Computex 2010 Tablet PC Round-Up With Video 174
MojoKid writes "At Computex 2010, devices like the Eee Pad and Eee Tablet were all the rage. Of course the bulk of these were Intel Atom-based systems, but there were a number of NVIDIA Tegra 2-based models in the mix as well. What is glaringly apparent on all of these tablets — and absent on the iPad — are the multitude of connectivity options built into them, like USB ports, flash card readers, and video output ports. Obviously, from a hardware perspective, the iPad is a sexy device; but Apple's true mastery is that of the user interface. The first big player that steps up with something competitive to Apple in that regard will have the pole position in 2010's race for the hot re-emergent tablet market." Reader Raikus adds an opinionated
summary of winners and losers at "Tabletpalooza," i.e. Computex 2010.
Interesting quote from the summary (Score:5, Insightful)
I think it would be more accurate to say that Apple already has the pole position (no pun intended), and that any new competitors would be the runner up until proven otherwise.
"The first big player that steps up with something competitive to Apple in that regard will have the pole position in 2010's race for the hot re-emergent tablet market."
iPhad; hardware is sexy? (Score:2, Insightful)
Obviously, from a shiny perspective, the iPad is a sexy device; but Apple's true mastery is that of the lack of a user interface.
Fixed that for ya.
1. There is nothing sexy about a crippled CPU with no connectivity.
2. People can't handle choices. If you give them a device with only a few buttons, then it's like a microwave and they're happy.
Re:Interesting quote from the summary (Score:3, Insightful)
Is Windows purchased because it is technically the best, or because it has the best marketing team aimed at the target market?
Ask yourself the same question about the iPad.
All Apple's taught us is that it's possible to market something so well that even "I gotta be different, man!" geeks are taken in.
Re:Interesting quote from the summary (Score:4, Insightful)
That's a ridiculously argumentative question based on a false dichotomy.
I don't buy Windows because it's technically the best AND I don't buy it because it has the best marketing team. I buy Windows because it runs Adobe CS5 and Ableton, and because I am familiar with the Windows interface. Doubtless, other people buy Windows for different reasons.
If your false dichotomy truly represented the only two reasons why people purchase Windows, open source systems would have no trouble displacing Windows.
Fanboi is a modern synonym for eunuch.
Maybe so (Score:4, Insightful)
The first big player that steps up with something competitive to Apple in that regard
Haven't prognosticators been saying this exact same thing for years about the iPod and the iTunes store?
The song goes something like this: "We've got hardware! It's got MIPS and ports and pixels and gigabytes! All we need now is easy to use software. See that word 'easy'? That must mean it's EASY to build."
As a geek, I'm not interested in an iPad because it's missing hardware options, but to the regular consumer the shiny, easy, hip user experience is everything.
Re:iPhad; hardware is sexy? (Score:3, Insightful)
There are only so many things you can do with a tablet form factor.
Other than a button or two and some ports, they're all going to look more or less the same.
As to gui and inputs/outputs (Score:2, Insightful)
Apples sees it as a pure content delivery device with lock down and photo usb as an afterthought.
Windows was the same with sound, video drm ect.
Your just renting time and buying products on their devices.
I hope other devices have real computer like support.
Webcam to flash to a webpage in real time, tethering, telco options, real software and media options to fit your life, not just fill Apples coffers.
Someone needs to do I am a "Ipad" and I am a Table pc" parody.
Have some fun with how limited, expensive and locked down push-centric devices are.
Re:Interesting quote from the summary (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes and no. In two years time, i'm sure some 'android' equivalent will establish itself as a real competitor, and it's fan's will claim that it is the best thing since sliced bread and that nothing Apple does is 'orignal' or 'new', all the while forgetting that their tablet probably has it's roots, and it's very existence based on an attempt to 'best the iPad'. The same is true for the iPhone and the current crop of Android devices.
Simply creating a device is only half the challenge. You also have to do it well, which is where they tend to fall to the wayside.
