Mobile Temptations

If 2008 was the year of the iPhone and 2010 was the year of the Android  and  2010 was the year of the iPad with  15million unit sales 2011 will truly be the year of the tablet as a)Apple and Steve Jobs have put their imprimatur on tablets with the iPad and its; b)there is a dirty dozen IT players that don't want to be iPhone-ed out of the market; c)the delayed but now operational crucial CPU hardware from NVidia with the Tegra 2[and lots more] and Qualcomm with Snapdragon- these chips add CPU oomph while still delivering low power/long battery life tablets; and d)the basic OS software is at least keeping pace with the even faster hardware improvements.



And sure enough, at CES2011 and several other creative IT shows, dozens of tablets in various forms have appeared on the market. But before you become overwhelmed with too-many, me-too tablets - look at 4 of the serious contenders for your dollars. The first and leader is Apple's iPad- this tablet sets the base level of features which the new tablets must be able to deliver:
1)10hour++ full workday battery life;
2)less than 2 pounds in weight;
3)1024x768 plus 130DPI screen with bright color even in sunshine;
4)multi-touchscreen with simple gestures to operate;
5)WIFI, 3G+4G, HDMI, USB, connectivity;
6)Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Compass, Proximity sensor smarts;
7)App programming interface with tens of thousands of apps.

These are non-trivial capabilities which many of the `new`tablets fall short on. So the table below adds to the pioneering Apple iPad specs a profile of the Motorola Xoom with its high standard of new features, the rumored Apple iPad2 upgrade and the RIM Playbook with some winning features on weight and speed. Examining the table shows how far out of date the first Apple iPad is relative to its competition. Apple iPad is missing over two dozen features that the Motorola Xoom and/or the RIM Playbook have. But the next generation Apple iPad 2 will likely close the features gap [shown in yellow highlight where there is uncertainty]. But it is also instructive to note how well RIM's Playbook does in the comparison garnering 10 best features.

Feature	Apple iPad	Motorola Xoom	Apple iPad 2	RIM Playbook
Price [32GB+3G]	$729	$800	$700	$600
Screen Size	9.7" - 1024 x7 68	10.1" - 1280 x 800	9.7" - 1024 x7 68	7" - 1024 x 600
Screen Resolution	132 DPI	150 DPI	260 DPI	170 DPI
Camera Front/Back	NA/NA	2MP/5MP	2MP/5MP	3MP/5MP
Video Records/Plays	NA/720p	720P/1080p	720P/720p	1080p/1080p
Speaker/Mike	Yes/Yes	Yes/Yes	Yes/Yes	Yes/Yes
CPU	1GHz 1Core A4	1GHz 2Core Tegra 2	1.2GHz 2Core A5	1GHz 2Core Tegra 2
RAM	256MB	1GB	512MB	1GB
Max Storage internal/card	64GB/NA	32GB/32GB	64GB/64GB	64G/NA
Size	13 x 190 x 243	13 x 168 x 249	13 x 190 x 243	10 x 130 x 193
Weight	730gms	730gms	730gms	400gms
Battery Life	10 hrs	10hrs	10hrs	10hrs
Dock Keyboard/Recharge	Yes/Yes $70	Many/Many	Yes/Yes $70	Yes/Yes ??
OS - Operating System and Apps
OS	iOS4.2	Android 3.0	iOS4.3	QNX OS
OS Apps	300,000	200,000	300,000	4,000
Flash/Java Support	No/No	Yes/Yes	No/No	Yes/Yes
Full multitasking	Not yet	Yes	Not Yet	Yes
Turn by Turn Navigation	NA	Yes	Yes?	NA
Video Chat	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes
Sensory Devices
Accelerometer	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Gyroscope	No	Yes	Yes?	No
Compass	Yes	Yes	Yes	No
Proximity Sensor	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
PhotoSensitive	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
Barometer	No	Yes	No	No
Still+Video Camera Features
Camera Front/Back	NA/NA	2MP/5MP	2MP/5MP	3MP/5MP
Video Records/Plays	NA/720p	720P/1080p	720P/1080p	1080p/1080p
LED Flash	NA	Yes	Yes	NA
AutoFocus	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes
Image Stabilization	NA	Yes	Yes	Yes
Geo-tagging	NA	Yes	Yes?	Yes
Communication, networking, and connectivity
3G/4G	Yes/No	Yes/Yes	Yes/No	Yes/Yes
WiFi	Yes	Yes	Yes	Yes
HotSpot	No	Yes, 5 devices	Yes	No
NFC/RFID	No/No	Yes/No	Yes/Yes	No/No
DLNA	No	Yes	No	No
GPS/BlueTooth	Yes/Yes	Yes/Yes	Yes	Yes
HDMI	No	Yes	Yes	Yes
Features	Apple iPad	Motorola Xoom	Apple iPad 2	RIM Playbook
Color rating system: lowest rating uncertain rating highest rating

Sources of Information
Apple - Apple iPad specs, iPad2 rumors Engadget, iPad speculation, iPad2 at Tuaw, myCellphoneMyTerms, Tech.in
Motorola Xoom - Droid-life on Xoom, myCellphoneMyTerms, Phonearena on Xoom, SkatterTech on Tablets
R IM Playbook - Computerworld on Playbook, Skattertech on Tablets, Digital Trends

---

If you carefully follow the table, the first notable observation is how good the new Xoom and Playbook are - they really put the iPad to shame on basic features. So Apple will need to upgrade the iPad soon. Second is the number of categories in which RIM wins the honors for "best of tablets". The third observation is that a lot of rumours[noted with yellow background highlights]afflict not just the iPad2 but also the RIM Playbook.

In sum, the horse race for Consumer Tablet Supremacy is an open contest. In contrast, the fight for Dockable Tablets and Remote Control tablets are still very open; but Microsoft Windows 7 powered machines are the early leaders. So all alomg the for sure, Apple has serious challengers and if Mototrola or RIM falter - Acer, Asus, HP, HTC, Samsung among others have serious contenders too.