The State of Slate

Written by Justin Rubio. Published: Thursday, October 21, 2010.

Now that the dust has settled from the successful release of the Apple iPad, the tablet industry has been up in arms to grab a piece of the previously-unprofitable pie. Sure, tablets have been around for quite some time before the magical device reached the masses and a couple have even popped up since then, but none have been able to keep the bottom line black for most of these manufacturers. Months after the iPad was made available, the big names are finally reaching a point where they are ready to release competitive tablets on their own, specifically Samsung, Hewlett-Packard and BlackBerry. With the eminent announcement of the next iPad just a couple quarters away, let’s take a quick look at what these other big hitters have in store for the future.

Samsung Tab

Samsung is releasing their tablet, the Tab. It is one of many new tablet devices that will enter the market in the next few months.The Android platform that has been taking the smartphone industry by storm has always had a strong possibility to reaching the slate form factor. With its open source code, many manufacturers have ported the operating systems to tablets of their own. Have you heard of Archos or Augen? Yeah, that pretty much sums up the results. Samsung, makers of the recently-released Galaxy line of smartphones (running Android), have made their intentions of releasing their own tablet very clear.

The Samsung Tab is smaller than the iPad but may please those looking for a lighter and more compact form . In addition to the 7 inch screen, the Tab will be running Android 2.2, pack a 3 MP rear-facing camera and 1.3 MP front-facing camera (perfect for picture-whoring), 1 GHz processor, 1080P video playback, plus 3G and Wifi connectivity. Differentiating itself from the iPad are support for a MicroSD card, HDMI and USB ports as well as the giant elephant in the room: Adobe Flash support. Oh yeah, and it has all of the graceful gifts that come along with Google’s support for an Android product including the App Marketplace.

Pricing is still unnannounced, but Samsung will release the Tab on all major carriers for 3G support and will later release a Wifi-only version.

HP PalmPad

HP PalmPad is the forthcoming tablet device from HP. It will run on the recently-acquired Palm webOS architecture. It's one of many tablets that will be released in 2010-2011.Some may not have caught this tidbit of current tech events when it was going down, but computer giant Hewlett-Packard recently purchased failing smartphone developer, Palm. The new ownership was made official July 2010 and slate talk has been coming out of the mouth of HP for quite some time beforehand.

While previously said to be making the HP “Slate”, a Windows 7-powered tablet, HP has more recently stated that they have moved efforts towards a different tablet powered by Palm’s webOS platform that can currently be seen on the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi devices.

Although not much is known about the device — even the name may change — we do know that HP is planning to release the tablet early next year. A CES 2011 announcement sounds about right since it is the very same event where webOS was introduced to the world and would put them at a nice announcement slot before the yearly iPad event. Palm may have had a great vision for their operating system, but lacked the resources to bring it to its full potential and I’m sure that HP’s billions of dollars will help both parties involved.

BlackBerry PlayBook

Blackberry's tablet device will be called the PlayBook. It's the only one of the upcoming tablets that will feature a completely new and unique operating system.We’re all familiar with BlackBerry phones, we’ve all seen them, many of us have even owned them at some point or another, especially considering that they are the largest smartphone manufacturer in the United States. Sure, they may not be the most flashy or have the coolest apps, but many can attest that the one thing they do is “work.” Now RIM, the company behind the BlackBerry name, is looking to stake a claim in the tablet industry. Just recently, BlackBerry announced the PlayBook, the slate with business in mind.

Like the Samsung Tab, the PlayBook will be showing off their operating system using a 7 inch screen. Speaking of operating systems, unlike the iPad’s iOS and the Tab’s Android platform, the OS for the PlayBook was built from the ground up instead of being modified and ported from the smartphone versions. Packed inside the tablet will be a 1 GHz processor, 1 GB of RAM, Adobe Flash and Air support, a 5 MP rear facing camera and 3 MP front facing camera. HDMI and USB support will also be on hand as well as Wifi connectivity. The BlackBerry PlayBook will be released early 2011.

Apple iPad is still the dominating tablet in the market. It will soon have competition as many other brands are poised to enter the market within the next few months.So there you have it. The iPad may have been the first tablet to be successfully released on a massive level but that doesn’t mean that other large technological developers aren’t on their way up the same path. The Samsung Tab, HP PalmPad and BlackBerry PlayBook all look like promising contenders in the slate market and Apple will have to keep their game on point to make sure they stay ahead of the pack.

And what is Steve Jobs’ magical device doing nowadays? Well, getting ready to be sold in Verizon Wireless stores. Considering that the iPad has already pushed over 7 million units, the new guys have quite a bit of making up to do.

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