Re:iPhad; hardware is sexy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Interesting quote from the summary (Score:4, Insightful)
or the introduction of the iPad which again went from 0 to todays 2 million in a matter of weeks.
That's the best evidence of good marketing I've come across. It's an unproven device which few people had even seen, let alone had the chance to try out, yet preorders and early orders came in by the hundreds of thousands.
People want to conform to a majority brand: the Apple brand offers social interoperability. No-one does real work on an Apple iDevice - they're for the guy in Starbucks always writing his first bestseller, taken mainstream. If you think you're the exception, you're on the spaceship with the management consultants (how I miss '70s and '80s Apple..).
2010 Roundup? (Score:2, Insightful)
USB Ports on Tablets (Score:4, Insightful)
You must have one of those special iPads, then - the ones Steve Jobs is selling [apple.com] have a Dock Connector Port, though you can hang a cable with a USB connector off of that, or plug into a dock. It's not part of the tablet itself, it's an external device, so it's annoying at best if you're trying to connect things to a tablet as opposed to a desktop-mounted thing. Also, I can't tell from the documentation how many of those things you can use simultaneously - obviously you can't use the Dock-to-VGA cable and the Dock-to-USB cable at the same time, but if you've got the Dock or Keyboard Dock, can you use both the VGA and the USB at once? It doesn't look like it.
With USB, if the device only has one port (boring), you can hang a powered hub off it to support keyboard, mouse, Ethernet adapter, etc, but AFAIK there's no equivalent fanout for Dock ports. So your iPad battery had better be charged up before you use it with an external screen, and you'd better have a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse and Wifi.
It's one thing for Apple to try to use proprietary connectors to keep you locked in to Apple's world. But it's another thing entirely to be Not User Friendly as a result, or to be Ugly and Klunky instead of Insanely Cool-Looking.
Re:Interesting quote from the summary (Score:3, Insightful)
I would imagine the vast majority of the 2 million were purchased by people who owned an iPhone or iPod Touch and therefore had a pretty good idea of what they were getting.
It certainly wasn't as big an unknown as the first iPhone.
Re:iPhad; hardware is sexy? (Score:4, Insightful)
No, people CAN handle choices. And they're choosing the iPad.
Re:Interesting quote from the summary (Score:3, Insightful)
iphone piggy backed on itms and ipod, pretty much the same way windows piggy backed on dos and the invetment people had done there.
Re:iPhad; hardware is sexy? (Score:5, Insightful)
Wow, a blatant troll at +3 insightful. Well, I suppose it only takes a handful of mods.
1. There is nothing sexy about a crippled CPU with no connectivity.
There is something intriguing, and perhaps sexy from the right viewpoint, about a device that responds instantly and smoothly to your input, and which has consumer-level (finished) applications that look gorgeous. A device that was nothing but "shiny" would have no, or few, practical applications, and any consumer level app is or can be considered a "practical application"--it's something you would pay money to do, use, or have. Or, well, not any, I guess, but I think the size of the market supposes pretty clearly, if only by sheer virtue of statistics, that there are in fact practical applications for it.
2. People can't handle choices. If you give them a device with only a few buttons, then it's like a microwave and they're happy.
I disagree with your oversimplification. A platform like Windows or Linux allows anyone who develops applications to say, "You need to be this geeky to install and use this application." This is by far one of the most straightforward, and yet it is somehow one of the most hotly debated, reversals of the iOS: they do not allow you to jump through hoops in order to get extra functionality, which means that the programmers either have to begrudgingly improve their GUI skills or limit functionality altogether.
The reason is simple--the people they're marketing to will go cross-eyed if you talk to them about a topic they would need to study for months or years to understand at the same level you would, and believe it or not, computers and programming are such a topic. If your life is already computer-centric, understanding computers is no big deal. If your life is centered around construction work, business deals, hair salons, clothing design, or any of the other (completely fucking legitimate) career paths out there, saying "You have to spend months learning computers before this $500 tablet and this particular $2 application become useful to you" is going to lose you customers.
