Battle of the Tablets...

Comparison of all the released and soon to be released tablets along with all the known features.  Coming to a blog near you.
There are many tablets that have been announced and many that are planned without announcements yet.  Here is a website with some nice pictures of different tablets.  As usual all the tech companies let Apple lead the way, which it did, to see what THEY would do.  This coverage will be adjusted and updated as time goes on.  This is a very dynamic situation.


Survey Done on Android Tablets

Sybase did a survey in September of this year polling over 2,000 people on their desires in a tablet.  See how their wishes match up with yours.

For those who think that video conferencing is essential to what people want right now, you will be surprised.  Only 7% say they would wish it.  It is possible of course that once they have it, they will love it.

Screen size was also interesting.  50% chose 9-10' screens.  You can see how well Apple did its marketing making their iPad 9.7' screen.

Most surprising was the keyboard preference.  Only 33% wanted a physical keyboard instead adapting themselves to an onscreen keyboard.  This marks a change in perspective.

People also want the tablet to cost about $300 WITH the cellular data contract.


Dell Streak

Here is a video which explains all that needs to be said about this unit.  Some have been disappointed with the device.  We agree with them.  This phone has been well covered.  Here is a spec sheet for it.  Enjoy.

Samsung Galaxy Tab

For a good article summarizing the speed and reliability of the different cell phone carriers check here.  PC World provided a nice chart comparing the iPad and the Samsung Galaxy. It is expected that within 6 months or so after the Galaxy comes out, there will be about 20 other tablet manufacturers in the field. The following information was taken from a rather exclusive time given to PC World to ask questions.  It will have a proprietary USB cable so it can charge fast enough.  They decided on a Super TFT screen to conserve power.  The Qik app which is equivalent to Apple's FaceTime was sluggish in its frame rate.  You could not use the front camera to take videos of yourself.  Samsung told PC World that 85% of the 200 Android apps will run full screen.  Samsung was working on "Tab optimized apps" like an ereader and calendar and that all Google apps would be optimized.  This article also states that the Galaxy Tab would not have a phone option.  But there are conflicting reports as you can see from my table below.  The Tab would have not built in VOIP but it would  have access to Android apps that provide it.  Mind you, this article came out October 7.  So it seems as if the Galaxy Tab was rushed out to beat XMAS.  We shall see.  The sluggishness reported may have to do with reports that even Google does not think Android 2.2 is best fitted for Tablets and is rumored to be waiting until an upgrade comes out before it releases its own tablet.




HP Slate 500
Here is a video demo of someone explaining the leaked rumors.  It seems as if HP is torn between Palm which it just bought and Steve Balmer who wants Windows 7 on it.

It seems as if HP is going through a struggle which cannot bode well for any product they release.  It will be rushed to market.  They cancelled their first Slate model after a big demonstration by Steve Balmer.  There are even some rumors that they might run Palm Web OS on it rather than Windows 7.  But we suspect Mr. Balmer will not let that happen.  Th leaked video put on youtube was removed and this picture is all we have about it at this time.

Avaya Desktop Video Communicator
This device is designed to compete with the Cisco Cius for the enterprise market of corporate America.  It announced to cost $2,000 well over twice the cost of the Cicso unit.  It runs with a software package named Flare which allows it co communicate with a desktop computer to do the video and voice calls.  The system claims to deliver high quality video feed at 50% of the bandwidth.  This Flare system is directly competing with Cisco's Telepresence System.


Cisco Cius
This device is designed for the enterprise market like the Avaya.  It will cost a little under $1,000.  Here are several videos of it on youtube.


Here is part two of the demo.


Asus Eee Pad EP121 and EP101TC 10
Remember these models are just prototypes.  They seem to be running a version of Windows 7.



Toshiba Tablets
There are several prototype models of tablets from Toshiba.  One seems to be the JounrE Touch Tablet and the other the Folio 100 Android Tablet.  Here is a video of the JournE.

Here is a video for the Toshiba Folio which seems to be designed to meet the needs of publishers.


HERE IS THE COMPARISON TABLE OF ALL KNOWN TABLET ANNOUNCEMENTS
Instructions for reading the table: If the specification is linked obviously it is confirmed.  If it has an X it means we could not as of yet find any information about it.  It it is written in black it means that we assume it would have this but have no confirmation of it.

Conclusion
After looking at all the devices, they all start to look the same, especially the consumer ones.  We think that when it comes to the two enterprise versions, the Avaya and Cisco they will fill a specialized need.  All the others, will not match the present sales or future sales of the iPad.  Together they may surpass the sale of the iPad, but, this remains to be seen.  However, Android, in all of its forms, is a dark shadow hanging over Apple.