InfoTech: Keep taking the tablets even if they are not what the doctor ordered

Apple did not invent the tablet computer. Not even close. But with the iPad, it brought the concept into a much wider arena than any previous attempt. And by creating the buzz, Apple also painted a target on its own back.

And so as a nascent industry sector came to grips with alternative operating systems, only Android became a serious competitor. But Android, even in its Froyo (2.2) guise is designed for mobile phones and, while some tablets have mobile phone capability, that is not their primary purpose. Although HTC ported its HTC Sense to its tablets which helped bridge the gap, everyone knew that the 2010 generation of tablets was little more than product development, market testing and research on positioning.

With prices ranging from around well under GBP100 for little (or un-)known Chinese brands to well over GBP400, pricing became difficult to interpret. Samsung named its 7" tablet (strange how, despite the majority of the world dealing in metric measurements, computer tech still operates in imperial units) Galaxy Tab to capitalise on the growing buzz behind the Galaxy S phone, widely regarded as one of the top two or three phones - and the phone with the best display thanks to its Super Amoled tech. But it did not put that screen onto its tab. Similarly, HTC upgraded its excellent Desire phone to the Desire HD - but did not put that HD screen on its own tab.

Apple tried to laugh off the competition saying that an 7" screen was too big for a phone and too small for a tablet. But the limitation was in part due to the limitations of Froyo or, in some cases, Android 2.1 which still persisted for some manufacturers.

But the manufacturers knew that they needed to get a product out, to make sure it worked and to make sure there was brand awareness at a time that Apple was launching its iPad 2.

Today, in shops around the world, there are signs saying "iPad 2 out of stock." But increasingly, so are notices about the Samsung Galaxy 7".

But the Galaxy 7" is obsolete, or at least obsolescent. It is being replaced with two new formats: 8.6 and 10.1" - both running Honeycomb. That puts them in direct competition with the first similar entry into that format/OS, the Motorola Xoom.

As more similar format devices hit the market, they are looking for some differentiation: internally, they are broadly similar with the 1 GHz NVIDIA Tegra 2 processor. Some have a little more memory than others but one of the significant features of tablets v PCs is the tiny amount of RAM they require, a welcome throw-back to their mobile phone legacy.

Nvidia's CEO HUANG Jen-Hsun (honestly, it's his name. Read it aloud and then you get an idea of his obsession with making things go faster) has recently been reported as saying that he was disappointed with the initial sales of tablets using the Tegra 2 which has been specifically designed for Honeycomb. But that was before today.

Today, as June opens up, so does the market for tablets running Android 3.0.

As May wore out, announcements from Samsung, Acer, Viewsonic and others announced new ranges, all of which are differentiated primarily on three areas:

1) screen (some include a stylus, some include handwriting recognition, some are higher resolution than others. All are touch and drag). Viewsonic also demonstrated something others had been wary to try: they have put Honeycomb on a 7" tablet - and also developed a dual-boot Android / Windows 7 device.

2) camera: the new Samsung 10.1 has raised the bar with an 8mpx camera on the back (the iPad 2 has 0.7mpx) and a 2mpx camera on the front suitable for video conferencing (where a higher resolution demands vastly more bandwidth and, arguably, 2mpx will prove too much for many users).

3) input devices: replicating the idea of a no-name brand that produced a tablet with a detachable keyboard in 2005 (technically brilliant, build quality useless, battery life counted in minutes) wrapped in a case that doubled as a protective sleeve and stand), ASUS has come out with a "convertible" tablet.

4) Sound

5) Included software. This is essential in some cases because Android is tweaked by each manufacturer that deploys it and not all Android devices (even those from the same manufacturer) operate all Android software. This is perhaps the weakest link in the adoption of Android. If a user has an iPad, then he goes to the Apple AppStore and gets whatever he wants. But if he has an Android device, the link checks out what apps are available for that specific device and displays only those apps. This, for months, prevented HTC Desire users installing Skype and, bizarrely, those users are not able to install the latest version of Skype Mobile which Skype itself says contains essential security fixes.

