In response to the success of the Google’s 7 inch Nexus, Amazon’s 7 inch Kindle Fire and Apple’s 7.9 inch iPad mini, Microsoft is joining the 7 inch fray. The Wall Street Journal reports that Redmond is developing a smaller version of its Surface tablet, and that it will launch later this year.
If tablets are booming, those in the 7-8 inch category are doubly booming, with IDC reporting that more than half of all tablets that shipped in the fourth quarter of 2012 were this size.
The lower price of the smaller devices makes them much more palatable to cost-conscious buyers. Microsoft is aware of the need for lower-priced devices, and has recently altered the Windows 8 hardware requirements to permit smaller, cheaper screens. Many buyers also find the smaller form factor more convenient due to its reduced size and weight.
The WSJ also notes that Microsoft is working on a smartphone of its own, but that component suppliers were unclear if there were any plans to actually bring this to market.
The paper quotes a person familiar with the situation saying that while 7-inch tablets were not part of Microsoft’s product plans last year company executives have realized they need to respond to the growth and popularity of small slates. Which boils down to Redmond is having to play catch up yet again.
Microsoft finds itself increasingly threatened in its PC business. The future of PCs is being questioned as users move to alternative computing devices such as tablets and smartphones. Experts agree that first quarter PC shipments totaled 76.3 million units, down 13.9 percent compared to the same quarter last year.
The decline was worse than the 7.7 percent previously forecast by the analyst firm, and the market could be headed into further contraction. Microsoft’s Windows 8 did not help PC shipments grow, as fewer consumers are upgrading PCs to Windows 8, and businesses are largely sticking with Windows 7, IDC analysts said.
As the tablets market gets more and more crowded, soon we will see the separation of the men from the boys. Darwin’s theory regarding the survival of the fittest will once again be tested. May be best one win. Good Day.
When I was growing up in a banana plantation in the middle of nowhere called Changuinola, we didn’t have all the juggernauts of today’s modern technology. Radio sets were clumsy big boxes with hot vacuum tubes. There were no calculators, portable radios, television sets, cellphones, iPods, MP3s and so forth. It was a totally different world.
With the invention of the personal computer plugged into the Internet, we plunged into a universe of knowledge never seen in the history of civilization. With just the click of a button, anything you need to know is only milliseconds away. You name it, it’s there.
I owned my first computer in 1985. It was an Apple II-e, and ever since, I’ve been enamored with this marvelous device which can do just about anything, including talking. Over the years, I learned how to use spreadsheets, data bases, word processors, compose e-mails, design business forms, organize my finances and the list goes on and on.
Four years ago I retired at the age of 62. This wise decision has provided me with enough time to do just about anything I want. The first thing I did was to get rid of my watch. For too many years it was my tyrant. I had to do this at 3 o’clock, that at 4:30 p.m., meet with Mr. X at 8 o’clock sharp, and so on and so forth. I was a slave of time. It was a rat race which ate much of my productive life. My recent retirement is bringing back part of that time which had been snatched away from me.
I’m now investing this precious time studying; using the information box as my conduit to the vast silos of information stored in the Cloud. Netflix is an endless source of information. Through documentaries and films I’m learning about the evolution of man in History. I’m concentrating in American politics.
Having studied in an American school since I was six, I had a general knowledge of George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Ulysses S. Grants and other great American presidents. But it was general knowledge blurred and undefined like the morning mist. Now I want to know more about how the fabric of democracy is woven by the American people. So far I’ve studied the accomplishments of the following American presidents through my Netflix subscription:
American Experience: Truman
Dwight D. Eisenhower: Commander-in-Chief
American Experience—PBS: Nixon
American Experience—PBS: FDR
American Experience—PBS: LBJ
American Experience—PBS: Jimmy Carter
American Experience—PBS: Reagan
LBJ: The Early Years
The Trials of Henry Kissinger
Jefferson in Paris
Inside the White House
Front Line: The Obama’s War
Boogie Man: The Lee Atwater Story
Landslide: A Portrait of President Hoover
Client 9: Rise and Fall of Eliot Spitzer
FDR: Years of Crisis
W
Nancy Reagan: The Role of a Lifetime
Lifting the curtain on American politics is fascinating, in search of a better word to describe the experience. America embraced Democracy in its infancy—1776. It squeezed out the precepts of a democracy from European philosophers such as Rousseau, Montesquieu, Diderot, Voltaire, Locke, d’Alembert, and others, and stirred the pot with the political theories of Ancient Greece analyzed by Plato, Socrates, Aristotle, Cleisthenes, Pisistratus, Isagoras and Hippias. Out of this historic potpourri of political knowledge, emerged the American democracy within thirteen colonies in a geographical area called New England. It soon spread across the pond to France provoking the French Revolution in 1789.
