3D is a ‘nice to have’, but color without backlighting is higher on the wishlist /

The concept of a tablet computer has been around for quite some time, but until Apple’s iPad it languished in enterprise-focused hardware solutions. Despite the iPad’s own success and the many competitors rumored or officially announced, there are weaknesses to all of the devices planned for market. Here we will look at the trends and design the killer tablet of the future.

The tablet form-factor has its limits, but the tablet of the future doesn’t need to have so many weaknesses

Size: Other than Apple’s iPad, no major competitor is released a “full” size tablet: 10” display or greater. There are several reasons for this. Android, the most popular OS platform for aspiring iPad-killers, currently has legacy restrictions due to its origin as a smartphone OS. Maximum display resolution lags behind the beautiful output of the iPad—something that is magnified by using a larger screen. The Google-certified Samsung Galaxy Tab uses a 7” display—which is essentially the largest optimal Android experience available until Android 3 (Gingerbread) ships down the road.

Another reason, though no one is admitting it, is that companies are still a bit scared to go directly head-to-head with the iPad. Marketing a device with a smaller display (yet still big enough to do ‘tablet’ activities) entails some cross-shopping, but the different size has different appeal. Still, while 7” or so is a fine size, the sweet spot for the future is at 10-11”, especially for multi-media and gaming use.

Display: The tablet of the future must have a high-resolution color display, which is crucial for video and gaming. Currently most tablets are using relatively standard LCD screens, but the future of tablet computing revolves around Pixel Qi technology. One tablet in development, the Notion Ink Adam, will use this screen. Advantages? In its standard mode, it acts like a high-res conventional display, but it can also be viewed with the backlight off, similar to e-ink displays yet with all of the color and responsiveness of an LCD. This way we can use the tablet indoors and in bright sunshine.

Further down the road, parallax barrier screens like the Nintendo 3DS and Toshiba’s experimental TVs may come down enough in cost to see use in the tablet market. While many gamers and movie buffs would agree that 3D is a nice feature, most would also rather see technology like Pixel Qi gain ground first. Personally, I would rather be able to comfortably use a tablet in bright sunshine than see 3D images on it.

Storage: It’s becoming common in consumer devices, whether smartphones, game consoles, or tablets, to get consumers to pay extra by adding a few GB of internal storage. The tablet of the future should eschew this ‘cash-grab’ approach by offering one variation. Different users have different storage needs, but there are ways to compensate. Size and packaging issues likely preclude user-upgradeable internal storage, but the tablet of the future (like nearly all iPad competitors) will use external slots to expand memory.

Worth noting is that as cloud computing technology improves, particularly over wireless networks, onboard storage might not even matter. A simple, stream-lined desktop storage client will allow users to stream content they already own off of their home computers. Why download twice or transfer? The tablet of the future should be less a portable computer than a portable computing interface. Nothing is in the cards for this yet, but cloud services like OnLive are a good model for how tablets could relate to users’ home networks.

Performance: Mobile chips based of the ARM architecture continue to increase in speed, and at least one recently published release—Marvell’s triple core ARMADA 628—are thought to be marketed strictly for tablets. The smartphone form-factor also benefits from speed increases, but the larger display of tablets as well as their increased gaming and multi-media capabilities needs processing power even more.

As the tablet sector evolves, they will move beyond being close cousins to the smartphone, with their own set of processors and apps. In the short time the iPad has been available, the application ecosystem has evolved, with numerous apps being re-done to suit the larger display and other previously PC-only apps getting a ‘port that would never have happened on a smartphone.

The iPad has broken the tablet sector wide open, but the entrance of new operating systems like Android 3+ and RIM’s QNX will provide much needed competition. Moreover, display technologies like Pixel Qi show great promise, even if the initial launch devices (like the Adam) fail to sell well. If the tablet market continues to grow, mobile processors will continue to see speed and graphics increases, as well as supporting a wider range of media codecs that are currently sparsely supported (MKV and FLAC, to name a couple).

Stay tuned for news and analysis on all the latest trends of the tablet market!

Submitted by David Hughes

original post: http://www.huliq.com/10177/analysis-designing-tablet-future