But as the manufacturers all strive for differentiation in what amount to slim boxes with screens and more or less identical innards and on-screen displays, they are all studiously avoiding some important areas.

First, we have been unable to find a device that has a mic-input socket. Headphone/speaker out, yes; mic in, no. That's a serious omission because on some devices (including the HTC Desires used in our own company) Skype is not compatible with Bluetooth. And a built-in mic is not the same: users don't want to sound as if they are talking in a toilet and with the best will in the world, holding a 10 inch tablet to the head is not the best way to make calls, aside from the fact that it's' hard to multitask with the screen held to the ear. Also, for all-day use, many people prefer a headset on a wire.

Bluetooth is not universal: the iPhone, for example, doesn't like talking to Bluetooth in other devices: indeed, in a test last weekend, an iPhone 3GS failed to recognise or be recognised by phones by HTC, Nokia and Samsung although, strangely, all the phones recognised the same headset and (except when using Skype) worked for phone calls.

The inclusion of HDMI output is useful, although the insistence on a mini-port means that cables have to be carried. But the major differentiation factor for the Samsung Galaxy Tab 7" - the factor that makes it more desirable than other brands for business use - was a TV out socket. Why does this matter? It's a legacy thing: millions of businesses worldwide use TV out for presentations on TVs (obviously) but also - and more widely - projectors. HDMI and Bluetooth projectors are new, rare, expensive and (in the latter case) moody. The omission of a TV out socket means that tablets are unlikely to find their way into the bags of seminar presenters, sales people and/or conference companies. And yet, tablets are a perfect device for such use, bringing a bit of whizz to presentations and a bit of geeky fun for speakers at conferences. Also, they are light, portable, durable and several can be dropped into a bag that would normally carry a single laptop and its paraphernalia.

So far as this author can see from pre-release information and third party reviews plus the published specification, Samsung have removed this socket from the new Galaxy Tabs. Bad move, particularly as software is available in the Android Market is designed to provide for the kind of display that TV producers feature to show how clever their tech is and, in addition to zoom and slide functions, it also co-ordinates sound and text overlay and runs a pre-defined timed sequence, meaning that a presentation software such as Microsoft's PowerPoint becomes unnecessary unless complex builds are required.

Compatibility issues are raised for devices with 3G connectivity: some devices accept standard size SIM cards, some accept only mini cards meaning that users cannot swap their cards from phone to tablet and back again. This places a limitation on their value.

Worse, some devices use non-standard USB ports. Samsung is an offender here but so are several others. A full-size USB socket is an essential device for data transfer e.g. from a stick. And while Apple might think they are above all that connectivity stuff, in the real world ordinary people like to put a stick in a slot and copy data simply and easily without the need to hook multiple devices to a computer to transfer data between them. Why not use Bluetooth? Simple: it's not on most desktops nor is it on a significant proportion of laptops including some Toshiba models. And it's a pain to set up and use. Going back to the prospect of using a tablet in a conference or presentation environment, speakers always, always, always turn up late with their presentation on a stick. No slot, no presentation. Again, it's a market killing omission.

More, a standard stick slot is needed for external mobile modems. Why bother? Simple: we love 4G. It's on a stick. When 4G isn't available or there is no roaming partner, we use an alternative 3G stick.

It's a sorry conclusion to reach but with all the attention focused on whether the case is aluminium or plastic, the screen resolution, the version of Android and the screen size, the most important things seem to have been overlooked: those are the very things that turned Windows into the force it became - providing the basis for standardised file interactivity and component compatibility. Apple, ploughing its own furrow, can get away with high-handed refusal to join in the rest of the world - indeed, arguably, that has long been its USP (despite the fact that its Mac operating system is basically Linux and it is now compatible with the same CPUs as Windows machines).

Android users need to see convergence not divergence. And they need to integrate tablets within their normal workflow. Right now, not only is that not happening but device designers are running in the opposite direction.