Over the years, the American concept of democracy has influenced many societies around the globe. The Thirteen colonies became the beacon of democracy which started with the Greek city-state known as polis, where the citizens voted in the city’s public square—agora— using white pebbles to vote Yes, and black pebbles to vote No. To this very day, our modern societies express themselves through the universal vote, only this time we use paper or electrons.
After the Second Word War, the United States assisted Europe to recover from the devastation of the war with the Marshall Plan—officially known as the European Recovery Program, ERP—, the reconstruction of Japan under the leadership of General Douglas MacArthur and the independence of the Philippines after the Treaty of Manila on July 4, 1946.
Harry S. Truman oversaw the Berlin Airlift in 1948 and the creation of NATO in 1949. When communist North Korea invaded South Korea in 1950, he immediately sent in U.S. troops and gained UN approval for the Korean War. It was this remarkable president who shortly after taking the oath of office said to reporters:
“Boys, if you ever pray, pray for me now. I don’t know if you fellas ever had a load of hay fall on you, but when they told me what happened yesterday, I felt like the moon, the stars, and all the planets had fallen on me.”
In the film, Memorial Day, a soldier from the Second World War (James Cromwell) told his grandson: “People wonder if leaders are born or made. All I know is, you can see it in a man’s eyes. Problem is, leaders end up where they’re needed most. And, eventually, that’s war.”
If you can spare the time, and own a computer with an Internet connection, I can’t emphasize enough how much juice you can extract from this magic box. My next subject will be the story of the Iraqi war and how it compares with the Vietnam and the Afghanistan War. Good Day.
If you are an Apple loyalist and have an unsatisfied thirst for an iMac, I have good news for you. Apple is currently offering refurbished iMacs at tempting prices (e.g., $1,189.00 and $1,269.00). That’s a savings of 20 and 15 percent off. Looks to me like a terrific deal.
Apple has added refurbished models of the current-generation 21.5″ iMac to its Online Store in the past several days, offering a faster-shipping alternative to customers looking to get a desktop Mac.
New iMac models on the Apple Online Store list a lead time of several weeks to get delivered, while the refurbished models claim to ship in 1-3 days, with $200 and $230 discounts on the low- and high-end 21″ models respectively.
Apple Retail Stores list mid-March as the earliest time to pick up new 21″ iMacs ordered online, but Amazon.com claims to have both 21″ models in stock [$1,299 and $1,494] and eligible for Amazon Prime shipping.
27″ iMac models have yet to appear on the refurbished store, with the company reporting a 3-4 week lead time online and late March for in-store pickup. Amazon has the base 27″ model in stock for $1,799.
To be candid with you, I have a problem buying high-price ticket items in the United States, mainly because I can’t use the product’s guarantee. I prefer to buy my stuff where I can see it, touch it, and rest assured I will use the product’s guarantee for when the products goes sour.
Recently I purchased a Vaio laptop and it came with a factory defect. No problem, I took it to Sony Panama, and in less than four days, I got my computer back with a brand new motherboard. How can I do that with a U.S. purchased product? Even though the price may be slightly higher, I’m willing to cough my hard-earned cash on products in Panamanian computer stores.
I’m definitely interested on a low-end 21.5″ iMac, but the piggy bank is empty as this moment. I’m a patient man and can wait until the time is ripe. Meanwhile, my ole desktop HP will do the work. Patience is still a virtue in this part of the world. Take Care
Since I was 22-years-old, I’ve been working with numbers. For all my working life, numbers have served me well. Thanks to them, I was able to earn a living and put food on the table until I retired at age 62. As you already know, I consider myself a “number man”. I firmly believe, that if anything can be measured, it can be managed. Without numbers, it’s almost impossible to manage just about any human endeavor.
