliers have been trying to figure out the demand for, and requirements of, devices somewhere between high-end phones and lower-end PCs for some time, using the general "mobile internet devices" moniker.

In January 2010 much attention was focused on "smartbooks," positioned somewhere below "netbooks" at the low end of the PC category. Those devices tend to feature keyboards.

Post-iPad, the attention has turned squarely to tablet devices, using touchscreen interfaces only. Still, the ultimate shape of end user demand remains unsettled enough that a variety of form factors, operating systems and processor approaches will continue to be tested.

“This market between the phone and the laptop is an area that is undefined,” says Steve Mollenkopf, a Qualcomm executive vice president who is also president of its chip unit. “You will see a proliferation of different devices.”

Some devices will use smartphone processors or operating systems and move up. Other devices might take PC processors and operating systems and move them down into the tablet space. But application use cases are ultimately likely to matter more.

Touchscreen devices likely will prove to be accepted for some uses, but not for others.  Content consumption might be the key use case for some users, while simple email and web browsing might emerge as the key application for others.

$100 to $150 Android Tablets Coming This Year

Via Technologies Inc., the Taiwanese computer-processor company, expects $100 tablet devices containing its chips to reach the U.S. in the second half of 2010, offering a cheaper alternative to the iPad.

About five different models, ranging in price from $100 to $150, will be available.

Just Another Mobile Phone Blog: Via Says $100 Android Tablets Will Challenge the IPad This Year

iPad is What You Want, Not What You Need

Though we are far from knowing the ultimate success or impact of the tablet PC movement, there is some evidence that Apple is, in fact, creating yet another new market, rather than simply reshaping or displacing an older market.

Gartner Group analyst Carolina Milanesi says "I am also more convinced that this is a device that you want and not a device that you need." That is an instructive comment, as it suggests users may be finding the iPad less a full substitute for a notebook PC or netbook and more a "different" device that might be used in different ways.

"Between my iPhone and my MacBook Pro I have to consciously decide to use my iPad to do anything but read a book, which is the only thing I cannot do with the Pro and I would rather not do on the iPhone because of the screen."

The use case here is, as Apple hoped, something potentially different from a smartphone or a notebook PC.

iPad goes on sale today across key markets in Europe

I'm Afraid Greasy Screens are Just a New Fact of LIfe

Touchscreens on tablets, smartphones, MP3 players and all sorts of other gadgets just seem to be the way things are going. It's just a new maintenance chore we have to deal with.

Acer to Market Tablet and E-Reader

Acer Inc. will start selling its first e-reader later this summer and also a touchscreen tablet computer in September or October, according to the Wall Street Journal. The e-book reader features a six-inch display, while the tablet PC will feature a seven-inch screen, and is powered by Android.

The interesting angle here is that consumers will have a choice of form factors. Apple's iPad uses a screen that is almost 10 inches diagonally, while Dell will sell a device with a five-inch screen. Acer is in the middle with a seven-inch screen on its tablet.

The issue, beyond the broad issue of whether tablet PCs represent a new PC segment or a new device category, partly hinges on what people decide they want to do with such devices.

Smaller screen devices such as the Dell might be seen as functionally similar to smartphones, in terms of portability. Large-screen devices cannot be conveniently carried in pockets or purses, and likely will compete more with netbooks or notebooks.

The Acer e-reader, dubbed "LumiRead," has a six-inch display and is equipped with two-gigabytes of flash memory, which allow it to store up to 1,500 books. Acer, which shipped more PCs than any company except Hewlett-Packard Co. in the first quarter, will sell its e-reader first in the U.S., China and Germany.

Why E-Book Readers are Like Netbooks

In some ways, e-book readers are in a situation similar to netbooks, which is to say, they both are product categories that face substitute products. E-book readers are going to be pressured by tablet PCs and even smartphones, while netbooks are going to be pressured from one side by tablets such as the iPad and notebooks whose better features and prices will continue to make them suitable substitutes for netbooks in perhaps seven out of 10 cases.

According to the latest research from Informa Telecoms & Media e-reader sales are expected to peak at 14 million in 2013, before falling by seven percent in 2014 as the segment faces increased  competition from  a wide range of consumer electronic devices.

Multi-function devices notably mobile phones and tablet-form-factor computing devices are the chief competing types of devices e-book readers will face.

This is likely to lead to a segmentation of the e-reader market into two groups; low-price, low-feature models and higher-price devices with advanced features, Informa predicts.

In order to survive, there are a number of approaches that vendors can take. They can develop low-cost e-readers with minimal features that can be used in conjunction with a PC or USB dongle to access additional content. E-readers like the Kobo ($148), may appeal to the cost-conscious reader, for example, Informa suggests.

Alternatively, high-end e-readers will start to resemble tablet computing devices. These will in effect become more like smartbooks than e-readers. Early steps in this direction include Barnes & Noble's latest software update for the Nook which adds games and a more open web browsing functionality.

Many e-reader companies are already looking to develop an electronic reading platform, initially based on their e-reader devices, but that will extend across e-readers, mobile phones, netbooks, note-books and desktop PCs.

The point is that netbook and e-book product segments likely will change as more tablets and smartphones provide end-user functionality that competes with e-book readers and netbooks.