Will Motorola's tablet strategy work?

Models with the new Motorola Xoom

THE much talked-about Motorola Xoom is finally here on our shore just a day before the anciously-awaited iPad 2 availability, but will it be able to attract tablet enthusiasts?


On paper, it looks like the Xoom is a pretty capable contender in the tablet space with its first-of-its-kind dual-core processor, 16:9 aspect ration 10.2-inch screen, high-definition screen, HDMI, SD slots and many more.

The dual-core 1GHz processor alone will allow users to muti-task a lot of applications. Anybody would like to have this powerful machine as their Web companion, no doubt about it.

But at RM2,499 for only a WiFi version and a tie-up to a 24-month data plan from Maxis is a bit too much to ask, despite the fact that Motorola throws in its DEFY 3G smartphone with the package - you'll get two nice devices with one purchase.

The current Xoom WiFi version needs the DEFY phone to make it a truly mobile warrior.

Is this a smart move? my answer yes and no.

Firstly, if I don't have a smartphone and a tablet, I may lean towards this package (RM2,499 for two smart devices sounds good), but if I already have a smartphone, I may not want to spend RM2,499 for a Wi-Fi version tablet.

Secondly, Maxis is also offering HTC Flyer (a 7-inchAndroid 1.5GHz tablet with 3G capability) from just RM199 with an undisclosed data plan. Retail price of the device is RM2,499. This may sound more reasonable, spend RM199 with a data-plan tie-up. The discount on the device is huge here.

Thirdly, iPad 2 is officially available today with no tie-up to any telcos. You can buy it off the shelves from local Apple distributors from RM1,499 to RM2,499.

Then, there is also Acer Iconia Tab A500, a 10-inch Android tablet from RM1,599, also off the shelves, and a few more tablets like Samsung Tab, Viewsonic, Dell Streak 5, etc.

Come to think of it, this tablet war is really about strategy - pricing, tie-ups. The devices are just about the same.

Dell joins tablet war

NOTEBOOK and PC maker Dell has joined the Malaysian tablet war with the launch of its Streak 5 device.
Unlike the other players which focus on the 10-inch and 7-inch screen tablets, Dell has decided to go for a smaller 5-inch size, making it the smallest tablet so far available in Malaysia.
The Android 2.2 (Froyo) tablet is already available in the market since Wednesday at RM2,099.
What's so special about this mini tablet is that it can double up as a phone, means you don't need to carry a phone with it. This makes sense because at five-inches, doubling the Streak 5 as a phone does not awkward, compared to holding a 7-inch tablet close to your ear.
You can also synch your contacts with Facebook and import their profile images so that at a glance you can see who’s calling.
The device also offers Global Positioning System and eCompass functionality. Text-to-voice and turn-by-turn directions let you keep your eyes on the road, while Google Maps’ live traffic functionality helps you avoid those dreaded red zones (requires 3G connection).
The best part is the mini Streak 5 tablet phone multitasks, so you can play your favorite driving tunes and receive calls at the same time.
The tablet also comes with a 5MP camera on its back and a VGA one of the front.
Dell Streak 5 Android 2.2 Tablet includes the Stage User Interface (UI) and a collection of widgets that bring your content such as music, photos and email to your home screen.
It even includes Adobe Flash 10.1 support1 for the full mobile Web experience and the capability to use your Dell Streak 5 tablet phone as a portable WiFi hotspot that can be shared with up to eight other devices