With the advent of the digital revolution, numbers acquired a new meaning. Reality as we know it, could be morphed into a digital dimension—ones and zeros. Music, text, videos—you name it—are easily transformed into computer language based on the binary code.
For many years we were elated to work with the binary code and the machines that interpreted it, which we call computers—and lately, tablets. Then the stuff hit the fan in 2008 when we had the global financial meltdown. That year we found out that there was a dark side to numbers. Mathematicians and physicists call it “The Black Box Trading Algorithms”. I’m referring to complex mathematical codes for computers known as algorithms.
In mathematics and computer science, an algorithm is a step-by-step procedure for calculations. Algorithms are used for calculation, data processing, and automated reasoning. Many physicists and mathematicians agree that algorithms create and control our world. These highly complex machine language determine everything from espionage tactics to architecture machine language. They claim that the role of contemporary math and complex algorithms shape our world. That is well and good, but sometimes they show their dark side and destroy everything in sight. On certain occasions, algorithms conflict with each other and are locked in loops creating a kind of havoc nobody seems to understand—not even their creators.
Highly complex algorithms were introduced in Wall Street by computer whiz kids known as “Quants”. The invented a brand new field in the world of finance called “Financial Engineering” based on principles of Math and Physics. In an effort to understand what really caused the Housing Bubble implosion in 2008, pundits and financial experts alike became modern Sherlock Holmes eager to understand and piece together exactly what sank Wall Street. From these investigations a discovery was made which very few people knew about. I’m talking about the Quants, a.k.a The Alchemists of Wall Street. Quants is a term derived from the words “quantitative analysts.”
They are the rocket scientists of finance, highly trained mathematicians, scientists, and engineers who delve deep into quantitative analysis. They created highly complex quantitative models to explain the financial transactions taking place in the real world. These brainy financial engineers cooked up beautiful and elegant formulas that demonstrated which financial instruments had the highest probability of generating the highest return at the lowest risk, and Wall Street rolled with them—though, as we’ve learned, those formulas sometimes work better on paper than they do in real life. The quants’ perspective was somewhat different, they defined their software as a “delicate, intricate web of logic.” We all know it was only air.
Even after the horror of the economic crisis of 2008, quants is a growing ideology even as we speak. This reduced group of financial technologists firmly believe they can beat the market with their elegant non-linearity concepts—”Throw some epsilons and thetas on a paper, hoist a few PhDs behind your name, and now you’re an expert in divining the future.”
Another example of algorithms gone completely haywire is known as The Flash Crash of May 6, 2010 (or “The Crash of 2:45”!). On this unfortunate moment in time, the Dow Jones plunged a 1000 points and then gained a 1000—all in a few instants. Nine percent of the entire market disappeared from the computer screen for five minutes. Nobody had the slightest idea what was going one. There are speculations that high speed automated trading based on complex computer algorithms caused the entire United States system to seize.
“Over the past decade, trading in financial markets has undergone a technological revolution. The frontier of this revolution is defined by speed. A decade ago, trade execution times were measured in seconds. A few years ago, they were measured in milliseconds. Today, they are measured in microseconds. Tomorrow, it will be nano-seconds or pico-seconds”.
According to Kevin Slavin, a well-known mathematician, “It takes you 500,000 microseconds just to click a mouse. But if you’re a Wall Street algorithm and you’re five microseconds behind, you’re a loser.”
Wall Street is speaking a new language difficult for humans to understand and control. The new technological terms are “quote stuffing”, “zero latency” and “message traffic congestion”. As the terms become more technical, more silicon—it becomes clear that human control over trading, as over language, is dwindling. (Rather, technology is molding language). The great threat of a market crash engendered by computer trading is become more likely. And with that something, more disturbing evolved from this fact—the realization that none of this market making is actually real any more—it can’t be when trades are happening in “pico-seconds”. It all takes place in a silicon space.
We are in a new world that does not recognizes the blind watch maker and does not obey Darwinian rules. That like, The Terminator, just keeps coming on, in trades “faster than the speed of light”.
Algorithms have shaped the world into a surrealistic painting similar to “The Persistence of Memory” painted by Salvador Dalí in 1931, which depicts lifeless hanging clocks from limbs of trees and walls. Reality is now distorted by a computer language we no longer recognize, and even less, control.
