iPad (1st generation), a tablet computer
A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is
a one-piece, mobile version of a personal computer, primarily operated by touchscreen (the user's finger essentially
functions as the mouse and cursor, removing the need for the physical
[i.e., mouse & keyboard] hardware components necessary for a desktop or laptop computer; and, an onscreen, hideable virtual keyboard is integrated into the display).
Available in a variety of sizes, even the smallest's touchscreens are much
larger than those of a smart phone or personal digital assistant. A tablet computer may be connected to a keyboard
with a wireless link or a USB port. Convertible notebook computers have an integrated keyboard that
can be hidden by a swivel joint or slide joint, exposing only the screen for
touch operation. Hybrids have a detachable keyboard so that the touch
screen can be used as a stand-alone tablet. Booklets include dual-touchscreens, and can be used as a notebook by
displaying a virtual keyboard in one of them.
Alan Kay's Dynabook described an information tablet
in 1972: "A Personal Computer for children of all Ages". The paper
proposes a touch screen as a possible alternative means of input for the
device. The first commercial portable electronic tablets appeared at the end of
the 20th century. In 2010, Apple Inc. released the iPad which became the first mobile computer tablet
to achieve worldwide commercial success. The iPad used technology similar to
Apple's iPhone. Other manufacturers have produced
tablets of their own including Samsung, HTC, Motorola, RIM, Sony, Amazon, HP,
Microsoft, Google, Asus, Toshiba, and Archos. Tablets use a variety of
operating systems such as iOS (Apple), Android (Google), Windows (Microsoft), and QNX (RIM).
As of March 2012, 31% of U.S. Internet users were
reported to have a tablet, which was used mainly for viewing published content
such as video and news. Among tablets available in the market in 2012, the
top-selling device is Apple's iPad with
100 million sold by mid October 2012 since it was released in April 3,
2010, followed by Amazon's Kindle Fire with 7 million, and Barnes
& Noble's Nook with 5 million.
Background
History
The tablet computer and the associated special
operating software is an example of pen computing technology, and thus the
development of tablets has deep historical roots.
Electrical devices with data input and output on a flat information
display have
existed as early as 1888 with the telautograph. Throughout the 20th century many
devices with these characteristics have been imagined and created whether as blueprints, prototypes, or commercial
products. In
addition to many academic and research systems, there were several companies
with commercial products in the 1980s.
Tablet computers appeared in a number of works of
Science Fiction in the second half of the 20th century, with the depiction of Arthur C. Clarke's NewsPad, in Stanley
Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey, the description of Calculator
Pad in the 1951 novel Foundation by Isaac Asimov, the Opton
in the 1961 novel Return from the Stars by Stanislaw Lem, The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy in Douglas Adams 1978 comedy of the
same name, and the numerous devices depicted in Gene Roddenberry 1966 Star Trek series, all helping to promote and disseminate the
concept to a wider audience.
Alan Kay attempted to formulate his Dynabook portable computer concept as early
as 1968; with his 1972 paper: "A personal computer for children of all
ages" detailing possible uses and functionality for his Dynabook concept.
The sci-fi TV series Star Trek The Next Generation featured tablet computers which were designated as
"padds".
In 1994 the European Union initiated the 'OMI-NewsPAD' project
(EP9252), requiring a consumer device be developed for the receipt and
consumption of electronically delivered news / newspapers and associated
multi-media. The NewsPad name and project goals were borrowed from and inspired
by Arthur C. Clarke's 1965 screen play and Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001:
A Space Odyssey. Acorn
Computers developed
and delivered an ARM based touch screen tablet computer for this program,
branded the NewsPad. The device was supplied for the duration of the Barcelona
based trial, which ended in 1997.
Intel announced a Strong ARM based touch screen tablet
computer in 1999, under the name WebPAD, the tablet was later re-branded as the
"Intel Web Tablet".
During the 2000s, Microsoft attempted to define with the Microsoft
Tablet PC the tablet
personal computer product concept as a mobile computer for field work in
business, though their devices failed to achieve widespread usage mainly due to
price and usability problems that made them unsuitable
outside of their limited intended purpose.
In April 2010 Apple Inc. released the iPad, a tablet computer with an emphasis on media consumption. The shift in purpose, together
with increased usability, battery life, simplicity, lower weight and cost, and
overall quality with respect to previous tablets, was perceived as defining a
new class of consumer device and shaped the commercial market for tablets in
the following year.
As a result, two distinctly different types of tablet
computing devices exist as of 2012, the Tablet PC and the Post-PC tablet, whose operating systems are of different origin.
Traditional tablet PCs
A tablet personal computer (tablet PC) is a portable
personal computer equipped with a touchscreen as a primary input device, and running a modified desktop OS designed to be operated and owned
by an individual. The term was made popular as a concept presented by Microsoft
in 2000 and 2001 but tablet PCs now refer to any tablet-sized personal computer
regardless of the (desktop) operating system. Unlike modern tablet computers, traditional
tablet PCs usually had a physical keyboard.
