Tag: tablet

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Analysts Sound Death Knell For Dedicated E-Readers, So Multi-Purpose Tablets Win

Selburn said that 2011 appears to have been the peak of the e-reader market, when IHS said that 23.2 million e-readers shipped, compared to 14.9 million shipped for all of 2012. By 2016, Selburn said that just 7.1million e-readers will ship, equal to a loss of more than 66% since 2011.

via Last chapter for e-readers? – Computerworld.

This shouldn’t really surprise anyone. Single use tech devices have a more limited audience especially when they must compete against more feature rich multi-purpose devices. Why have just a reader when for just a few dollars more you can get all the features of the reader plus all the features of a tablet. You can read the latest best seller AND check your email, update Facebook, chat with friends and so on. Of course e-readers aren’t going away, but they won’t be dominating the market for hand held devices either.

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Finally! MSFT Surface Windows 8 Pro Arrives In January, 2013

There was no word on the Surface Pro though, until now. Tami Reller, Windows and Windows Live Division chief marketing officer, reveals at the Credit Suisse Annual Technology Conference 2012 that Surface Pro will launch in January 2013. Today, Microsoft also revealed pricing: $899 (64GB); $999 (128GB).

via Microsoft Surface with Windows 8 Pro arrives in January.

This version of the Surface will be a fully powered Windows tablet and should make it a popular choice in the business market since it run legacy x86 applications as well as apps from the Windows Store.

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Kindle Fire: Amazon’s Latest Consumer Point of Sale Terminal

The Kindle Fire seems to have been designed and built not as a tablet, but as a device to read and watch that happens to be a tablet. It has been designed to help Amazons customers buy more in the best way possible it’s that sort of user centric approach that will make it so popular.

Kindle Fire: Developers be Warned – John Nye

Good succinct article that gets to the heart of the matter: Amazon doesn’t sell tablets, Amazon sells stuff and the Kindle Fire and its siblings are designed to help you buy more stuff quickly and efficiently. Sure, the Fire will have access to Android apps from the Amazon App store, however consumers (and developers) will need to keep in mind that it is running a forked version Android 2.1, so some stuff is not going to work as expected. Even though there will always be more powerful, more capable Android tablets on the market, the Fire will find market share as the Android device for the home consumer. Just the thing for using around the house to read books and magazines, watch video, listen to music, perhaps chat with friends, or check your email. I suspect that if your looking for a powerful device for serious business and education use the Kindle Fire may well disappoint. Of course we won’t know until mid-November when it actually appears.