The following video dubbed, “How Algorithms Shape Our World” created by Kevin Slavin explains the mysterious world of numbers and its scary consequences. Put on your thinking caps and concentrate on the words of Mr. Slavin. Numbers will have a different meaning from this day on.
Question: Why is a raven like a writing desk? Answer: Because the bankers told the regulators that it was.
After using an Apple iPad for about five months, I would say that the ubiquitous gadget serves both purposes quite well due to its vast apps covering almost any need you might think of, and a lot more. It’s my understanding that there are more than 275,000 apps for the Apple iPad, even as we speak, and counting.
Taking advantage of its gorgeous Retina Display, viewing movies using Neftflix’s app is a most gratifying experience. In the foreseeable future, all of Apple’s products with a screen will have the Retina Display feature—2048×1536 PPD (Pixels Per Degree).
Retina Display is a brand name used by Apple for liquid crystal displays which they claim have a high enough pixel density that the human eye is unable to notice pixelation at a typical viewing distance. The term is used for several Apple products, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad and MacBook Pro. There are strong rumors on the Web that Apple is working on a new iPad Mini with this feature as well.
Retina display is also an awesome feature for video games. This gives Apple a formidable competitive advantage in this profitable entertainment segment. Apple games are one of the best entertainment apps in the market. Just ask any game enthusiast. You can also enjoy your favorite music and photographs using Apple’s apps ordered through iTunes or Apple Apps Store—many of them free.
If you want to use the iPad as a serious productivity tool, there are plenty apps that serve this specific need. A popular productivity app for the Ipad is Cloud On, version 3.0.0 free of charge, designed both for the iPad and the iPhone. Cloud On brings Microsoft Office programs, including Word, Excel and PowerPoint, to your iPad. It plays well with cloud storage providers such as Box, Dropbox and Google Drive, allowing you to open, rename and delete files stores on those services. It also includes Adobe Reader and a file viewer for opening popular file formats, including PDF, JPG, PNG and GIF.
Cloud On has its own competitors, of course, including Online Desktop Desktop, a virtual Windows desktop for the iPad, which also includes Windows 7-based versions of MS Offices’s big three apps, (e.g., PowerPoint, Word and Excel).
When I acquired my iPad in July 2012, I was planning to use it on several number crunching projects at a local sugar mill. At that time I was doing some consulting work for this client. Thus I bought a Zagg Bluetooth keyboard dock which I paired with my Third Generation iPad. It was an excellent decision.
Yesterday I downloaded and installed Google Drive, also known as Google Docs, and it worked flawlessly. I also have this application in my HP Pavilion desktop and my Sony Vaio laptop. Since Google Drive is a cloud application, any modifications I make in my Google Drive’s files, it will automatically show up anywhere I am. This is great when you’re working on the road, which was my case at the sugar mill.
At this moment, I’m using the following apps in my iPad; I’m not in a hurry to load the device with unnecessary applications I will never use:
Netflix: (Entertainment – Movies)
Calcul8: (Productivity – Calculator)
Kindle: (Entertainment – Reading Books)
YouTube: (Entertainment – Movies and Videos)
Photobucket: (Entertainment – Photographs)
TuneIn Radio: (Entertainment – Internet Radio Stations)
Google Drive or Google Docs: (Productivity – Word Processing, Presentations and Number Crunching)
Cloud On: (Productivity – Microsoft Office Productivity Tools and others)
Below are several pictures of my iPad depicting the apps listed above:
The Apple’s iPad is an impressive machine which can be customized to suit your taste and preferences. The availability of more than 275,000 apps adds to the usability of this device. The correct answer to the question of this post is that this iPad is both an entertainment gadget and a productivity tool. Good Day.
When I purchased a full-fleshed laptop in July of 2012, I thought I was making a good Deal. For $899.97 I acquired a traditional heavy-duty machine which would be my spare computing tool if my main HP desktop would go sour. There were subtle indications that the loyal beast would die anytime soon and I needed a Plan B to keep up my blogging activities without any interruptions. So far the old PC is still purring like a kitten which is good news, but I feel relieved with a safety net on my desktop.