iPad 2 finally here

Apple-authorised resellers nationwide are gearing up for the much-anticipated iPad 2 launch, expected to take place tomorrow.
For the past couple of weeks, a number of resellers have opened up bookings for the second generation iPad. Consumers can register and put in a certain deposit.
"This will guarantee that they will get the product once it's available. This will avoid disappointment as we are anticipating a very high demand for the iPad 2," said one reseller, who is expecting a sold-out launch of the product at its chain of outlets.
With the iPad 1 stock already running dry at most major reseller outlets, the shelves are ready to be filled with iPad 2.
This product has been gaining popularity since it was launched in the United States in March.
The iPad 2 is 33 per cent thinner than its predecessor, weighing just 601 grammes, compared with iPad 1, which weighs 680 grammes.
It will have more goodies, such as a dual camera and a host of apps that include iMovie, FaceTime, Garage Band and Photo Booth.
Under the "hood" is Apple's new iOS4 4.3, which is said to be faster and offers better processing power for running applications like video-conferencing, movies and games.
iPad 2 also offers HDMI support, which means that users can connect the device to a high-definition TV for a playback function of videos or pictures.
Previous iPad sales in Malaysia were split 50:50 between the Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi+3G models. For the iPad 2, the Wi-Fi+3G is expected to be more popular due to the availability of new features like FaceTimes and dual camera, which would be more practical with 3G services.
In terms of pricing, Malaysia is expected to be one of the cheapest places where you can get an iPad 2, with prices expected to range from RM1,500 for the 16GB WiFi variant to RM2,500 for the 64GB Wi-Fi+3G variant.

Fly with HTC Flyer

THE tablet PC market is set to get hotter with the latest announcement of HTC Flyer, a seven-inch touch-screen device.
Designed to meet the needs of mobile executives and tablet enthusiasts, the Flyer will be first through telecommunications Maxis starting May 12, 2011.
The telecommunications service provider has also singed a memorandum of understanding to allow it to be the first telco in Malaysia to exclusively offer existing and up-and-coming HTC smart devices to their customers.
According to Maxis' chief executive officer, Jean-Pascal Van Overbeke, the partnership with HTC began last year when Maxis partnered HTC to be the first to offer its customers the HTC Desire, Desire Z, Wildfire, HTC HD7 and HTC 7 Mozart.
"Today's partnership with HTC will ensure that Maxis customers will continue to be to the first in Malaysia to enjoy HTC’s new devices," he said at the signing ceremony in Kuala Lumpur last week.
Maxis said it will offer the RM2,499 HTC Flyer at just RM199 with a selected wireless data plans, which will be announced soon.
Besides the HTC Flyer, Maxis also offers current HTC's flagship smartphone, the HTC Desire S.
To date, Maxis has 13.92 million subscribers with 41.5 percent of its mobile revenue coming from non-voice services.
Van Overbeke said besides offering exclusive devices for its clients, Maxis will also continue developing applications for these devices as an added value to the customers.
Commenting on the new Flyer tablet, HTC Asia's senior director of product marketing, Darren Sng, said that the new tablet offers users both convenience and power in one device.
"We've chosen to develop the Flyer in a seven-inch form factor to make it easy to hold. For example, when you write, you want to hold the device in one hand and the other hand writing, but if it's a 10-inch device, it will be difficult to do this," he said.
The Flyer is encased in a sleek aluminum unibody. It is also ultra-light, weighing as little as a paperback book, and compact enough to fit in a jacket pocket only.
"These features will make it easy for users to slip the device in their jacket pocket or even a small handbag.
The tablet is also said to be the current fastest tablet with a 1.5GHz processor and high-speed HSPA+ wireless capabilities.
As the device is designed for users to take notes with it, Sng said HTC has include a new technology called HTC Scribe, which transforms traditional note-taking into smart note-taking by integrating natural onscreen writing with thoughtful and integrated innovations.
"This technology enables users to use the included pen to take notes, sign contracts, draw pictures, or even write on a web page or photo. A feature called Timemark enables you to capture the audio of a meeting in line with your written notes, so tapping on a word in your notes instantly takes you to that exact place in time in the audio recording of the meeting. Notes are also integrated with the calendar so when there is an appointment reminder you are automatically prompted with an opportunity to begin a new note or in the case of recurring meetings, to continue where the last meeting left off," he explained.
Besides that, HTC will also be introducing NTC Watch, which is a movie download service to be used on its devices.
"With this service, users will be able to download premium Hollywood movies to their device," said Sng, adding that the service will be managed by HTC and will only be available in the fourth quarter of this year.
The HTC Desire S smartphone is already available atv RN1,299 onwards with Maxis data plans.
The Android-based phone features HTC’s trademark aluminum unibody and Qualcomm’s new 1GHz Snapdragon MSM8255 processor.
Its other features include dual front and back cameras, HD video recording and a 3.7-inch WVGA display.

