LGs new tablet leads iPad killers
By Kim Tong-hyung
LAS VEGAS ― It’s shaping up to be the year of the tablet at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, where everyone appears to have their own version of the iPad to take a bite out of Apple’s advance in the market.
Industry observers estimate that 100 or more of the portable touch-screen computers will be unveiled during the four-day gadget fest that kicked off Thursday (local time). And one of the more ambitious attempts at an iPad killer is galloping LG Electronics, as it generates significant buzz here for its first tablet, ``G-Slate,’’ one of the industry’s first devices to run on the newest version of Google’s Android mobile operating system, dubbed Honeycomb, which is optimized for tablets.
Here at the CES, Motorola is also showing off its own Honeycomb device, Xoom, and the upcoming tablets from other electronics makers like Dell, Acer, Lenovo and Hewlett Packard (HP) may also contribute to a mobile computing revolution that is reshaping the personal technology experience.
Samsung Electronics, virtually the only company that had been giving Apple any competition in tablets, will soon launch a Wi-Fi-only version of its Galaxy Tab, now used by 1.5 million users worldwide since its debut last year.
At a news conference at the CES, Samsung also revealed a new-type of product that aims to bridge the gap between the tablet and netbooks, or minimalist laptops that had been the darling of the personal computer (PC) industry before the iPad arrived and stole its thunder. The Sliding PC 7 is a touch-screen tablet that becomes more like a conventional laptop when pulling the slide-out keyboard hidden underneath.
Research In Motion (RIM), the maker of the BlackBerry, is expected to release its first tablet, ``Playbook,’’ a 7-inch device based on a dual-core processor and the company’s new operating system, during the first quarter of this year.
Although Microsoft chief executive officer (CEO) Steve Ballmer came short of delivering the company’s detailed business strategies for tablets at his keynote address at the CES on Wednesday, company executives did show off a series of prototype devices that had touch-screens, slide-out keyboards and dual screens.
The slew of tablets cramming display booths at the Las Vegas Convention Center is a marked changed from last year’s CES, when electronics makers had doubts over how consumers would respond to Apple’s new experiment.
With the iPad emerging as the most significant technological product of 2010, the floodgates have opened for me-too replicas, though they will surely be overshadowed when Apple releases its iPad 2.
Apple sold more than eight million iPads since it introduced the tablets in April and year-end sales could surpass 10 million. The Consumer Electronics Association, the Virginia-based group that runs the CES, predicts around 50 million tablets to sell worldwide this year.
``Apple’s launch of the iPad has left an undeniable print on mobile computing space. After a decade with minimal success, the tablet computing device is finally garnering mass market appeal,’’ said Shawn Dubravac, chief economist and director of research at the Consumer Electronics Association.
LG Electronics declined to reveal the detailed specifications for the G-Slate, as American mobile carrier T-Mobile is expected to announce the device on Thursday (local time). However, it’s known that the device will feature an 8.9-inch screen, smaller than the iPad and larger than the Galaxy Tab, powered by a dual-core processor, and optimized for multitasking and mobile media services.
The G-Slate will first be made available to T-Mobile customers during the first-half of the year, company officials said.
Xoom, a rival Honeycomb device to the G-Slate, will be sold through Verizon Wireless as a third-generation (3G) device during the first quarter, and Motorola plans to introduce a 4G tablet soon. The device features a 10.1-inch screen and is powered by Nvidia’s dual-core Tegra-2 processor, which promises higher speeds.