If instead you tell those same customers, "We promise we won't let the programmers do anything that's going to confuse the crap out of you, for instance, try this $2 app that you can start using right away! And there are more that are just as easy!" you now have a customer, and probably more on the way
I mean, in some ways I feel you. I've been a computer user literally longer than I can remember, and the idea of having a tablet that can also have cron jobs and shell scripts running in the background is delicious. But no, dude, don't yell at the Norms for being Normal. Give it a year or two and there will be some kind of really excellent Linux tablet that does everything a geek could ever want. You don't have to try to turn this one into that miracle product. Just let it be.
Really? (Score:4, Insightful)
I'm probably going to get modded down by fan boys for my blasphemy, but...
Lack of USB ports, card readers, and video outputs and the like are features? Seriously!?
You do realize that the reason that there are compatibility issues that exist within the PC world is not simply because of hardware options, but because of the fact that every single piece of the system is customizable. Every piece of hardware, every piece of software, and even the OS can be picked by a user. The more variables there are, the more possibility that there can be unexpected interactions.
However, if you have a locked down platform where you control the OS and the hardware that is present, then the chances of random compatibilities goes down incredibly. That's without even taking into account having control of the software too.
My XBox 360 has more hardware features than my Wii does, and amazingly I haven't had a single compatibility problem with it. My friend has no issues with his DSi, even though it has more hardware features than his old DS. I'm going to take a stab in the dark and guess that if Apple had added additional hardware features to their iPad, then the chances are they'd work without compatibility issues.
I think that one could argue legitimate reasons for exclusion of certain hardware exclusions. I might disagree, but reasonable arguments could be made. However this one just seems silly. I might have a lot of criticisms for Apple, but they seem to do well in quality control; I have faith that they could pull off hardware features that work.
NO NO NO! BAD TABLET, BAD! (Score:3, Insightful)
What is glaringly apparent on all of these tablets — and absent on the iPad — are the multitude of connectivity options built into them, like USB ports, flash card readers, and video output ports.
Christ, whats wrong with these people? Make it *NICE TO USE*, and THEN worry about slowly trickling out new features!
Are you really going to take X over Y because it has an IR transmitter? Maybe the Slashdot audience, but certainly not the majority of consumers, you know those people whos money is just as worthy as the tech elite?
Make it nice! Make it lovely, a pleasure to use! I actually imported an iPad, without even seeing one in the metal, and ended up paying EXTRA. And yet, I am wildly happy with my iPad, cannot imagine living without it. Would I want "Tablet Y" even if it were cheaper and had a Serial port? NO! Because every other tablet SUCKS!
I actually fear for the other manufacturers, who have clung to Android. I think its bad to build Google into this all important Super-Company in every market. It means we get locked down into Android...or nothing...because theres no third option.
I hope HP does well with WebOS, the big thing with getting ANY portable computer essential is that its NICE to use! Not some hacked together lump of plastic and ports.
A man with a Netbook came into my work today, he was measuring furniture and entering it onto the HP Netbook. He was pushing a pram, AND holding this open screened Netbook down each aisle, incredibly awkward looking! I couldnt help but imagine how much better using my iPad would be for the task. I could easily hold my iPad in one hand, and tap-type with the other, instead of walking about with this big (it looked huge and flimsy) Netbook with a crappy screen. For each entry, he had to place it on something, and crouch over to type a few numbers into the spreadsheet. I'm sure I can type many times faster on a physical keyboard than my iPads software keyboard, but not in that scenario! How fast are you when crouched over, pecking out keys in a public space? Holding with one hand, tap typing with the other, I would be much more efficient using my iPad in this situation. Of course, a smartphone would have been better yet.
For the love of god Hardware Companies, make NICE products, dont just worry about what never to be used port you can slap on the ugly sides!
What an appropriate Slashdot quote "The truth of a thing is the feel of it, not the think of it. -- Stanley Kubrick"
Re:iPad has USB and video out in its iPod connecto (Score:1, Insightful)
"iPad also works with many iPod accessories, such as credit card readers, which is something other tablets can't say."