World's Largest 3D Plasma TV for RM2.5 million

PANASONIC Corporation, a world leader in the HDTV technology, has developed the world's largest1) 152-inch 4K x 2K definition Full HD 3D plasma display. The TV was displayed at Genting Highland recently and costs a whopping RM2.5 million.

The display features a revolutionary new plasma display panel (PDP) Panasonic developed with its new super-efficient quadruple luminous efficiency technology.

The technology enhances PDP’s unique advantages as self-illuminating device, contributing to delivering an overwhelming immersive experience to viewers.

By employing the newly-developed ultra high-speed 3D drive technology, which adopts the super-efficient quadruple luminous efficiency technology, the new panel achieves a higher illuminating speed, about one fourth the speed of conventional Full HD panels4). This technology enables high-quality Full HD 3D display on the ultra large 152-inch 4K x 2K (4,096 x 2,160 pixels) panel.

Era of Internet TVs

PEOPLE want to use the Internet everywhere today on any device, and the latest trend is to have it on TVs.

To meet this new demand, Panasonic Malaysia will be offering Viera Connect, a new cloud-based Internet service, in line with the launch of its Viera plasma, LED and LCD TVs for 2011.

The company's managing director Jeff Lee said the function of TVs has changed through out the years.

"From just a large box to play films to displaring vivid colour in full HD and 3D format, TVs today have embraced the Internet technology, hence giving birth to what we called Internet protocol TV or IPTV," he said at the product launch in Genting Highland last week.

Lee said as the demand for flat panel TVs becomes stable, there will be two key factors that will drive the market and these are 3D technology and IPTV functionality.

"By 2014, we expect 3D TVs to make up over 30 ercent of the global market, which is equivalent to 90 million sets. Similarly we expect 40 percent of all TVs to have IPTV functionality by the same year," he said.

Panasonic's IPTV offerings will be available via Viera Connect, which is the company's cloud-based Internet service.

Within this expanding market, Panasonic's IPTVs have an edge as they have the capacity to deliver wide-ranging content and services that meet the needs of local consumers.

Lee said among the services users can expect from Viera Connect include video, music, games, social networking, news and information.

The video services include streaming platforms such as YouTube, USTREAM, WOW TV and Dailymotion; while the music service will allow users to stream and listen to music via SHOUTcast, a media streaming application on their Viera TVs.

For gamers, the service now offers a number of games which include Penalty Shoot Out, Free throw, Black Jack, Chess, Poker, Solitaire, Mine Sweeper, Dracula’s coffin and Number Place, and uers can download them for free.

Meanwhile, the social networking, news and information service will enable uers to log on to Facebook and Twitter on their Viera TVs, as well as make video calls via the Skype application. Lee said Panasonic will be working towards creating more exciting television experiences by accelerating the development of related technologies, as well as collaborating with developers to create more content for Viera Connect.

"We are also the official sponsor for next year's Olympic Game in London where many of the events will be shown in 3D," he said.

On the 3D technology segment, he said today Panasonic has 3D offerings from screen sizes between 37-inch up to 152-inch. The 3D full HD feature will be sustained by two key panel technologies that are the NeoPlasma for the Viera plasma TVs and IPS Alpha for the Viera LED LCD and LCD Tvs.

Altogether, Panasonic launcged 13 new TVs which include nine plasma models and four LED LCDs, and three LCD models, off which six are 3D models.

"This time, we have also made available 3D glasses in different sizes to better cater to people's comfortability wearing them," said Lee.

Other enhancement made include making 2D sources into 3D, THX-certified picture quality, Wi-Fi ready, 15 percent improvemet in luminous efficiency for better picture quality and lower power consumption.

Commenting on sales target, Panasonic malaysia's marketing director Hidekazu Sasaki said the company is looking at 23 percent share in the total flat panel sales in Malaysia this year, which is the same as 2010.

"However, in the 3D segment, we target to achieve 20 percent market share from 15 percent last year," he said.

Sasaki said Malaysia is a very important market to Panasonic sales contribution with a number one postion in Southeast Asia and number eight in the world.

"Globally, Panasonic is loking at double-digit growth this year," he added. On weather the recent Earthquake and Tsunami that hit Japan will affect Panasonic business and product shipment to Malaysia, deputy managing director Chris Tomachi said the effect is not big as Panasonic main production plant in Japan is located at the Western part of the country.

