Tablet PC Wars Reloaded

Microsoft's Surface and Googlle's Nexus 7 will hit the shelves soon bringing up a wider array of choices when it comes to tablet PCs. The market is now dominated by Apple's iPad Photos: Special arrangement.

Apple won the first battle of the War for Tablet Computer Supremacy with its iPad obliterating some of its competitors. A few Android tablet PCs — notably Samsung Galaxy Tab and Amazon Kindle Fire — managed to hold their own. Now Microsoft Surface and Google Nexus 7 are entering the fray, and that is only good news for consumers

It is important to classify the current generation of tablet PCs as ‘modern tablet PCs’ or ‘Post-PC tablets’ (as Steve Jobs liked to classify it) because Apple reinvented the idea with the iPad in 2010. Handheld portable tablet PCs had been around for more than a decade and ironically Microsoft was among the first companies to unveil a prototype as early as 2001.

But since its launch in 2010, the iPad has come to define the genre and ended up cornering a substantial share of the market with its competitors making mere dents, or in some cases, such as the HP TouchPad, getting completely obliterated. It bodes well for consumers to have a wide array of choices, which is why recent announcements about Microsoft’s Surface and Google’s Nexus 7 tablets hold out much promise.

LATE TO THE PARTY

Microsoft arrives to the tablet PC arena almost as late as it did to the smartphone arena. (The iPhone was launched in 2007 and the Windows Phone in 2010.)

In a rather hurried and surprise event last month in Los Angeles, it unveiled its Surface tablet as a device running its upcoming Windows 8 operating system. The tablet comes in two iterations: the Surface RT and the Surface Pro. While the lighter RT version will run the Windows 8 in its Metro interface, the Pro version is expected to run the full desktop version of the OS.

The Surface tablets have a 10.6-inch (diagonal) 16:9 full HD screen and will sport among other things a USB port, a microSD card slot and will have internal storage of 32, 64 and 128 GB depending on the iteration.

The tablet PC has managed to wow with its design, something that has not quite been Microsoft’s forte over the years. With its magnesium alloy body, a quirky little kickstand and a cover that combines an inbuilt keyboard, a few renowned technology blogs have even said that the company has bettered Apple in the design game.

But what really matters is how soon Microsoft will deliver the product on a worldwide scale and what its key-differentiators will be, including the pricing. It had highlighted that Surface will not be just a consumption device and will allow people to work the way they do with a laptop. The impending release of Office 2013 (a consumer preview is currently available online) is expected to bolster its chances.

The other big hoop, the company will have to jump through, is pricing. Microsoft has not announced the exact numbers yet, but has said the pricing would be comparable to that of the range of Ultra notebooks. That could make it costlier than the Apple iPad, which will put the product on top of the premium category. There are some unconfirmed reports that the basic Surface RT is being pegged at around $599 (approximately Rs. 33,000).

GOOGLE’S NEXUS 7 TABLET, ANNOUNCED AT THE GOOGLE’S I/O DEVELOPERS’ MEET, IS ALREADY VIEWED AS A GAME-CHANGER MOSTLY BECAUSE OF WHAT IT OFFERS FOR ITS $199 (APPROXIMATELY RS.11,000) PRICING. A FEW TECHNOLOGY WEBSITES THAT HAD THE BENEFIT OF THE PREVIEW AT THE GOOGLE EVENT LAST MONTH HAVE SAID IT COULD POTENTIALLY AFFECT AMAZON KINDLE FIRE’S GROWTH IN THE ENTRY-LEVEL TABLET PC GAME.

THIS IS ALSO THE TABLET PC INDIAN CONSUMERS CAN LOOK FORWARD TO, AS KINDLE FIRE IS NOT REALLY TUNED TO THE INDIAN MARKET. FOR THE COST-CONSCIOUS INDIAN CONSUMER, THIS COULD WELL BE THE TABLET PC TO OWN, SINCE MOST OF THE ECONOMIC TABLET PCS FLOODING THE MARKETS HERE, LEAVE MUCH TO BE DESIRED IN TERMS OF ENGINEERING AND BUILD QUALITY.

THE NEXUS 7, RUNNING ANDROID’S LATEST MOBILE OPERATING SYSTEM 4.1 (JELLY BEAN), HAS A SEVEN-INCH 1280X800 HD DISPLAY AND FEATURES A QUAD-CORE TEGRA3 PROCESSOR, A MICRO-USB PORT, WIRELESS AND BLUETOOTH CONNECTIVITY AND 1 GB RAM. IT COMES IN TWO ITERATIONS IN TERMS OF INTERNAL STORAGE: 8 GB AND 16 GB.

