Tablet War Heats Up: Apple Gets Stiff Competition

There is not much time left for Apple to enjoy the tablet arena alone. At the IFA electronics show in Berlin, Samsung debuted its Android-based Galaxy Tab with strong words showing it plans to compete directly with Apple’s iPad.  Also at the same place, Toshiba announced its own Android tablet: the Folio 100. So far, the tablet war is just warming up. Microsoft’s Windows 7 and other companies will join this war soon.

Android Contenders

Armed with a 1 GHz Cortex A8 ARM-based processor paired with a PowerVR SGX540 graphics processor, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is the fastest and most responsive of the Android devices in the market so far. Internal memory of 16GB (or 32GB) is supplemented by a microSD port that could accommodate flash cards with up to 32GB more storage.

It only has a 7-inch, 1024×600 resolution touch screen, which is not as spacious as the iPad’s. It weighs 380 grams which is half that of a 3G-enabled iPad. Another significant difference from iPad is that it supports communication functions, which means you could use it to make a call with a Bluetooth earpiece. Also it comes with a 3.2-megapixel back camera and a 1.3-megapixel front camera for taking photos and for video chat, which could be ported to a TV with its HDMI port.

Compared to the Samsung Galaxy Tab, the Folio 100 by Toshiba seems like more an Android version of iPad. It has a 10.1 inch screen with 1024×600 resolution, an Nvidia Tegra processor and 16G of memory. It weighs the same as an iPad but its battery lasts only 7 hours.

Future Tablets

No one can ignore any news from the tradition technology giant Microsoft. Based on their huge investment in HCI research, we have to say that Microsoft has the most advanced technology for multi touch interfaces. Surface is a good example. A tablet called Courier is being researched by Microsoft. The device would have been hinged like a book, with two seven-inch screens facing each other when the “Book” was closed. Microsoft is not the only company who are working on a dual screen tablet. According to TechCrunch, a company called Kno is aiming to build a textbook shaped tablet which will be compelling to the college user. The users will be able to take notes and draw on the pages just like the print versions. And they’ll be able to access those books on a variety of devices.

Will tablet computing change e-marketing?

Yes, the tablet computing era is coming and I believe the change will be huge. Visitor behaviour will be very different due to the smaller and more sensitive touch screen.  Therefore, all advertisers will have to make adjustment to their smart-devices, whether rich media, video or email. And because of the high mobility of these tablets, location issues will be more important for both advertising and web analytics. With these new kinds of tablets coming to the market, there should be more opportunities for multichannel marketing in the future.