At the time of the purchase, I wasn’t aware that dramatic changes were happening under the surface. The computer industry was experiencing what is known in Business Administration, as a Strategic Inflection Point. By definition, a Strategic Inflection Point is the time of transition of a company’s competitive position that requires the company to change the current path and adapt to the new situation or risk declining profits.
An inflection point can be considered a turning point after which a dramatic change, with either positive or negative results, is expected to result. Companies, industries, sectors and economies are dynamic and constantly evolving. Inflection points are more significant than the small day-to-day progress made and the effects of the change are often well-known and widespread.
Andy Grove, Intel’s co-founder, described a strategic inflection point as “an event that changes the way we think and act.” Inflection points can be a result of action taken by a company, or through actions taken by another entity, that has a direct impact on the company.
If you have followed the latest computing trends, you probably know that PC demand growth has waned over the past year as more consumers flock to ultraportable and increasingly powerful tablets and smartphones for basic computing. Hewlett-Packard, Dell and other stalwarts of the PC industry are now fighting tooth and nail to sustain growth as tablet computers eat into their PC-related business.
The inflection point is the change of computing habits by consumers. PCs are being replaced by touch screen devices such as Windows 8 convertibles, detachables, touch-screen laptops or just plain tablets. The computing scenario is changing into a PC Plus world even as we speak.
Convertibles have swivel touch screens that can not be detached from the unit. The processor and related electronics are under the keyboard, so these systems will have a better performance because the design affords more opportunity to keep the processor cool.
Detachables are essentially tablets with well-integrated keyboard docks. Detachables put the processor electronics behind the screen. This usually forces PC makers to use a low-performance, more power efficient chip like Intel’s “Clover Trail” Atom.
Touch-screen laptops are traditional clamshell laptops with a touch screen. They are beginning to emerge in the marketplace. Maybe by this time next year, the abundance of laptops on display at your local electronic shop will have touch screens.
Plain tablets are devices that are marketed as standalone units. Tablets that can run the full version of Windows 8 and Windows RT will offer a good battery life and a lightweight, slim design but won’t be very fast. That is, don’t expect them to multitask Microsoft Office, Photoshop and other demanding application without bringing the device to its knees. Compared to notebooks, tablets are still maturing in terms of computing power and functionality for business and home use.
I will expand on this subject in the near future. If you have followed my blog posts, you already know that I own a third generation (Retina Display) Apple iPad paired with a Bluetooth keyboard. Productivity is my immediate goal.
Most pundits agree that touchscreens are coming and they’re coming fast. Holiday season shoppers shunned Windows 8 desktops and notebooks in favor of tablets and smartphones, resulting in a 4.3 percent fall in PC sales in the fourth quarter, research firm Gartner said recently.
Worldwide PC shipments declined 90.3 million units in the last three months of 2012 due to a shift in consumer habits as much as a weak global economy. “Tablets have dramatically changed the device landscape for PCs, not so much by ‘cannibalizing’ PC sales, but by causing PC users to shift consumption to tablets rather than replacing older PCs,” said Mikako Kitagawa, principal analyst at Gartner.
In July 2012, I thought I was buying the best laptop in the market with all the bells and whistles—I was wrong. The laptop was already old inside the box. The future lies in touch screen computers, tablets and smart phones, which are more than just phones. They are really powerful computers that also make phone calls. Good Day.
Photograph of Apple’s iMac desktop computer which recently was upgraded to keep it fresh and attractive to its loyal zealots. Credit: Apple Inc.
In 1983, many years ago, a lifetime ago, I purchased my first personal computer. It was an Apple II-e. That was the year I started dipping my toes into computers and software. Since then, a lot of water has flowed under the bridge.
After squeezing its juice for several years, I sold it to a friend of mine who wanted to teach computing to her young children. It also served them well, until finally the poor darling, went the way of the Dodo into the dustbin of history.
After my separation from my Apple personal computer, I switched to Windows and have used this operating system until last year when I purchased another Apple device—an Apple iPad. It wasn’t that I really needed it to do my stuff. In fact, I bought it out of peer pressure and curiosity. Everywhere I read, the juggernaut was there and people had smiling faces with the device in their hands. I said to myself, “Omar, you have to join the group; you can’t miss all this fun” And I did.
