Last week I was at my local PCWORLD superstore in Guildford/UK and walked by the brand new Tablet section. I was rather shocked to see it had as bigger real-estate as laptops. So I thought I spend some time testing various connected devices from 180 GBP to high end devices at around 600 GBP. I initially thought with that many choices, the days of iPad is numbered. But then with closer examination, I realized majority is just cheap copies that are not cheap enough.

The lowest price in the shop was the Advent Vega Tablet PC and the price attracted me but the usability was terrible. I had to wait for ages for salaro.com to show up when on the iPad using the same wireless in the shop it was instant. So when I looked today I see the product is no longer available on their site.

This highlights the main problem with most of the tablets in the shop where unless it is from a seriously reputable company - then one cannot trust its survival in case there is a hardware/software issue.

If the price difference is good like in the case of Advent to iPad, and the usability is if not as good as ipad but close to it, I think there is definitely a market for them. But as it stands today I don’t think so.

Decent devices like Blackberry Playbook at £479 GBP and Motorola Xoom at the same price is exactly the same price as a Apple iPad with 32 GB at £479 GBP. So why would one experiment with a device with practically no app echo system. Having said that, I am worried about the size of Apple and I wish at least one or two competitors to survive and start to compete with Apple. Only then will we see reasonable pricing structure for these essential devices and a healthy market for innovation on both device and software.

Therefore, it’s no wonder that buyers end up going with an iPad when the other options try so pathetically to get consumers to care about trivial differences in hardware, and make vague promises of improvements coming down the line, over which they have no real control.

On the commercial side Amazon is also planning a Tablet and The Wall Street Journal reports that Amazon plans to release an Android-based tablet by October. The rumour is that it will be cheap at around $299 for a 9-inch multi-touch screen colour tablet. This is more like the £199 GBP price bracket that could sell in UK but nothing exists yet.

Commercial opportunity aside, there are still room for even more innovations

Convertible Tablets:
Like Asus where the device can be both a laptop and a tablet. As much as I love my ipad but it can never replace my laptop for serious work. Microsoft Windows 8 is the biggest arrow in the convertibles’ bandwagon. A lot depends on Microsoft making that extremely promising start turn into something people really want to use. A rich interface with the ease of use of a tablet plus the power of a full-on PC isn’t an easy task, but Microsoft realizes they need this one to be a hit or they’re out of the tablet game forever. If convertibles become popular Apple could theoretically enter this space as ease since they already have the technology available.

Dual-Screen Tablets
The Microsoft Courier will never make it out of Microsoft’s labs and into consumers hands. The project is dead. This approach does have potential but as it stands no one is prepared to see it through. The main problems with this approach has been The bezel width, weight, and cost of two separate displays mean that the tablet wouldn’t be able to compete in form or price. Also, the lack of optimized apps for two screens means the benefits are extremely limited. When the technical issues are solved and a thin, foldable device no longer makes unacceptable compromises, then the software will follow. Until then, it is a big risk for any manufacture to take this concept on board.

Gaming Tablets
Sony or Xbox can theoretically be run from a tablet type device and they do have the advantage of owning or having access to content already there so if the device is built then no doubt they will sell to their existing fan-base. The problem of control is the main issue. While tablets are great for certain types of games, they’re just awful for others. The most popular “real” games in the world right now are shooters, and despite what fan-boys will tell you, they control terribly on tablets. Accessories like the Fling joystick help, but there is no standard control overlay and settings vary greatly between titles.

Stylus-powered Tablets
Most of the current devices are finger controlled rather than fine stylus control. As much as i love my iPad, but the ability to use a stylus of some kind is ignored. I would have loved to be able to use a stylus and use my ipad to draw, write or sketch ideas. That ability could have been built in the iOS with no difficulty and it is reported the reason that it is not is purely the Steve Job's distaste of this approach. Windows 8 is the only OS that has this covered.

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About Technology and Science blog by Salar Golestanian

These are various Salar Golestanian Blog some long and some short about the latest topics that interest me about Technology, Design, Mobile or Desktop Internet and all that is within its jurisdiction. Probably the best place for these would have been in SalarO.com, However, some Blogs have less of a commercial or corporate genra, so here they are placed in my personal site. These Blogs help me explain a little more then normally allowed in the 140 character real estate of Twitter posts. They may also link you to the actual news or site that expands further on my comments.