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Android Tablets See Growth at iPad’s Expense

March 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment
Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

Samsung Galaxy Tab 2

The market for tablets is changing as both Android-powered devices gather additional market share and the smaller form factor tablets, sub-8 inches, are seeing extremely strong growth, according to the most recent study from market research from International Data Corp.

Overall the tablet market is strong and growing, and IDC has upgraded its forecast to reflect this trend, now estimating that there will be 190.9 million, up from its previous forecast of 172.4 million units sold in 2013. It is also expecting the market to grow at an average increase of 11% a year between 2013 and 2016, with estimated shipments in 2017 to reach 350 million units according to the company’s most recent Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.

Smaller form factor tablets, those smaller than 8 inches, now account for half of all tablet sales and it expects that this trend will continue as consumers have found that smaller tablets often work better for daily usage compared to their larger brethren.

Tablets powered by the Android operating system grew its market share to 48.8% of the market, at the expense of Apple’s iPad family which witnessed a 5% market share drop to 46% of the market. However both are expected to see continual share erosion going forward as Windows, which combined RT and Pro, will gain an estimated 4.7% of the market this year but should grow to 10.1% by 2017, according to the report.

Another loser is ereaders, which are expected to lose market share due to the growing presence of low cost tablets that can both serve as an ereader and for a wide variety of additional uses as well. IDC has reduced its forecast by an average of 14% a year between 2013 and 2016. It estimates that there was 26.4 million sold in 2011 and that number represents the platform’s peak, declining to 18.2 million the following year. IDC expects modest gains this year and next before a permanent decline sets in.

Filed Under: Android, Apple, Google, iOS, iPad, Microsoft, Samsung, Surface, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Here Comes Fox Sports 1, Huge ASUS Tablet Hybrid

March 8, 2013 by 1 Comment

Fox Sports is seeking to rebound to the national stage once again. While most fans see Fox for MLB or NFL games much of its sports empire is a series of regional deals, but that may change as it is once again pushing for a national sports cable presence that unifies all of its properties.

Now on Aug. 1, 2013 we will see that rebirth with Fox Sports 1, an all sports network that it will be launching. This is a direct shot at ESPN, and who knows, it might drive that network back to talking about sports rather than whatever it is doing now days.

White House supports cell phone unlocking
The recent ruling mailing it illegal to unlock cell phones and tablets may get beaten back as the White House has come out saying that unlocking phones should be legal. The practice of unlocking, which enables a user to use the phone on the network of their choice, was recently declared illegal.

A petition was filed to the White House and R. David Edelman, White House adviser on Internet, innovation and privacy, responded by saying the administration feels consumers should be allowed to unlock their phones without civil or criminal penalties, especially if the phones were purchased secondhand or as gifts. Congress is also starting to weigh in on the issue and a number of bills are being proposed that would make it legal.

Samsung Galaxy Note III to have larger screen
A report from the Korea Times, via Brighthand, says that the upcoming handset release from Samsung will feature a 5.9-inch screen and is expected to be released in the second half of this year.

The handset is seen as a replacement for the current Galaxy Note II, a handset that has a 5.5-inch display and has already sold over 10 million units since last fall.

News Corp. Enters Tablet Space with Amplify
When most people think of News Corp. they probably think of Fox News or the Wall Street Journal but you can now add educational hardware to the mix with the introduction of Amplify, a company that it has created to deliver digital products for the educational system.

The tablet is a 10-inch device that will originally be available only with Wi-Fi but a 4G LTE version is expected later. It will have a $299 price tag but also require a 2-year subscription that will be $99 for Wi-Fi and $179 for 4G. Amplify is not just a tablet but part of a larger program that will include new curriculum offerings that it claims will reinvent teaching and learning and the devices will ship with a host of programs preloaded.

Asus has huge Tablet hybrid
Asus has said that it will start shipping its huge Transformer AiO device in the second quarter of 2013. Designed to be used as either a tablet or as a PC the Transformer AiO is an 18.4-inch tablet that has 1920 x 1080 resolution.

The interesting thing is that in tablet mode it has an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad core processor, 32GB of storage and runs the Android operating system. Attach it to a dock and it now has an Intel Core i5 processor, 1TB of storage and runs Windows 8.

Filed Under: Tablets Tagged With: , , , , ,

Archos Goes Platinum With Latest Tablet Lineup

February 15, 2013 by 1 Comment

archos

Archos has beaten the World Mobile Congress crowd to the starting line by introducing a trio of tablets prior to the show as it has taken the wraps off of its Platinum lineup that will have tablets that range in size from 8-inches to 11.6-inches.

The three tablets start with the Archos 80 Platinum, an 8-inch model, the Archos 97 Platinum that is a 9.7-inch device and the Archos 116 Platinum that is a 11.6-inch tablet. All three share many f the same internal features.
All of them will run the Android 4.1 operating system and will be powered by a 1.2GHz quad core processor and feature a 8-core GPU that is capable of driving 1080p video decoding. They include 2GB of RAM and both a mini-HDMI and Micro SD ports for expansion.

The 8-inch Platinum tablet features a 1024 × 768 resolution screen and will be priced at $199, while the 9.7-inch Platinum HD tablet will have a high resolution 2048 × 1536 resolution display and will sell for $299. The company said that both of these tablets are expected to be available by the end of the month.

The largest of the three, the Archos 116 Platinum will have a 1920 × 1080 resolution screen and is expected t ship in April with a for $349 price tag.

