Is the Tablet the next Netbook

It has been a year and a half since Apple launched its successful iPad. If you read technology sites all around the world, it would seem that the tablet will kill the personal computer. 

iPad make excellent gaming platforms among other things.

I got a tablet in January 2011 and quickly passed it off to my wife. It has been less useful than it looked. Basically, I am sticking to the laptop and smartphone combination from now on, and will sit on the sidelines watching the tablet market with interest.

In one year and one quarter since its launch, as of June 2011, 28.7 million iPads have been sold. Android tablets, sales are estimated at less than 3 million since their release.

In one quarter, Gartner reports that almost 92 million personal computers, not including tablets, have been sold. That is in just one quarter versus five quarters of tablet sales. Could the tablet be the next netbook? Something to tide us over in though economic times?

Tablets share a lot with netbooks. Like the netbook they are cheap and portable. Like the netbook they are of limited use. Overall, while tablets are more functional than netbooks, most of what you can do in a tablet, you can do on a smartphone. Android tablets have a higher mountain to climb. The latest generation of smartphones are really now mini-tablets.

Lenovo tries to define a role for its tablet.

Is the tablet the next netbook? Or are we entering the era of keyboard less computing.  I think, tablet will fail as a productivity device, but makes a excellent multimedia and gaming platform. Basically, I do not see it going away, neither do I see it growing as much as predictive by experts. This one is too hard to call.  Would love to hear you chime in.

Update: We got some new data on tablet sales from Digitimes for the third Quarter of 2011. So are the figures from both Gartner and Digitimes for comparison -

Desktop and laptops - 92 million.
Tablets - 18.9 million (13 million Apple iPads and 5.9 million tablets of other brands)

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Time to rethink the Android tablet

Amazons Kindle Fire has laid down the gauntlet, the powerful dual core Kindle Fire cuts down on some features, which I do not think will be missed (and a few that might), but it got 95,000 pre-orders in one day, and it only sells in the US for now. It would have been at least 95,001 if they let me order it from the Philippines. 

The gauntlet has been laid, a 7-inch Android tablet costs US$199. In apparent response prices for the HTC Flyer and BlackBerry PlayBook has dropped with some retailers to US$299.

When I saw the specifications for the Xoom, last February, I was thinking, what was Motorola thinking. It turned out, these specifications became the standard for the industry. In the end, there is too much fat on an Android tablet, and this does result in higher costs.

An Android tablet (and an iPad for that matter) pretty much mimics all the capabilities of our smartphones, except for call and text functionality. Some tablets are actually fully capable phones. The question is why. I think it is fair to assume a tablet owner would also own a smartphone.

Drop the primary camera. Maybe we need a secondary camera for video calls, but why have a primary camera? A smartphone is really a more convenient size for taking pictures and video. 

Drop GPS. A smartphone also makes a better navigation device. Imagine cradling your 10.1-inch tablet on your cars dashboard. Apps requiring location can get the info from cellular towers and WiFi signals.

Rethink the 720p screen on smaller tablets. The 600 x 1024 screen on the 7-inch Samsung Galaxy Tab is good enough and the one on the 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook is gorgeous.

Decide what it is for, and build it for a dedicated purpose. With laptops, you have high end gaming machines and lower end general purpose device. Each tablet coming out embodies the latest technology the market has to offer. This could be replicated having dual core gaming and media tablets, and single core web browsing tablets with less RAM. Yes, you can have your uber tablets too with 3D cameras, a 3D display, GPS and a 1080p screen.

Lower end tablets do exist, but from manufacturers which make us think, twice and thrice about the source.

In the end all this might just save a few dollars, but people expect Android tablets to be cheaper than iPads, and smaller tablets cheaper than larger ones, so every peso (or dollar) does count.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 8 9 The best tablet option

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is now available in the Philippines. Two versions are available:

16GB, WiFi & 3G - Php24,500

32GB, WiFi & 3G - Php30,000

These prices make it the cheapest dual-core 3G capable tablet in the Philippines. Hardware wise, we also think it could the best, depending on your needs. 

The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 has the specifications of you basic Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) dual core tablet. It has a 800 x 1280 screen, a dual core 1GHz processor on a Tegra 2 chipset, 1GB of RAM, 16GB or 32GB (non-expandable storage), A-GPS, WiFi,  3G (HSDPA+ 21.1 mbps) and Bluetooth,  connectivity and HDMI and USB connectivity through an adapter. It also comes with two cameras capable of 720p video recording. It also has full phone functionality. So it is the most fully feature tablet in the Philippine market.

What is to like, hardware wise? The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 has a smaller 8.9-inch screen compared to its competitors, but this also gives it a much lighter weight.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 - 453g

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 - 560g

Apple iPad 2 - 607g

Acer Iconia - 730g

We also like it best price wise for a 3G tablet.

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 16GB, 3G & WiFi - Php24,500

Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 16GB, 3G & WiFi - Php27,500

Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 16GB, 3G & WiFi - Php30,000

Apple iPad 2 16GB, 3G & WiFi - Php30.990

Apple iPad 2 16GB, 3G & WiFi - Php35.990

Smaller but still substantial screen, in exchange for the lighter weight seems to be worth it. It is 15% lighter than its bigger brother, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and 25% lighter than the Apple iPad 2. 

Ultimately, 10-inch tablets are used on tables the same way we use netbooks and laptops. If used a tablet on a table, I really would much rather use a laptop. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is a more mobile device. Something which is easier to use in hand than its larger 10.1-inch siblings.

With Ice Cream Sandwich having been launched, more and more Android apps will be optimized for 720p screens. It could be the right time for an Android tablet.

Would I buy it? Well no. I do not feel the need for 3G on a tablet. I already have it on my phone. Basically, I would rather not have to maintain a second line. Since I do not appreciate 3G, than things like Apple iPad 2 16GB WiFi only version is still a cheaper option at Php23,990. I also do not need full phone functionality on a tablet, so that score no points we me either.

Second, I do not like being an early adopter. Ice Cream Sandwich has been launched so more and more Android apps will be optimized for 720p screens, but I will have to wait for those. Apple has 100,000 tablet optimized apps now, though they usually cost twice as much as iPhone apps.

So it is a hard choice. The Samsung Galaxy Tab 8.9 is compelling hardware wise and there are more free apps on the Android Market. It is both a tablet and a phone is that is important for. But for a pure tablet, Apple iPads are still the safer bet. For Php24.5K, I would not want to be an early adopter.

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