<IT WORLD> Tablets take over Taipei
By Martin J Young
HUA HIN, Thailand - Tablet computers were the highlight of Asia's largest
computer exhibition, the annual Computex Taipei, which was expected to attract
as many as 120,000 visitors this week after opening its doors in the Taiwan
capital on June 1. The five-day event showcases 1,715 exhibitors, including
some big industry names such as Asus, Acer, AMD, Intel, Fujitsu, Microsoft and
Nvidia.
The strong emphasis on tablet computers follows Apple's success with the iPad.
More than 30 versions of rivals to the American company's handheld touch-screen
device were
expected to be showcased. Apple claims to have sold over 2 million iPads within
60 days of the product launch earlier this year.
Intel confirmed plans to unveil Atom CPU-based tablet designs based on a new
platform code named "Oak Trail". The platform will offer a 50% reduction in
power consumption over previous Atom chipsets, full HD video support and
compatibility with multiple operating systems, including Windows 7 and Google's
Android.
Taiwan-based AsusTek announced a powerful tablet computer aptly named the Eee
Pad, which will run with Windows 7 and be driven by a dual core Intel
processor. The unit, a direct rival to the iPad, will be available in 10-inch
and 12-inch versions starting at US$399. The cheapest iPad on the market, with
only 16 gigabyte storage, no 3G, and very limited specifications, starts at
$499, so the one real player in the market so far could soon face very intense
competition.
Asus also announced a similar product it has dubbed the Eee Tablet, which
appeared to be more of a traditional e-book reader with emphasis on note-taking
and annotation with a stylus. This product will be used for multimedia and
e-reading whereas the Eee Pad will be more of a portable touch-screen laptop
with better hardware capabilities.
Other manufacturers such as Acer, Dell, Lenovo and HP Compaq are expected soon
to follow suit with their own tablets, so consumers are likely to have a lot
more choice over hardware specifications, operating systems and software
applications if they haven't already shelled out for an iPad.
The winner in the long run is likely to be the company that offers the most
apps - small software applications that can be downloaded and installed on the
handheld device, be it a tablet or a smart-phone. At the moment Apple has it in
the bag with three years lead over its competitors and around 200,000 apps in
its online store, but Google is catching up fast.
Google, by making its Android software open source and allowing anyone to
develop anything without all of the cloak-and-dagger secrecy and restrictions
found in the Apple camp, is bound to emerge as the platform of choice sooner or
later. Adding to this momentum is the fact that Android will be running on
devices from multiple manufacturers and carriers; and that around 57% of
Android's apps are free compared with only 25% of Apple's, according to
analytics from Distimo, a website that monitors app stores. In the world of
technology, the two essential ingredients for product success seem to be choice
and the f-word - "free" - and Google offers both.
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Google is rumored to be releasing its Chrome-based operating system towards the
end of the year, according to announcements at the Computex trade show this
week. Chrome OS is expected to be a direct competitor to Windows, which still
sits on over 90% of computer desktops in the world. Google is pinning its hopes
on selling the cloud computing concept to current Microsoft users and getting
them to store their data on its servers instead of on their desktops.
The new operating system will be based on the current browser and designed to
run on laptops and netbooks that are permanently online with external
applications such as photo-editing packages and productivity suites running
from servers in the cloud.
Company executives continue to tout Chrome as the way forward, but the
likelihood of it knocking Windows off its dominant perch is slim. Mac OS, which
has been around since 1984, has struggled to gain 5% of the operating system
market despite all of the Apple talk, and Linux, the free open source
alternative, has been available since 1991 and hovers around a 1% share.
There are also the major security concerns many consumers and businesses still
have with storing all of their data in the clouds. Recent attacks on Google's
Gmail servers and the possibility of server or Internet outages will make most
corporate clients think twice. Then there is the additional dilemma of giving a
company that derives 97% of its gargantuan revenue stream from advertising all
of your personal data.
Telecoms
In the ongoing battle for total market domination, the three big players
continue to form shifting allegiances and take furtive shots at one another.
This week, the tech press hinted at a partnership between Microsoft and Apple -
of all companies - in an effort to compete with Google's search dominance.
Negotiations continued this week on whether to include Microsoft's Bing search
engine as the prominent option on Apple's iconic iPhone, which at present has
Google as the dominant search option. With Android's share of the mobile-phone
market already surpassing Apple's, the latter now appears to view its former
arch enemy as less of a threat than the upstart Google.
Martin J Young is an Asia Times Online correspondent based in Thailand.
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