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 eyestrain 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.
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 cell phones — 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 Taiwan’s Foxconn 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, Steve Jobs.
Analysts who have spoken to Asian component suppliers now believe 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 form US$700 to US$1,000. In contrast, the tablet design unveiled by Freescale this week will cost around US$130 to manufacture and could sell for as little as US$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.
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 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.
HP 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 HP 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 US$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, Virginia, 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 US$490.
Spring Design, a Taiwanese startup, 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 US$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.
Component makers like Freescale and Marvell, a semiconductor company based in Santa Clara, California, say they are building some e-paper functions right into their processors, which will cut costs and create even more possibilities for new tablets.
April 14 to April 20 In March 1947, Sising Katadrepan urged the government to drop the “high mountain people” (高山族) designation for Indigenous Taiwanese and refer to them as “Taiwan people” (台灣族). He considered the term derogatory, arguing that it made them sound like animals. The Taiwan Provincial Government agreed to stop using the term, stating that Indigenous Taiwanese suffered all sorts of discrimination and oppression under the Japanese and were forced to live in the mountains as outsiders to society. Now, under the new regime, they would be seen as equals, thus they should be henceforth
Last week, the the National Immigration Agency (NIA) told the legislature that more than 10,000 naturalized Taiwanese citizens from the People’s Republic of China (PRC) risked having their citizenship revoked if they failed to provide proof that they had renounced their Chinese household registration within the next three months. Renunciation is required under the Act Governing Relations Between the People of the Taiwan Area and the Mainland Area (臺灣地區與大陸地區人民關係條例), as amended in 2004, though it was only a legal requirement after 2000. Prior to that, it had been only an administrative requirement since the Nationality Act (國籍法) was established in
With over 80 works on display, this is Louise Bourgeois’ first solo show in Taiwan. Visitors are invited to traverse her world of love and hate, vengeance and acceptance, trauma and reconciliation. Dominating the entrance, the nine-foot-tall Crouching Spider (2003) greets visitors. The creature looms behind the glass facade, symbolic protector and gatekeeper to the intimate journey ahead. Bourgeois, best known for her giant spider sculptures, is one of the most influential artist of the twentieth century. Blending vulnerability and defiance through themes of sexuality, trauma and identity, her work reshaped the landscape of contemporary art with fearless honesty. “People are influenced by
Three big changes have transformed the landscape of Taiwan’s local patronage factions: Increasing Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) involvement, rising new factions and the Chinese Nationalist Party’s (KMT) significantly weakened control. GREEN FACTIONS It is said that “south of the Zhuoshui River (濁水溪), there is no blue-green divide,” meaning that from Yunlin County south there is no difference between KMT and DPP politicians. This is not always true, but there is more than a grain of truth to it. Traditionally, DPP factions are viewed as national entities, with their primary function to secure plum positions in the party and government. This is not unusual
RSS