We bought one here at work a few weeks ago and put Android 3.0 on it - it has been making the local iPad users drool with envy, especially considering the price difference.

I watched the live blog and nothign really made me want to go out and buy one. I am a Apple fan, but never did get an iPad because I never really had a need for one.
I have an Air that runs rings around an iPad, and I can run Win7 on it as well. I also have a tablet (ASUS) with a full keyboard and a stylus, and VGA and Ethernet and CD/DVD Drive, and SD slot, but yes it is heavier; but it's a laptop.

Maybe I'll get one (even though I don't need one) to have a cool toy, but I prefer my Air for work.

We really need a head to head battle when all the big players are out Cisco Cius, RIM Playbook, etc.

I'm tempted because it seems like a sweet device, but I already have a Macbook Air, iPhone4, Kindle, big HP desktop PC w/Win7 at home, not to mention a whole office full of other machines. Do I really need to be online more than 16 hours a day???

Step back at bit.

There are 80 different tablet models set to launch this year.

Can't even justify launching w/o selling at least 0.5-1.0MM units/model, so industry could build 40MM+ non-iPad tablets. Yet most forecasts are for around 20MM non-iPad tablet unit sales in 2011.

So in 2H there is going to be a brutal shakeout for tablet makers, 60+ models will bite the dust, they will be flooding Overstock.com and other liquidation channels. Most of these will be fine in hardware spec (dual-core ARM, etc). If you like hacking cheap Android tablets, it will be fun.

Fact is, all the tablets in 2011 are pretty similar in spec and form factor. 10" capacitive touchscreen, dual-core ARM-based CPU, third-party graphics engine, 1GB mDRAM, 64-128GB NAND, WLAN, Bluetooth, GPS, a camera or two, a couple buttons. Differentiation on paper will be minor - 3G, HDMI, SD, minor stuff.

Yet there will be 1.5X more tablet units made, and 4-8X more tablet models introduced, versus what the market will bear.

How to differentiate a tablet? Apple has that licked, has iOS, biggest app store by 100X, the "Apple" brand, VZ/T/China Unicom/all the big carriers, etc. Maybe MOT (now MMI) can differentiate w/ Xoom and the dockable one, maybe RIMM with Playbook (though differentiation of Blackberry O/S and hardly any apps may not be in a good way), maybe HPQ with webOS (ditto). Possibly the PC-based tablets will differentiate positively with Atom and Win 7 (it'll be a niche, but one with less frenzied competition). The Chinese will try to differentiate on price, but Apple is being aggressive on price/value and they are buying components and NAND in far greater scale than anyone else, so even if you use a cheap Chinese ARM SOC the BOM price isn't going to be way under Apple's. Between Acer, Asus, HTC, Samsung, etc - there's going to be some big losers. Among the third-tier brands - most of which we'll never hear about, or only see at liquidation sales like the Viewsonic one people were mentioning - almost all are going to be losers.

Maybe in 2012 we'll see some interesting/differentiated hardware. For now, the parts list is not a good guide to picking a winner.

Myself - we have an iPad, I like it a lot, I see lots of non-traditional uses - but to be honest for most of my usage I like the notebook form factor with an actual keyboard more. This post was trivial to bang out on a keyboard. On a tablet, with touchscreen keyboard and the screen half obscured at the wrong angle - not so effortless.

jyl - thanks. Good info and perspective.

-Z-man.

John: good points. Within the past couple years, Apple wrote a $3.9 billion check just to lock up high density LED backlit displays so they'd be guaranteed the quantity they needed to sell 15 million of those puppies in 9 months. And demand still outstripped their supply capability.

Looking at the Sandy Bridge debacle, Intel had barely announced its fix for the faulty initial batches when Apple began shipping Sandy Bridge powered MBPs. Their manufacturing turnaround and component supply control is impressive.

Oh, and also to John's point about fire sale tablets:

Walgreens now selling $100 Maylong M-150 Android tablet -- Engadget

Reviews are hilarious:

Worst gadget ever? Ars reviews a $99 Android tablet

Maylong Universe M-150 Review - Tablets - CNET Reviews

Back to the ip2...

It's so great that they made it thinner. (Was such a fat pig before). And they kept the Etch-a-sketch sized bezel grip. -- So, Now when used as a Frisbee the thinness makes it really fast ...and fast gives distance!

Now seriously; why is the device still so ergonomically awkward? ....other tablets are much nicer to hold.

...Meanwhile, back at the bApple cave, they say Behold the Apple-thin awesomeness (beware of sharp edges)

FYI

Google has pulled more than 50 malware-infected apps from its Android Market, but hasn't yet triggered automatic uninstalls of those programs from users' phones, security experts said today.

"The apps were 'Trojanized,' for a better word," said Tom Parsons, a senior manager with Symantec's security response team. "With the phones being 'rooted,' the attacks can do almost anything, including pulling data off the phone," he said, referring to the malware's ability to gain root access to the devices.

The apps were available for about four days on the Android Market, Google's official app store. According to San Francisco-based smartphone security firm Lookout, between 50,000 and 200,000 copies of the apps were downloaded by users.

And still users wonder why corporate IT wants to lock down their phone!

On the bezel, they (apple, google, touchscreen controller software writers) need to figure out how to distinguish a thumb wrapping around as you hold the tablet, from an intentional touch.

it IS cool!

I want one!!

not sure what use I have for it, but....

What Apple hopes you didn't notice about iPad 2 from CNN.

Ian

it is still well worth $80

I'd buy one for $80

Nice product but I have an iPhone 4 and IBM thinkpad that I use daily for work.

This would be something that I would use after hours. Updating Facebook, reading this and other forums etc.
And most of that would be done in my family room rather than in my office.

So yes I would use it and I would spend more time in the presence of my kids so in that regard it's good.

It won't replace my laptop.... External monitor, key board and mouse.

---------------------------------------------

I especially liked the Piano keyboard simulation and other instruments in the Apple promotional video on their site.
That looked cool... I haven't played Chop Sticks in a while. ;)

"nostatic"

Have you seen it? What did you think?

We want what we cant have......or don't have but do you really need it? really??

I haven't seen the new one other than the video. I have the first one and it has made a huge difference in how I do music. HUGE.

As a controller (ie virtual piano, guitar, drums, etc) it leaves something to be desired if you're used to analog instruments. The teaching capabilities though are pretty spectacular. And consider that you'll have a lot of kids who *aren't* coming from analog instruments, so in that case tablet as controller/instrument will make total sense.

GarageBand for iPad is a really big deal and is a revolution, not evolution for music creation. There will be traditionalists and narrow-minded people who will dismiss it as "not real music" or not a "real instrument." But I consider that nonsense. It is just that the human/instrument interface is changing. Futureman of Bela Fleck and the Flecktones has been messing with that paradigm for a couple decades. But now the tools fall into the hands of the masses. We'll see what comes of it.

just wait a while -- you'll be able to stick them all over the house and connect them into your fiber optic backbone

Hooray for Apple, China and Walmart!


Seriously, I must be missing something here. Are you saying GB is some great editing tool, or some great Music i/o (human/instrument interface ) tool (like a piano). ...I can't imagine a cap-sense screen is that great of an input device. ...Is the G-sensing some sort of a great whammy-bar?