Tablets

Android-based tablets have captured 20 percent of the tablet market, according to a fresh data release from ABI Research. A flood of lower cost devices and Android fragmentation are considered to be the key factors in the increasing market share.

Android-based tablets have captured 20 percent of the tablet market, according to a fresh data release from ABI Research. A flood of lower cost devices and Android fragmentation are considered to be the key factors in the increasing market share.

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The iPad is currently dominating the tablet game, contributing more than 89 percent of tablet traffic in 13 countries comScore evaluated in their latest report that compares online traffic trends for the month of May

ASUS has unveiled Padfone, its new smartphone and tablet combo, at the Computex. Padfone is a modular mobile package that uses an Android smartphone and a tablet it can dock into. Switching of display between the smartphone and the tablet is dynamic and the display on the phone expands itself seamlessly once connected to the [...]

Apple has sold more than 15 million iPads so far. They have not been able to keep up with the demand for the recently launched iPad 2 which currently has a 3 to 4 week shipping delay from Apple’s online store. Microsoft itself already provides enterprise management support for iOS and Android based devices through Exchange ActiveSync and is working on further enterprise integration (see More Enterprise Mobile Device Management Options from Microsoft). Yet, we see these two separate anti-tablet messages from Dell and Microsoft. Curiously, both are published by Australian based organizations. Read more

Here’s an interesting number to ponder over.

Android 3.0 catalog still stalled below 100 apps (electronista)

Android 3.0 and the few (one) tablet it currently powers (Motorola Xoom) is in an interesting situation. Android itself has been around since October 2008 when the T-Mobile G1 launched in the U.S. Android was an uninteresting platform for most people until the Motorola Droid appeared in November 2009. Tablets based on various versions of Android have been appearing since early 2010 (or thereabouts). Many of these are not Google approved and do not have access to the Android Market and other Google provided features. The apparently popular Samsung Galaxy Tab appeared in late 2010 using Android 2.x which was designed for use on a phone and not a tablet (according to Google) but was a Google approved device. The Motorola Xoom has only been available for a few weeks now. So, it seems a little early to judge the Android OS 3.0 app market for tablets.

Apple’s iPad only a thousand or so apps when it launched in April 2010 despite a hugely successful iPhone app market. Today, the iPad’s app market is still not as large as the iPhone’s but can safely be said to be very successful. Still, 100 is a very small number. The Android tablet is having a tough time getting out the gate much as Android 1.x phones did for more than a year after it launched (13 months).

There definitely needs to be more Android OS 3.0 based tablets and, more importantly, at more affordable prices. Amazon’s recent launch of their Android Appstore will probably help convince a lot of developers to create apps and get them on the market. Near future developments with ebook readers from Barnes & Noble and Amazon becoming more tablet-like may also spur development. This is especially true for B&N’s Nook color which is already powered by a hidden Android engine.

WiFi-only Android tablets fill a valuable product category niche. So, I’m always interested to find more information about this product category. Big box warehouse store Costco sent email notices to their customers last week Friday to let them know that they could pre-order the WiFi-only Motorola Xoom tablet. Although Costco’s price is only $10 below the normail retail price, they do throw in a $22 Gel Skin Case with the purchase to sweeten the deal. And, Costco extends the manufacturer’s warranty to two years from the date of purchase. I’m extremely tempted to either order one from Costco.com or wait to see if the local Costco store starts to sell the WiFi-only Xoom.

I noticed that Costco had the 3G Xoom available at the local store near me over the weekend (photo below).

Video courtesy of asus

Way back in January 2010, Lenovo announced the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook. It featured a display that detached from the keyboard and turned into a standalone tablet. It ran Windows 7 Home Premium in its keyboard notebook mode and ran Lenovo’s own Skylight OS when in tablet mode. It generated quite a bit of buzz. But, it did not appear as an actual product. If it did, it does not appear in Lenovo’s website as viewed in the U.S.

Asus, on the other hand, is reported to have shipped a very similar product.

ASUS ships Eee Pad Transformer as its Android 3.0 tablet (Electronista)

It runs Android in both notebook (physical keyboard) and tablet mode. This is interesting since Google has repeatedly said that Chrome OS is for devices primarily designed for keyboard input (like notebooks and netbooks).

I could not find any information about U.S. availability of the Eee Pad Transformer.

In the days before Facetime, Gtalk, and even Skype, video conferencing was a complex and expensive task. Only businesses and governments had video conference facilities which often was in a special room with hidden electronics and where food and drink were not allowed. If you had the need for a video conference systems, one of the companies you had on your list to speak with and get a quote from was Polycom (founded in 1990).

If Skype and Facetime and a number of other good, and often free, video call services do not provide quite enough telepresence features for your mobile devices, this announcement from Motorola and Polycom may interest you.

Polycom and Motorola Team to Extend MobileTelepresence to Motorola XOOM

The Polycom Telepresence m500 Android app for the recently released Motorola Xoom tablet claims to provide HD personal telepresence and deliver improved enterprise collaboration and productivity by enabling users to easily connect and share content virtually anywhere via one-to-one or group video experiences.

So, what is it that this app actually does? The press release does not provide any function list or use case for it. So, we’ll have to wait until it is released later this year (second half of 2011) to find out.

Android 3, aka Honeycomb, first appeared on the Motorola Xoom at the end of February, and so far the Xoom is the only tablet to be running this version of Google’s operating system. Most of the reviews about Android 3 have been lukewarm, and it appears that Motorola rushed the Xoom and Honeycomb to market before either was complete.

I can understand Motorola’s desire to beat the iPad 2 to market, but I don’t understand why Google was willing to provide them with Honeycomb before it was finished. Apparently Google has recognized its mistake and has decided to not release the Honeycomb source code to the open source community at this time.

jkOnTheRun has a quote from Andy Rubin, head of Google’s Android unit, that to make their schedule to ship the Xoom they had to make design tradeoffs and took shortcuts. From what I read some of those shortcuts were probably with testing the software. Today’s announcement by Google suggests that we might not see additional tablets running Honeycomb until this summer.

After some speculation, RIM has formally announced that their tablet, the Blackberry Playbook, will run Android apps. The inclusion of support for Android apps is huge because it means RIM’s new tablet will ship with the ability to run hundreds of thousands of apps. To further make the point, when the Motorola Xoom shipped you could only install 16 apps on the tablet, which significantly limited what you could do with that tablet.

The Playbook will run Android apps in a secure “sandbox” that RIM is calling an app player. I am a bit discouraged by RIM’s statement that developers will have to repackage, code sign, and submit their apps to the Blackberry App World. Requiring developers to have to do something to make their Android apps run on the Playbook means that some may chose not to participate, meaning their is no guarantee that your favorite Android app will run on the Playbook.

RIM has not announced a ship date for the Playbook, but speculation is that it will be available for purchase in April or May. You can preorder the Playbook from Best Buy at $499.99 for a 16 GB model, $599.99 for a 32 GB model, and $699.99 for a 64 GB model.