THE OTHER BIG ADVANTAGE FOR NEXUS 7 IS ITS ALREADY ESTABLISHED ANDROID APPS MARKET THAT WAS RECENTLY REBRANDED GOOGLE PLAY. ONE CAN EXPECT NEXUS 7 TO MAKE A SUBSTANTIAL BUZZ IN THE INDIAN MARKET WHEN IT ARRIVES HERE.



Source: thehindu.com

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Apple’s Next iPhone: The Complete Rumor Roundup

There's been so much rumor-hawking and speculation the past few weeks that whether you're ready or not, we're squarely in the middle of iPhone season. So here's a quick rundown of everything we think we know about Apple's next iPhone.

Appearance

We think we have a pretty good idea of what the new iPhone will look like; we've been seeing leaked parts for months now, and recently that has moved up to fully assembled phones, and possibly a whole phone smuggled out of a plant.

The phone will reportedly be a unibody design, with a two-tone back, and come in both black and white.

Screen

First and most obviously, the display is probably going to be four inches, and 16:9. We've heard this again and again, and iMore's report today suggests that's the configuration that Apple's locked into.

On a technical level, though, the iPhone is probably going to use Sharp's IGZO display technology. IGZO screens are thinner, because they use smaller transistors, allowing more light to pass through. That means they use fewer LEDs, and therefore take up less space and consume less power.

iOS 6

We all know that the next iPhone will come with iOS 6. And we've learned a good deal about Apple's next mobile OS, too, since it was announced at WWDC in June. It will feature Apple's own mapping system, as well as some pretty cool new features like Passbook.

Traditionally, we get an early look at the new iOS during WWDC, and then get the full dose of it when the new iPhone comes out. This year, if reports are to be believed, we'll also be getting an iPad Mini at the same time, so there could be some differences across devices. But we'll absolutely have the final versions of all the new features.

Peripherals

All signs point to the new iPhone having a smaller dock connector. Like the move to MagSafe 2 adapters, the reported new 19-pin dock connector is a necessity. And it has been for two years, at least, when the iPod Touch reached critical thinness mass.

And if you're really that upset about all of your peripherals, dollars to dock connectors says there will be some kind of converter—like with the MagSafe. It might even be compatible with micro USB (though almost definitely not, in all likelihood).

There's also word coming from iLounge today that the new dock connector will be an insanely small 8 pins, but that seems unlikely because each pin has a separate function, and 8 would limit the functionality of the connector.

Network

It would be hugely surprising if the new iPhone doesn't have 4G LTE. Not only because of the necessity of keeping up with Android and even Windows Phone, but because Apple has been reportedly installing LTE equipment in its stores since last year.

Battery life is also a factor. The IGZO screen's low power consumption, as well as the extra space in the body afforded by the longer, thinner screen, would allow for the iPhone to have a big, long-lasting battery. That's important.

Until now, one of the main reasons Apple hasn't pulled the trigger on LTE is that the hyperspeed connections would have drained the iPhone's battery too quickly. Apple has always prized batter life in its devices, and there was no was it was going to ship an LTE iPhone that couldn't last a whole day on one charge.

NFC

There have been some rumors about the new iPhone having NFC, but at this point, they seem like a bit of a long shot. Passbook in iOS 6 seems like a natural fit for NFC.

Thing is, no one's really drooling over NFC right now. Not like they are for LTE speeds. Apple probably has the muscle to push its own NFC venture through the carriers, unlike Google Wallet. But while it makes perfect sense to pair a mobile payment system like Passbook with NFC, if demand isn't there, there's not much reason to stick its nose in the fire. Even Apple's WWDC announcement of Passbook made it seem like we'd be without NFC for a while.

Release Date

As of today, the best idea we have is that report from iMore that the iPhone will be announced alongside a new iPad Mini on September 12th, and released on the 21st. It would be about a month earlier than the presumed October announcement and release, which would have been a year after the 4S. But it also makes sense, since the iPhone 4S has lost a lot of momentum the past few months, since everyone's already talking about its successor.

Name

It's easier to call it the "iPhone 5," but it also doesn't make any sense; this will be Apple's sixth handset, after all. What's far more likely is that Apple will ditch the numerical naming convention like it did this year with the iPad. Your next iPhone will just be the iPhone.

Maybe

Of course, this could all be totally wrong. As we saw from the cache of iPhone prototypes last week, Apple works on multiple designs at once. So while it seems unlikely, the final released design could be totally different from what we've been seeing for the past several months. But it's way more likely that this is the iPhone that's going to land in our laps in about seven weeks.


Source: gizmodo.com

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