Technology Blog

A Deluge of Devices for Reading and Surfing

You’ve heard of Amazon.com’s Kindle. And you probably know that Apple is likely to introduce a tablet computer this year. Soon you may also be hearing about the Alex, the Que proReader and the IdeaPad U1 Hybrid.
Those products are part of a new wave of slender touch-screen tablets and electronic reading devices that dozens of companies, both well known and unknown, brought to the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week.

Some of these gadgets allow people to read for long periods of time without eye strain and without killing the batteries. Others focus on allowing their owners to surf the Web, watch video and play casual games without being tethered to a bulky laptop and its traditional keyboard.
“There are a billion and a half Internet users on the planet today, and a lot of them are primarily using it for entertainment and social networking,” said Glen Burchers, director of global consumer segment marketing at Freescale, a chip company hoping to power the new tablets. “The PC does a good job on a lot of things, but it’s just not the ideal device for surfing the Internet or reading.”
Tablets, of course, have been around for years. In 2001, Bill Gates erroneously predicted at an industry trade show that they would be the most popular form of PC sold in America within five years.
Now advances in technology and manufacturing are belatedly making good on the early promise of this idea. So-called ARM processors — the low-power, low-cost chips found in many cellphones — are finally robust enough to take on some of the tasks, like Web surfing, that were previously the domain of full-fledged computers. As a result, companies have been able to build a wider range of devices, including thinner products with longer battery life.
At the same time, the big Asian manufacturers like Foxconn of Taiwan have been adding capacity and are now capable of churning out these devices at an ever-decreasing cost.
Recently, anticipation for new tablet computers has been almost absurdly focused on the magical product that people expect to emanate from the mind of Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs.
Analysts who have spoken to Asian component suppliers now think that an Apple tablet will ship by the end of March, and that Apple will hold an event to introduce a new product by the end of this month.
But Apple’s tablet may not end up dominating the emerging market for tablets, as some seem to expect. One reason is price. Analysts think the Apple tablet could cost anywhere from $700 to $1,000. In contrast, the tablet design unveiled by Freescale this week will cost around $130 to manufacture and could sell for as little as $200.
Conversations with several former Apple engineers who worked on the long-gestating tablet also suggest that Apple may be asking users to learn a somewhat complex new vocabulary of finger gestures to control it, making use of technology it acquired in the 2007 purchase of a company called FingerWorks.
“The tablet should offer any number of unique multitouch experiences — for example, three fingers down and rotate could mean ‘open an application,’ ” said one former engineer, who asked not to be named because Apple demands secrecy from all current and former employees.
Another former Apple designer said a team at the company had “spent the past couple of years working on a multitouch version of iWork,” Apple’s answer to Microsoft’s Office software suite. This could indicate that Apple wants the tablet to be a fully functional computer, rather than a more passive device for reading books and watching movies. That could help justify a higher price. Apple has declined to discuss any plans for a tablet.
Many high-tech giants are not necessarily waiting around for Apple to make a splash. At his keynote address at the electronics show on Wednesday, Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, showed off a new Hewlett-Packard tablet running Windows 7 with a full-color touch screen displaying videos and books.
H.P. is working on an array of tablets, including one about twice the size of the iPhone that will run Google’s Android operating system, according to a senior editor at a major magazine publisher who said he had seen the device. The company is working with publishers to provide content for the tablets. An H.P. spokeswoman, Marlene Somsak, said the company would introduce more tablets but would not discuss them now.
In the private demonstration room of Lenovo, the Chinese computer manufacturer, executives showed a flashy product called the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 Hybrid Notebook. It appears to be a regular laptop, until the screen pops out of its shell like a snake shedding its skin and it becomes a slender, glossy touch-screen tablet running a Linux-based operating system.
“We don’t know exactly what Apple is coming out with, if indeed it is doing anything substantial in this area,” said Michael Littler, an Lenovo spokesman. “We are just focused like a lot of companies on delivering products that are easy to use and offer good performance, and sometimes a little sprinkle of innovation and coolness.”
Other companies are aiming their products at the more focused market for reading devices, where Amazon commands a 60 percent share. They believe dedicated e-readers, with their black-and-white screens that mimic paper, will survive an onslaught of versatile color tablets from Apple and others. Many analysts agree, citing the benefits of long battery life and reduced strain on the eyes.
“I think the black-and-white readers still survive in the niche market as reading devices,” said Andy Hargreaves, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. “I’m not expecting the Apple device to be as good as the Kindle or Sony Reader for reading.”
E-readers at the electronics show came in many shapes and sizes. Plastic Logic, a 10-year-old British company, unveiled its Que proReader, an impossibly thin 10.7-inch display with a rather high starting price of $649.
But the device is aimed at deep-pocketed professionals and is meant to be a replacement for a bulky briefcase full of paper. “In a crowded field and emerging market, the key is really to understand your target customer and stay laser-focused on them,” said Richard Archuleta, chief executive of Plastic Logic.
Other players in this field are trying to distinguish themselves with devices that have more than one screen. EnTourage Systems, based in McLean, Va., demonstrated a 9.7-inch touch-screen color display, married with a rotating hinge to a similarly sized black-and-white screen. The device, called the eDGe, will cost $490.
Spring Design, a Taiwanese start-up, showed off a dual-screen e-book device, the Alex, that has a 3.5-inch iPhone-like color display and a 6-inch Kindle-like black-and-white display. The device, which is expected to be out in February and cost $349, could display book-video hybrids and “open up a whole new sector for publishing,” said Priscilla Lu, the company’s chief executive.
Many of these companies and their products may sink when exposed to a competitive marketplace that could be dominated by efforts from the tech giants.
At the very least, the smaller companies will have to stay nimble and keep on top of rapidly evolving technology.

(from internet)