"tablets" Articles

If there is a need for a product, no matter how vague, someone will create a solution for it. So what happens if you need access to a tablet in an area where it might get shot at?

Well there is a new product from VestGuard UK that looks to solve that exact problem for you! They specialize in making personal body armor that is generally used by non-military in war zones, military, and has other various applications so they know how to keep people (and things) safe in a hostile environment.

So it doesn’t matter if you are a member of the armed forces, police, reporter, or 3rd world country dictator – your iPad is now safe from bullets being fired at you! I’m kidding on the 3rd world country dictator of course.

Google is going for Apple’s jugular by switching emphasis from smartphones to tablets. Is Apple scared? I doubt it. They will peddle tablets that are co-branded. Sources indicate that Google will sell them through a store much like Apple and Amazon. This is a last ditch effort to save struggling sales of Android based tablets. The question is whether or not it will work.

The Nexus One from HTC in 2010 was a similar flailing punch by Google, but they caved under the flood of better Android-based phones that hit the market a few months later. Google doesn’t get that having a piece of hardware with the search engine giants multi-colored logo on it makes it feel like a child’s toy – it cheapens it. Google is too full of themselves to get it though. I would never by hardware that has Google’s name on it. However, they have roped Samsung and AsusTek in on the deal of producing the hardware. So Google will not actually build the units, but they will be available from many retailers. In fact, Taiwan’s Asus is due to release the first co-branded tablet later this year, in the online store.

It’s hardly fair to group all Android OS tablets together and compare to Apple’s iPad. It is like 100 against 1, and as we used to say as children, “That’ not fair!” Nevertheless, Apple creams the whole bunch of Android hooligans whichever way you pick to look at it. You can talk about apps, profits, market share, or whatever, but Apple is leaps and bounds ahead of the whole pack of wolves.

That having been said, Strategy Analytics revealed that Android OS tablets accounted for 39 percent of the market share in the fourth quarter of 2011. Apple still is hard to catch up with, at 58 percent, down 10 percent from the previous year.

Global tablet shipments, not including over-the-counter sales, according to Peter King, Strategy Analytics’ research director, rocketed 150 percent, from 10.7 to 26.8 million between the fourth quarters of 2010 and 2011.

As 2011 is coming to an end wrap ups and overviews of the year spring up like weeds after a rain. Here, however, we have a somewhat different look back on this eventful year and it analyzes five different trends that have arisen in the mobile industry that will carry on to the coming year.

We all know mobile has completely changed everything and with each passing year it evolves more. This year was no different. These five trends all encompass various aspects of current mobile technology and some of the figures are somewhat surprising.

As you and millions of others have witnessed, tablets are being released like crazy. In a market saturated with different types of smartphones, tablets, notebooks and laptops, it becomes rather difficult for a new gadget to draw the attention of all the potential customers.

Even though there are several ways to get the attention of the target audience, perhaps the oldest and most effective way is by cutting down the price. This can come very much in handy, especially because the market’s leader happens to be Apple. Everybody knows that Apple devices – in this case, let’s refer specifically to the iPad – are not the most affordable ones. Therefore, it would be only expected to see their competitors trying to slash down the prices of their tablets and gadgets.

When taking the iPad as an example (and as a starting point of competition), competitors are looking at a price of $500 as reference. This means that they need to bring down their prices from there.

Intel is going for the jugular! They are trying to pull the stool out from under the Tablet Industry by offering $300M to further develop the potential of ultrabook technology. Ultrabooks are light and thin laptops that compete as an alternative to tablets.

Technically, according to Intel’s creation of the term ultrabook, the laptop must be thinner than 20mm, lighter than standard laptops, and less that $1000 in order to qualify for the classification. The company hopes ultrabooks will meld together the performance of laptops and the handy features of tablets, though they are unclear what these special features are, aside from touchscreen. This is where the release ventures into the arena of propaganda.

The money will go toward companies that advance either software or hardware for ultrabooks.

A new study carried out by Gartner has found that computer sales will decrease to approximately 9.3% this year. The main reason behind the decrease is the fact that users are starting to keep their computer for longer periods of time in order to cut down their expenses. This came as a surprise since the same firm had made estimations that computer sales would increase rather than decrease. They continued to explain that the decrease was also influenced by the increasing sales of the popular iPad, among other tablets.

The study continued to find that tablets are not necessarily substituting computer sales but rather delaying them. Ranjil Atwal, research director, stated that mini-notebook sales have evidently decreased, and this has affected the overall computer sales. He highlighted that iPad purchases as substitution to regular computers was minimum, but still affected the final reports.