Amid the buzz at the Computex trade fair, Gigabyte Technology Co’s (技嘉) S1080 was lying quietly at the Taipei World Trade Center Hall 1 on Wednesday at noon.
The 10.1-inch slate, running Windows 7 and weighing 895g, was one of many tablets, including those from First International Computer (大眾電腦), Asustek Computer Inc (華碩), HTC Corp (宏達電) and Acer Inc (宏碁).
“This is not a ‘me too’ product,” said Nicholas Kanter, senior specialist for Gigabyte’s global channel marketing.
Photo: PATRICK LIN, AFP
The S1080 comes with a separate docking that turns the tablet into a multimedia station with speakers and DVD ROM, he said.
With a host of Taiwanese companies jumping onto the tablet bandwagon to counter Apple Inc’s iPad, users are swamped by those “me too” products.
All share similar specifications: either seven or 10-inch touch panels; running Google Inc’s Android or Microsoft Corp’s Windows operating systems (OS); front and rear cameras, and USB ports.
“Apple gadgets swept consumers off their feet because of the great user interface and industrial design. There weren’t many user complaints on these two areas,” Shuttle Inc (浩鑫) general manager David Chen (陳俞) said.
Apple is able to sell its tablets at low cost because unlike Asustek or Acer, which have to buy chips from Intel Corp, or buy processors designed on ARM Holdings PLC’s platform from Qualcomm and Nvidia and to pay royalties to use Windows, Apple designs its own chip and OS, called iOS, and develops its own software from iTunes to App Store.
“No one can compete head-to-head against Apple in terms of cost structure. We need to find a niche in the business model,” Chen said.
Shuttle, a small-form PC maker, began work in software development last year and plans to roll out its first own-brand tablet during the second half, he added.
Over at Nangang Exhibition Hall, Asustek’s Eee Pad Transformer — its first and flagship tablet — was an eye catcher, and staff were bombarded with questions from visitors.
The major attraction for the Transformer — in terms of hardware — is the detachable docking/keyboard combo.
The 10-inch tablet can slot into the docking station and it immediately extends the battery life from 9.5 hours to 16. And users can enjoy a full-fledged notebook experience by typing on the keyboard or making use of the USB slots.
Asustek says the Transformer has to win over users not only with its hardware, but also with software, an area in which Apple is particularly strong.
Asustek has the “@vibe” content store, where it has electronics contents ranging from music, books, magazines and newspapers for consumers — some free and some at a cost.
Launched in 2009, @vibe was originally an added-value feature for its Eee PC netbooks and it has been constantly updating the content store and has integrated the service for the tablets.
The store boasts two new selling points — Netflix video rental and the Press Direct newspaper service.
According to Asustek product manager Mimi Lee (李玉方), Asustek is set to unveil an app from -Netflix Inc, a US flat-rate online video rental service provider, for US users next month.
With Press Direct, it has e--newspapers from 192 countries that are delivered to tablet users at their fingertips every morning. Lee said it has nearly 300 papers from the US alone.
HTC Corp (宏達電), the world’s No. 6 smartphone brand, in March announced it would spend US$10 million to acquire an 11.1 percent stake in the fast-growing online music service provider KKBOX Inc.
The investment is expected to boost HTC’s presence in the online music space as KKBOX — currently Taiwan’s largest provider — has offered its service in Hong Kong and Japan, and is eyeing China, Malaysia and Singapore.
In February, HTC’s ￡30 million (US$48 million) acquisition of Saffron Media Group Ltd, which develops software for delivering content over the Internet, and its US$40 million investment in games-on-demand provider OnLive Inc are aimed to help HTC lure users to its tablets and smartphone offerings.
Compal Electronics Inc (仁寶), the world’s second-largest contract notebook maker, which also produces tablets, has increased its engineering staff to more than 500 now — about a five-fold growth from early last year.
“We will have to transform and change our mindset. Now we are stepping into a future dominated by media tablets with new OSes, such as Android and Windows 8 changing the course,” president Ray Chen (陳瑞聰) told reporters on Tuesday.
He said Compal’s top executives are all “hardware guys,” and that was why it had to headhunt experienced software engineers to beef up its “soft power.”
It wants to have the software capability to integrate the future “four screens” — tablets, smartphones, notebooks and TVs, Ray Chen said.
Instead of waiting for customers like Dell Inc or Lenovo Group Ltd (聯想) to come knocking on its doors and tell it what tablets to make, Compal said it wants to approach potential customers instead to tailor those “four screens” products for them.
Taiwanese tablet makers have embarked on aggressive “soft power” forays, but they are working solo and the efforts are not unified to compete with Apple in the software department, such as its highly successful App Store, analysts said.
This is where Insyde Software Corp (系微), a leading PC BIOS (basic input/output system) program provider, sees it could come in.
It hopes to play a role in the -tablet/smartphone trend by backing up Taiwanese PC makers with its app store platform, Insyde marketing manager Andy Wang (王崑萬) said in a 24th floor suite of the Grand Hyatt Taipei Hotel (台北君悅).
Some vendors decided to book hotel rooms for their showrooms because of space constraints at Computex. The hotel is next to Exhibition Hall 1 — one of the four venues engaged for the trade show.
The software maker decided to launch its own version of Android Market called Insyde Market in September 2009 to support Android Market for netbooks.
Insyde Market has now expanded into an app store housing more than 200 apps, and will able to support all Android–based devices, including tablets and TVs, next month.
Maintaining an app store requires a lot of knowhow and Insyde is selling the knowhow it has gathered since 2009.
“There has to be somebody doing the ‘integration work’ for the app market and synergize those developers into a common pool,” Wang said. “We want Taiwanese contract makers to know that our solutions are ready whenever their devices are ready.”
This year, all Acer netbooks are preloaded with Insyde Market, while the software maker is talking to HTC and Asustek, among others, about possible partnerships, Wang added.
Taiwanese makers are geared up to use “soft power” to make their tablets a success.
However, as David Chen said: “We are still on the lookout for the ‘core competency’ for our branded tablet, without which we will not compete with iPads.”
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