Reactions to the recently unveiled Microsoft Surface tablet family just keep coming in, with everyone from PC vendors to industry watchers eager to weigh in on the Redmond-based company’s decision to sell self-branded tablets. Even though people are probably more interested in Apple’s reaction, Google beat the Cupertino company to the punch Wednesday when it fired a cautious verbal volley at the Surface.
It's been an exciting week for Microsoft, which just the other day unveiled its Surface tablet, a surprisingly promising device that just may have the legs to go the distance, if not with the iPad, then certainly against Android and ARM. But let's not sell the Surface short, with the right strategy and continued interest from Microsoft, this could be big. Or, as Acer founder Stan Shih suspects, the whole Surface strategy is nothing more than a bunch of smoke and mirrors intended to sell consumers on Windows 8.
If the latest rumors are true, Google is getting ready to attack the 7-inch tablet (or "tweener," as Steve Jobs referred to them) market in a big way with a Nexus device it jointly developed with Asus. Word on the Web is that the two companies will unveil the aggressively priced 7-inch Nexus tablet at Google I/O, which will take place at San Francisco's Moscone Center next week (June 27 through 29). How aggressive?
Until a few hours ago, the tech media was busy speculating about an upcoming “major announcement” from Microsoft. Some said it had something to do with Windows RT, while others said the company was going to unveil its first self-branded tablets. As it turns out, both of them were right. At an invitation-only event in Los Angeles today, Microsoft unveiled not one but two own-brand tablet PCs.
Microsoft is gearing up to enter the ARM-based media tablet market. All its hopes rest on how well Windows RT (Windows on ARM) is received by users. At this moment, though, it’s far too early to even speculate about the kind of response that awaits Windows RT-based tablets. But if a new report is to be believed, we’re likely to have a good enough idea come Monday.
On paper, Acer's newly unveiled Iconia Tab A700 appears full of win. It has a premium 10.1-inch Full HD 1080p touchscreen display, but not one of those panels sporting a 1920x1080 resolution. No, this one boasts 1200 horizontal lines across the screen (16:10 ratio), which helps add up to a 55 percent higher pixel density compared to 1280x800 displays. It also packs an Nvidia Tegra 3 quad-core processor underneath the hood and 32GB of onboard storage.
The tablet market has taken its sweet time coming down to pedestrian price levels -- and we're talking about tablets you'd actually want to own, not a craptastic knockoff that's bug-ridden and slow as molasses -- but we're finally starting to see affordable slates become the norm rather than the exception. It started with Amazon's Kindle Fire, which some consider a glorified eBook reader, and later this year, Acer will get in on the low-price action with its A110 Iconia Tab.
Remember all those grand plans Research In Motion (RIM) had for its BlackBerry PlayBook line of tablet PCs? Well, whatever remains of those plans will have to be carried out by the 32GB and 64GB models. Somewhat surprisingly, RIM has reportedly decided to discontinue its 16GB PlayBook, essentially conceding defeat to the likes of Amazon's Kindle Fire and Barnes & Noble's Nook Tablet in the sub-$200 category.
There's a whirlwind of products being introduced at the this year's Computex convention, including one that Asus and Nvidia gleefully claim is the world's first Windows RT consumer device. They're talking about the Asus Windows RT Tablet 600, a nifty device built around Nvidia's ARM-based quad-core Tegra 3 platform that, when combined with the optional dock, transforms itself into notebook.
It's a mobile world we're living in, and everyone's along for the ride. That includes Microsoft, maker of the Xbox 360 console, which is reportedly going to unlock the capability for developers to stream game content to mobile phones and tablets so that gamers can use them as companion devices, adding a whole new dimension to gaming. Look for an official announcement to come soon.
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