To make a long story short, I’m very satisfied with my iPad (third generation with Retina Display). I’m so happy with it, that I am seriously considering replacing my present Hewlett Packard desktop computer with an Apple iMac when it goes sour in the near future.
My HP desktop, running Windows XP, has accomplished an extraordinary work and I’m very happy with it. The thing is that the machine is seven years old, and counting. It was delivered on March 19, 2005. At any time, it will say “No más, no más”, and that will be the end of its life. It that happens, I can always depend on a Sony Vaio laptop and my Apple iPad, but they won’t do the trick for my blogging needs. I feel I need another desktop, and that dream machine at this moment is an Apple iMac.
Apple’s iMac main specifications are:
Hard Disk Drive: One terabyte (5400-rpm)
Graphics: NVIDIA GeForce, GT 640M graphics processor with 512MB of GDDR5 memory
Processor: 2.7GHz, 2.7GHz quad-core Intel Core i5 processor (Turbo Boost up to 3.2GHz) with 6MB L3 cache
Memory: 8GB (two 4GB) of 1600MHz DDR3 memory (Configurable to 16GB)
Display: 21.5-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit display with IPS technology; 1920-by-1080 resolution with support for millions of colors
Video Support and Camera: FaceTime HD camera. Simultaneously supports full native resolution on the built-in display and up to a 30-inch display (2560 by 1600 pixels) on an external display. Support for extended desktop and video mirroring modes. Support for Target Display Mode via the Thunderbolt port using a Thunderbolt to Thunderbolt cable (sold separately)
In the Box: iMac, Apple Wireless Keyboard, Apple Magic Mouse, Power cord
Price: $1,299.00
This machine is not yet in Panama, but I’ll assure you it will soon be. At the moment I don’t have the money, but I already have a specific savings account specially allocate funds for this purchase planned for December 2013. The next step is to get myself an Apple iPhone, but that another story for another time. For the time being, my Chinese cellphone is working just fine. As a matter of fact, it looks very much like an iPhone; I mean, the first model that reached the market several years ago. If you have followed my blog posts, you already know how it looks like and how much I paid for it.
That’s it folks. After three decades, I’ve returned to my computing roots and embraced the Apple ecosystem again. It has been a happy reunion. And now you know the machine of my dreams. I’m counting the days. Good Day.
Last July I acquired a laptop as a business tool for several consulting projects I was doing for a local sugar mill. I needed a laptop for my follow-up meetings and keeping all my information in one place, without having to store hundreds of papers in my home office.
After researching on the Internet for zillion of options, I finally decided on a Sony Vaio 14″ laptop of the Series E14P, Model 14A15FLB. It’s a powerful and aesthetic electronic device.
After a few months, the customer decided to hire an in-house Comptroller, so the consulting work dried up. Since then, I used the laptop mainly to surf the web and stream movies from Netflix. The screen resolution was awesome and the quality of the movies was up to par. Unfortunately, after a week or so, the computer started to act erratically. In the middle of a movie, I would get this blue screen of death indicating that something was wrong with the operating system. The exact message on the screen was, “A problem has been detected and Windows has been shut down to prevent damage to your computer. Attempt to reset the display driver and recover from timeout failed.” Another message was, “The ATI display driver has ceased to work correctly.”
Initially I thought the problem was at Netflix’s end, since something similar had happened with my old HP desktop. I kept on using the laptop until I got three Windows’ blue screens of death in one day and then I knew for sure that the machine had a problem. Since I was still covered by a service and parts guarantee of one year, I wrapped it up and drove over to Sony’s place to have it fixed. That was on the morning of December 11, 2012.
Sony’s facilities in Panama City are very modern and comfortable, and their employees are extremely efficient and polite. Sony operates in Panama for customer support as Grupo Proessa(www.proessa.net).
The laptop was returned on the morning of December 20, 2012, neatly wrapped in a plastic cover to protect it. I received a document indicating that the faulty motherboard had been replaced with a new one and the bios data had been configured. The repaired computer was guaranteed for three month, on top of the yearly guarantee that expires on July 7, 2013.
The reason I buy products in Panama instead of acquiring them from the States, is because I want to be fully covered by a local guarantee. In this case Sony repaired the laptop free of charge. Today I’ll be testing it, to make sure that it’s working properly.