The tablets look sharp and appear to be a solid offering, yet the company has not yet made available how much storage the devices will have makes it impossible to give a solid assessment of them at this time. With Apple and Microsoft offering 128GBs and others have or will follow suit, it is an important factor when making comparisons.

Filed Under: Tablets Tagged With: , , ,

Friday Grab Bag: Apple Watch, Smaller Surface Tablets?

February 15, 2013 by 1 Comment

The New York Times has reported that Apple is developing a watch that will run the same operating system as its popular iPhones and iPads, iOS. That is about the sum total of the information provided but it is fun to think of all of the interesting things that you can do with such a device. I suspect schools will not be looking forward to students having access to answers via such a device.

Smart watches have been in vogue for the last few years, with Kickstarter favorite Pebbles probably leading the pack. There is also a range of task specific watches for activities such as golf, biking and other outdoor activities.

Changes in 2020 Olympic Sports
What do wrestling, softball and baseball have in common? Well for one they have all been dropped as Olympic sports, with a final vote now pending to drop wrestling starting with the 2020 games. The other two sports were dropped in 2005.

Still there is a line of sports seeking to be allowed at the Olympics including baseball and softball, which are seeking reinstatement. Others include karate, roller sports, squash, sport climbing and wakeboarding while rugby and golf have made the cut and will be played at the next games in 2016.


Nike says no to Android
Users of Nike’s Nike+ Fuelband are being left out if they are also users of an Android smartphone as the company has said that it will not be developing apps for that platform in the near future, but will stay the course by continuing to support Apple’s iOS.

Nike tweeted the news, which was reported by a number of outlets such as Engadget, and said that it will be focusing both on the Apple side of things and that users can also use nikeplus.com to sync their activity.

Microsoft to have smaller sized Surface tablets?
Microsoft’s chief financial officer Peter Klein hinted that the company was looking at developing next generation Surface tablets in a wide array of new sizes at the recent Goldman Sachs Technology and Internet Conference, according to geek.com.

He said that the company was prepared to meet demand from its customer base and that anything from 4-inches to 13 inches are on the table. The company had slow sales for its Surface RT models but appears to have strong sales in the Surface Pro lineup, particularly at the high end.

Apple has iOS fix in the works
Users of Apple’s iPad and iPhone devices that have its iOS 6.1 operating system might have noticed that the operating system appears to have issues with Microsoft’s Exchange servers. Well it looks like Apple is acknowledging the issue and has a fix in the works.

Issues such as reoccurring calendar items and excessive calling back to the servers and thus killing battery life were two of the principal issues associated with the bug.

Filed Under: iOS 6 Tagged With: , , , ,

Microsoft Surface Pro Sells Out — More this Weekend

February 13, 2013 by Leave a Comment

surface

After the lackluster news about the holiday sales of its first generation tablet, the Surface RT, and then more bad news about its Pro version just prior to shipping Microsoft has some good news to report. It’s sold out!
It was reported that just a day into its widespread availability Microsoft was out of its 128GB version of its Surface Pro tablet, although its 64GB version remained on the shelves for prospective customers.

Well that might not be so great since it could mean loss of sales but it looks to be a short term issue as the company has a new round of tablets on the way and they are expected to hit store shelves as well as Microsoft’s own online store by this weekend.

Some have questioned if the tablets actually sold out, or if it was an artificial shortage designed to get solid publicity for the company by showing demand for the tablet. PCWorld posed that question and has provided similar comments from others.

Still it is hard to say for sure since it is doubtful that Microsoft is going to provide its roadmap and strategic plans for use to look at. The question I have is if the demand for the highest capacity tablets was driven by the news of how little space was actually available for users?

I guess we will see the true popularity of the tablets, both from Microsoft and others when IDC releases its next quarterly tablet report. Other Windows tablets have received popular acclaim, such as the most recent offering from Lenovo. This should help break open the market even more, providing Samsung, Apple, Google and Amazon with a new generation of competition.

Filed Under: Amazon, Android, Apple, Google, iPad, Kindle, Lenovo, Microsoft, PCWorld, Samsung, Surface, Tablets, Windows 8 Tagged With: , , , , ,

Microsoft’s Surface Tablets about to gain Nokia as a Developer?

February 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

win8

After lukewarm at best acceptance of its first Windows tablets, the Windows RT line, Microsoft most likely has its collective fingers crossed for the pending release of the Windows Surface Pro line just a bit late this month.

Now it looks like it will have an additional ally to help it gain mind share and market share in the rapidly growing market segment as Nokia has indicated that the company is looking at and possibly reading offerings in that space.

Nokia’s chief executive officer Stephen Elop told the Australian Financial Review that while no formal decision has been made the company “We haven’t announced tablets at this point, but it is something we are clearly looking at very closely. We are studying very closely the market right now as Microsoft has introduced the Surface tablet, so we are trying to learn from that and understand what the right way to participate would be and at what point in time.”

While from reading the interview Elop is happy to provide hints he refuses to be nailed down definitively on the subject, but certainly seems to indicate that a tablet with Windows is in the company’s future. There have been reports in the past that Nokia has a tablet in the works but this is the closest that it has come to actually saying that it is looking seriously into this space.

The company had previously tied its future to Microsoft in the handset market where the once high flying Finnish company has hit upon bad times as it has seen its product sales and revenues hit a steep decline. It has abandoned older operating systems and become a leading Windows Phone developer. Now it appears that it will take an addition step in cementing its partnership with Microsoft by developing tablets.

Filed Under: Tablets Tagged With: , , ,
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