"However, some of our component makers are based in the disaster area and we are doing all the best we could to ensure production is not affected," he said. Tomachi said Panasonic also has major plants in Malaysia and Thailand which are secure from the disaster and these plants will keep producing products as usual.

Pic above: At the launcing of Viera's TV platform are (from left) Sasaki, Lee, Tomachi and Panasonic Asia Pacific Pte Ltd Singapore's deputy managing director Hiroyoshi Suga.

Potential iPad killer?

COMPUTER maker Acer is ready to capture the local tablet personal computer (PC) market with the introduction of its Iconia Tab A500 tablet.

The Android 3.0 (Honeycomb)-based touch screen device is expected to be available in stores locally at the end of April and will come in both Wi-Fi and Wi-Fi plus 3G version.

According to the company's director, brand management and product marketing division, smart handheld, Andy Chang, the Iconia Tab A500 has been designed thoroughly to meet the current and future needs of tablet users.

"We've seen a lot of limitations that previous tablets in the market had like the absence of memory expansion slot, camera functions, HDMI slots, etc, and we have included all these in the Tab A500 tablet," he said in Kuala Lumpur last week.

The Acer 10.1-inch tablet comes with a micro SD slot that supports up to 32GB external storage, mini HDMI for connectivity to flat panel TVs, dual-core NVIDIA Tegra 2, which is said to deliver up to two time faster browsing, better graphics and optimised HD viewing, 3D and console-quality gaming, and multimedia playback.

Besides that, it also comes with a five-megapixel rear-facing camera plus 2MP front-facing camera for video recording, video chat, or picture taking. The camera can also be used as a barcode scanner.

Chang is optimistic that tablet PC will be as famous as the notebook and netbook among computer users.

"The devices will not out do each other as both have their own advantages. While notebooks and netbooks are best designed for e-mail, Web browsing, power point presentation, tablets are designed for slightly different purpose. We believe people will use tablets differently from the way they use notebooks or netbooks," he said.

"Study shows that the top three applications people do on tablets are gaming, browsing and social networking, and this is what the Aconia A500 has also been designed for," he added. Commenting on the reason for Acer to adopt Android for the Iconia Tab A500, Chang said this is due to the strong support the OS gets from application developers.

"The Android-based OS and the number of applications available give users the future they can expect. So when you buy a tablet like the Iconia, you will get more than just the preload games, ebooks, apps, MP3 tools," he said.

Chang also said the Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) is a strong platform. In terms of applications, the Androind market now has more than 100,000 applications and the OS has also grew 600 percent over the last year in the smartphone category. The version 3.0 will make it an even stronger competitior.

"It offers a very quick customisation, smooth operations like drag and drop at just your fingertips," he said. As the tablet market gets more competitive this year, Chang said it is likely that every other vendor will offer about the same product. "For Acer, we have leveraged our PC experience and applied it to the Iconia Tab A500. We make sure the hardware is very competitive and offers parellel experience at a reasonal cost possible," he said. One example is to make the view angel possible at 80 to 85 degree to allow users to the widest viewing angle possible Besides that, Acer has also included its own applications like the clear.fi media sharing system for seamless integration in the home clear.fi environment to easily access, play and share multimedia across the home network and to instantly publish updates to social media networks.

The Iconia Tab A500 also comes with Acer's Social Jogger, which is an application that allows users to login into multiple social networking accounts once. Its full capacitive multi-touch screen ensures an optimal on-screen experience from every angle.

The the hardware side, the Tab A500 offers aluminum casing to give a cool look and feel, while its high gloss finish anodizing decorated with laser engraved textures demonstrates subtle sophistication.

"Despite being just 13.3mm thick, it's powerful enough to provide fun and productivity in any location and would survive a drop from a table height," said Chang, adding that Acer also has plans to launch 3D tablet in Q1 next year.

The Iconia Tab A500 will be price from RM1,599 to RM1,999 depending on models. Besides the Iconia Tab A500, Acer will also be offering a smallr seven-inch Tab A100 tablet , which will be on the shelf in late May. It comes with 8GB and 16GB storage and will be priced from RM1,099 and 1,499.