This is the first time I’ve had a problem with a new computer. They usually work well for several years before they fall apart and follow the Dodo into the dustbin of history. Next time you buy a new product, make sure it’s fully covered with a reasonable guarantee. Good Day.
In June 2012, Steven Sinofsky left, president of Microsoft’s Windows and Windows Live division, introduced the Surface tablet in Los Angeles. Hugo Barra, a Google product management director, discussed the Nexus 7 in San Francisco last month. Credit: From left: David Monrew/Reuters; The New York Times Jim Wilson/The New York Times.
As the competitions continue in the Summer Olympic Games in London, another competition takes place in the consumer electronics industry. I’m referring to the cut-throat competition between Apple, Google, Amazon, and Microsoft. All of these Masters of the Universe are determined to win the tablets race coughing out millions of greenbacks to make them attractive to the mainstream computer user.
The main competitors in the tablet’s repêchage are: Apple’s iPad, Google’s Nexus 7, Microsoft’s Surface and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. All of them are interested in your hard-earned money.
Google on Wednesday, June 27, 2012 unveiled the Nexus 7, which is smaller and less expensive than Apple iPad, and is meant to compete with both that device and Amazon’s Kindle Fire. The Google-branded Nexus 7 tablet, which will cost $200, has a seven-inch screen, which puts it in direct competition with Amazon’s Kindle Fire, a similar tablet that sells at the same price. In other words, Google is aiming at the low-end of the tablet market. The higher end is dominated by Apple’s iPad, priced at $500.
The Nexus tablet will include the next version of Android, called Jelly Bean. The software will have smoother animation and the ability to transcribe speech into text, according to Google.
On the other hand, in its most strategically significant push yet into the hardware business, Microsoft on Monday, June 18, 2012, unveiled a tablet computer called Surface that is intended to challenge Apple’s iPad. During the product presentation, the company showed off a tablet that is about the same weight and thickness as an iPad, with a 10.6-inch screen. The device has a built-in “kickstand” that allows it to be propped up for watching movies, and a thin detachable cover that will serve double duty as a keyboard.
The Surface tablet runs a variation of Windows 8, a version of Microsoft’s flagship operating system that is due out in the fall. Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, said the product was part of a longstanding tradition at Microsoft to create hardware, like computer mice, that show off innovations in its software.
Microsoft’s decision to create its own tablet was an acknowledgment that the company needed to depart from its regular way of doing business to get a grip on a threat to its dominance in computing.
With the detachable keyboard for Surface, known as Touch Cover, Microsoft seemed to be positioning its tablet as a more business-friendly alternative to the iPad, one that is better suited to productivity tasks that need faster typing. The keyboard has touch-sensing keys that become inactive when the cover is closed.
The keyboard could make Surface more competitive with Apple’s thin MacBook Air and more traditional Windows laptops. It will come in a variety of bright colors, adding a whimsical touch to the dark, hard-edged appearance of Surface. The company would not say whether the keyboard will be sold with Surface or separately.
Jeff Bezos is not sleeping on its laurels. Amazon is working on a new version of the Kindle Fire, with a larger display, that could compete more directly with the iPad, according to a developer briefed on Amazon’s plans who did not want to be identified talking about unannounced products. Analysts also believe that Amazon is updating the Kindle Fire.
But Apple is hardly about to cede ground. The company is developing a new tablet with a 7.85-inch screen that is likely to sell for much less than the latest $499 iPad, with its 9.7-inch display, according to several people with knowledge of the project who declined to be named discussing confidential plans. The product is expected to be announced this year.
Apple’s plan for a tablet with a smaller screen is part of a textbook business strategy: to lure customers who want different sizes of tablets into the iPad product family, say analysts and technology industry executives. The strategy would most likely include devices with different prices and functions tailored to various uses, they say. The idea is to help Apple solidify its dominance in the tablet market even as the richest companies in the tech business are trying to figure out how to outflank Apple.
Who will win the gold? My gut feeling is that Apple will get the medal. Apple’s share of the tablet market is only somewhat less impressive: 60 to 70 percent of the market, depending on the company doing the estimating. As many people in the tech industry have pointed out, the “tablet market” is really a misnomer. For the time being, it is an iPad market. Good Day.