Yeah, they're stuck with standard USB credit card readers, like you'd use with a PC or even *gasp* a Mac desk/laptop. I bet they cry at night because they can't use the cool proprietary bus.
Anyone who wants bonjour can install it on Windows machines along with quicktimes/itunes/safari, courtesy of Apple's all-in-one installer. Anyone who wants zeroconf in Maemo, at least, just installs avahi. I don't have an Android or WebOS device, but no reason avahi shouldn't work there, too; if nobody's packaged it up, it's because nobody cares, more's the pity.
"There's no shortage of connectivity." only because you spin every bit of missing connectivity as a MOTHERFRAKKING FEATURE! No, making your device too thin for standard ports is NOT a feature -- especially since that thinness does absolutely no good, you can't put it in your pants pocket or anything. And you brag about its "Bluetooth keyboards, audio, and controls.", blithely ignoring it doesn't do bluetooth file transfer? Oh, that's right, because we don't let users play with the filesystem from on the device; that would just confuse them. You have to use iTunes for that; it's a FEATURE!
Forgive me if I find it a wee bit disingenuous to call it a "feature" every time you tell me I can't do something. If Steve Jobs thinks a shiny (or style, or ease-of-use, or whatever) vs. functionality tradeoff is the right thing to do, stand up and say it, but don't pretend that killing functionality is adding functionality. If it's really the right way, YOU DON'T NEED TO LIE ABOUT IT.
Comment removed (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Interesting quote from the summary (Score:3, Insightful)
A combination of good marketing and a loyal fan base that know that they tend to like Apple products. One person's fanboi is another person's satisfied customer.
Re:Really? (Score:1, Insightful)
Lack of USB ports, card readers, and video outputs and the like are features? Seriously!?
Did you even finishing reading the post? His reasoning was completely explained.
Re:USB Ports on Tablets (Score:3, Insightful)
Why should the hardware manufacturers have to make special accomodations for
a particular system vendor when there are widely used open standards that are
readily available?
It's not like we're talking about a video card or a capture card here.
Re:iPhad; hardware is sexy? (Score:4, Insightful)
> There must be something sexy about the iPad hardware since all the tablet computers shown on the page linked to in the summary look pretty much identical to one.
There's plenty you could do to bring a tablet into the 21st century and still leave it looking pretty similar to an iPad.
1) USB port
2) SD card port
3) HDMI port
4) Decent CPU
5) Respectable GPU
6) Correct screen geometry for video
7) Some means of accomodating an external hard drive.
8) An internal hard drive.
9) non-crippled OS
10) Allow for multiple "app" vendors.
Re:iPhad; hardware is sexy? (Score:3, Insightful)
>> 1. There is nothing sexy about a crippled CPU with no connectivity.
>
> Internet connectivity not enough for you? Are you holding out for wormhole connectivity?
No it isn't. I would like to be able to connect to my own home network. I want to print without any stupid hacks. I want to be able to save stuff and to read stuff that I have stored on other computers. I don't want to be limited to Apple-only standards and incomplete 3rd party tools. I don't want to have to deal with some lame app that looks like it's still stuck in the 90s to manage my files.
Re:iPhad; hardware is sexy? (Score:3, Insightful)
> I disagree with your oversimplification. A platform like Windows or Linux allows anyone who
> develops applications to say, "You need to be this geeky to install and use this application."
Nope. That's total, mindless, foaming at the mouth, cult following FUD.
Windows installs have never been terribly complex.
Linux uses an installation method that strangely resembles the App Store.
The idea that installing new stuff on a general purpose machine must be hard even
when that machine is a Unix machine with the training wheels sawed off is a fallacy
from the last century.
It's time to update the FUD.
I install VLC on Macs not because it is "free software" but because it is the simpler
option when compared to dealing with the prospect of augmenting the designated built-in
OS level service. Apple has no "midas touch" by any stretch of the imagination.
The iPad doesn't even "limit choice" really. It just limits certain choices that might
be inconvenient for the platform vendor. This is more like Microsoft might have run amok
in the 90s then some sort of improved user experience.
The iPad is Microsoft's monopoly wet dream.