The race is on - convergence of mini Tab to smartphone

[scroobal]

Will it happen? When will it happen?

In the 1980s KFC entered the Chinese market and got fried. Decade later they are making money hand over fist.

Its is widely expected that Apple will enable phone features in its ipad mini next upgarde following what Samsung had done with its Tabs. Anyone who has tried the mini ipad will tell you that the standard Ipad will go the way of the beeper - obsolete, too big, too cumbersome etc.

So will the world settle for an average Joe to own the following as basics:

1. Laptop for full functionality for home and office ( gaming will continue to be a specialised enitity)
2. A mini-tab ( that goes into your back pocket)
3. And back to a small simple phone ( smartphone features are now in the mini tab)

And lets not forget Google Project Glass - where the eyes / ears interface bridging is the next frontier. The bluetooth earpiece was considered Ah Beng central and even couriers avoid it like the plague. So will Google unveil the next "iphone".

Whats your guess / feel ?

 

[Char_Azn]

Not much of a revolution but next step of the tech revolution is going to be moving from Laptop to Tablet.

For about 3-4 years before the IPhone came out, experts have been predicting Mobile devices will coz the downfall of the laptop. Didn't happen. Everyone who owns a smartphone also owns a laptop but the same does not hold true the other way around. As for the tablet, Microsoft have been trying to replace laptops with it for close to a decade without much luck until Apple came in. From what I've noticed about users within my own company, the corporate users do not like to work on the tablet mainly due to the keyboard. MS is working around this problem with the Surface keyboard. With MS forcing everyone to move to Windows 8 soon enough, it actually looks pretty good for them taking on a chunk of the corporate tablet market. There is good reason why MS shares did not drop even after the lukewarm reception of the Surface with Windows RT. For most companies IT team, it will make a lot more sense for them to recommend a Windows 8 tablet over an Andriod or IPad simply due to integration and IT Management issues. Not to mention existing in house software will not have to be redeveloped for different systems. The full Windows 8 Surface will be out next year and I see MS regaining loss ground in the long run, albeit very slowly.

Apple's strategy so far seem to be content with having the tablet as an accessory rather than as the main computing unit. Apple is trying to use the popularity of the IPhone and IPad to ship more Macs. Not happening as fast as they would like. Windows machines still outsold Macs by a huge margin although they are catching up. Unlikely they will overtake MS in that anytime soon and if Windows 8 tablets catch on, it will signal the end of Apple Inc era. To date Apple have not indicated any plans of moving the IPad or Iphone towards the direction that MS is taking, to replace the laptops completely. I think Apple seriously needs to sit down and rethink their long term strategy before it's too late. Even Google is moving towards that direction

Google have a similar strategy with the Andriod hoping to push it out and having everyone migrate to it's home ground, the cloud. It's going to continue being a minor player for some time at best due to the lack of main platform like MS Windows or Apple's Mac. The chromebook suck and didn't catch on. Between MS strategy of using Windows 8 machines to push out Windows 8 tablets, vs Google's and Apple's method of using Tablets and Smartphones to sell their Main CPU, MS seems to have a better chance of succeeding.

As for Google's Project glass, too far ahead of it's time. Even if they manage to get it working and push it to the streets, it will continue to be a niche device for some time to come. I see it like the current 3D TV, nice to have but not going to catch on.

Between product being invented and market adoption, it'll be another 10 years at least until the next big leap actually happens. Right now the Tablet is still at the infant stage. It took Laptops more than a decade to overtake PCs, it will take Tablet at least another couple of years to be recognize as a device to replace laptops