Tablet computer ownership will lead the industry over the coming 12 months as all-in-one devices continue to grow in popularity according to the CEA.
Expect the first wave of Windows 8 tablets to land in retail stores in November, according to CNET. A secret source deep within Intel (INTC) says the Intel-based Microsoft (MSFT) Windows 8 tablets will use Intel’s upcoming Clover Trail Atom chip. DailyWirless says that Clover Trail is Intel’s first dual-core Atom design based on its 32-nanometer process technology.
The author says the tablets will fall into two basic sizes: pure 10-inch tablets and hybrid 11-inch designs with physical keyboards. Windows 8, like Windows 7 before it, will be powered by chips from Intel and AMD (AMD) and will be able to run older, so-called “legacy” applications.
A separate release from Microsoft, Windows RT, will land on devices powered by ARM (ARMH) chip suppliers NVidia (NVDA), Qualcomm (QCOM), and Texas Instruments (TXN). RT will not run older Windows applications.
Apple Inc may find it harder to keep market share in China because homegrown tablet PC brands will win over more customers says a report on China Daily.com. Sun Peilin with Analysys International, told China Daily, Apple’s (AAPL) market share will shrink to about 70 percent, “Chinese tablet PC makers are trying to form a stronger echelon behind Apple by taking over the market share that belonged to small copycat manufacturers.”
Apple’s iPad and iPad 2 took 78.3 percent of the market share in China in Q1 2012, distantly followed by Samsung’s (005930) 5.1% and ErenEben’s 4.5% according to the article. AI’s data indicates tablet PC sales in China are expected to break 4.5 million units. Companies including Lenovo (LNVGY), Acer (ACEIY) and home appliance giant Haier Group, are releasing their own tablet PCs.
Sun from Analysys states in the blog the biggest obstacle Chinese brands face is how to come up with a different marketing angle against Apple, to avoid head-on competition with the iPad. “There are two separate markets for tablets: You can either go entertainment or business. The iPad is a big competitor in terms of entertainment, so Chinese companies should be different from iPad,” Sun suggested. Some Chinese companies have already differentiated their tablets. Beijing ErenEben Information Technology Co, a business tablet PC maker, won a government contract to provide tablets to the police department in the Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region.
According to Fang Liyong, COO of ErenEben, the company sold nearly 150,000 units of its first two generations of products in 2010, making it the biggest homegrown tablet PC brand by sales volume. “We are now selling nearly 30,000 units every month in 2011,” he said.
With a touchscreen developed by Japanese graphics-tablets maker Wacom Co Ltd, the ErenEben tablets were designed to offer an experience similar to writing on real paper. The COO boosts, “ErenEben has great growth potential, because China’s tablet market is so big, and Apple cannot take it all.”
iPad Suit
Mohan’s Custom Tailors of New York is taking the boring and basic out of the word “suit” by designing a new and improved version for the modern man. According to their website, as men are dressing up and going out to dinner dates, museum galleries, and lounges in fine style, Mohan’s is creating contemporary and handsome designs to fit their needs. Mohan’s has introduced the fashion of the future with their new tech offerings, including pockets for your Research In Motion (RIMM) Blackberry, Apple (AAPL) iPod, iScribe, Bluetooth, and more. Most recently, they have revealed the first-ever iPad pocket in menswear, creating a fashion rush for “techies” around the world.
iPad Bacon Case
At Antje Schmitt’s storefront at Etsy, the famous handcrafted Bacon Case for the Apple (AAPL) iPad 3 is now available. The Bacon Case is also available for older iPads, MacBooks, Netbooks, and Notebooks.
ZD.net – “The undisputed king of the weird category however, is the iPad bacon case ($59, pictured), which I’m ordering immediately.”
Gizmodo – “It’s $59, but who cares? Bacon iPad cases are what money was invented for, people. Well, that, and both actual bacon and actual iPads.”
Gearfuse – “Bacon and Apple products go together like peas and carrots. Or lamb and tuna fish. They’re both the perfect byproducts of their respective categories. Pimp your iPad with pork with the custom-made Bacon iPad case. It might not be actual bacon, but it’s realistic design is enough to make you wish you had a side of eggs to go with your balanced breakfast of pork and tablet.”
Security firm Bitdefender has introduced Clueful, an app that scans your Apple (AAPL) iOS apps lets you see what information other applications installed on your iDevice might have access to. Once downloaded and installed (iTunes), the $3.99 app scans your iPad 3, iPhone 4s or other iOS Apple products to see what’s installed and puts it in a list that can be filtered based on the various kinds of behavior. This includes things like:
- Apps that can track location
- Apps that can read the address book
- Apps that might drain battery
- Apps that use iPhone’s unique ID
- Apps that display ads
- Apps that gather analytics
These behaviors are listed in the results and explained on each app’s detail page. However, Clueful doesn’t log how often these behaviors happen. Clueful also notes if your data is encrypted, and if app makers anonymize you as a user, CNET News.Com reported.
Besides scanning what you have downloaded, the article explains that the software is designed to let you research what kinds of information an application wants to use before you buy it from the App Store. However, the author says, ” this appeared to be a work in progress, it is slow and unable to pick up a handful of big name games and apps.”
Bitdefender maintains all the data behind the privacy analysis, and users can ask to have apps that are not a part of that system analyzed. CNet states that Clueful comes some three months after Apple came after fire for the fourth time over how iOS and apps log and send user information to third parties.
Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.
The BusinessInsider says that the PC market imploded last quarter. They cite data from technology prognosticators IDC who reported PC sales fell 14 percent in the first quarter, which is worse than their forecast of a 7.7 percent drop. IDC claims this is the worst quarter for PC’s since they started tracking sales.
FierceCIO makes the point that the decline in shipments pertains only to the consumer section of the PC market. According to Mikako Kitagawa, at Gartner: “Unlike the consumer PC segment, the professional PC market, which accounts for about half of overall PC shipments, has seen growth, driven by continuing PC refreshes.”
Despite what many people wish, I still don’t see many ways in which tablets can replace the office PC. How do you run a 40 column excel on a 9.5 inch Apple (AAPL) iPad screen? Can you use Access on a consumer-centric tablet like the iPad?