Tablet personal computers are mainly based on the x86 IBM-PC architecture and are fully functional personal
computers employing a slightly modified personal
computer OS (such as Windows or Linux) supporting their touch-screen, instead of a
traditional display, mouse and keyboard. A typical tablet personal computer
needs to be stylus driven, because operating the
typical desktop based OS requires a high precision to select GUI widgets, such as a close window
button.
"Post-PC" tablets
In 2005, an internet tablet, the Nokia 770, was introduced. This product line
used the Maemo Linux operating system. Mobile
operating systems have a different kind of interface than the traditional desktop OS, and represent a new type of
computing device. These "post-PC" mobile OS tablet computer devices are
normally finger driven and most frequently use capacitive touch screens with multi-touch, unlike earlier stylus-driven resistive
touchscreen devices.
According to Jack Gold, tablet computers have "a higher disruptive impact
[on PCs] than smartphones do. Smartphones and PCs are complementary, but
tablets not as much".
The most successful tablet computer is the Apple iPad using the iOS operating system. Its debut in 2010
popularized tablets into mainstream. Samsung's Galaxy Tab and others followed, continuing the
now common trends towards multi-touch and other natural user
interface features,
as well as flash memory solid-state storage drives and
"instant on" warm-boot times; in addition, standard external USB and Bluetooth keyboards can often be used. Most frequently
the operating system running on a tablet computer (one not based on the
traditional Windows/x86 PC architecture) is a Unix-like OS, such as Darwin, Linux or QNX. Some have 3G mobile
telephony
capabilities.
In forgoing the x86 precondition (a requisite of Windows compatibility),
most tablet computers released since mid-2010 use a version of an ARM architecture processor for longer battery life
versus battery weight, heretofore used in portable equipment such as MP3 players and smartphones. Especially with the introduction
of the ARM Cortex
family, this
architecture is now powerful enough for tasks such as internet browsing, light production work and mobile games.
A significant trait of tablet computers not based on
the traditional PC architecture is that most mobile apps including third party ones are
supplied through online distribution, rather than more traditional
methods of boxed
software or direct sales from software vendors. These
sources, known as "app stores", provide centralized catalogues of
software from the OS supplier or device manufacturer and from outside parties, and
allow simple "one click" on-device software purchasing, installation,
and updates. The app store is often shared with smartphones that use the same operating system.
Touch user interface
A key and common component among tablet computers is
touch input. This allows the user to navigate easily and intuitively and type
with a virtual
keyboard on the
screen. The first tablet to do this was the GRiDPad by GRiD Systems Corporation; the tablet featured both a stylus,a pen-like tool to aid with precision in a
touchscreen device as well as an on screen keyboard.
The event processing of the operating system must
respond to touches rather than clicks of a keyboard or mouse, which allows
integrated hand-eye operation, a natural part of the somatosensory
system. Although
the device implementation differs from more traditional PCs or laptops, tablets
are disrupting the current vendor sales by weakening traditional laptop PC
sales in favor of the current tablet computers. This is even more true of the
"finger driven multi-touch" interface of the more recent tablet computers,
which often emulate the way actual objects behave.
Handwriting recognition
Chinese
characters like this one meaning "person" can be written by
handwriting recognition (
, Mandarin: rén, Korean: in, Japanese: jin, nin;
hito, Cantonese: jan4). The character has two
strokes, the first shown here in dark, and the second in red. The black area
represents the starting position of the writing instrument.
, Mandarin: rén, Korean: in, Japanese: jin, nin;
hito, Cantonese: jan4). The character has two
strokes, the first shown here in dark, and the second in red. The black area
represents the starting position of the writing instrument.
Some tablet personal computers use a stylus. These tablets
often implement handwriting
recognition. Tablet
computers with finger driven screens usually do not. Finger driven screens are
potentially better suited for inputting "variable width stroke based"
characters, like Chinese/Japanese/Korean writing, due to their built in
capability of "pressure sensing". However at the moment not much of
this potential is already used, except in digital art applications like Autodesk
Sketchbook for the
iPad, and as a result even on tablet computers Chinese users often use a
(virtual) keyboard for input.
Touchscreen hardware
Touchscreens are usually one of two forms;
- Resistive touchscreens are passive and can respond to any kind of pressure on the screen. They allow a high level of precision, useful in emulating a pointer as is common in tablet computers) but may require calibration to be accurate. Because of the high resolution of detection, a stylus or fingernail is often used for resistive screens. Limited possibilities exist for implementing multi-touch on a resistive touch-screen. As modern tablet computers tend to make heavy use of multi-touch, this technology has faded out on high-end devices where it has been replaced by capacitive touchscreens.
- Capacitive touchscreens tend to be less accurate, but more responsive than resistive screens. Because they require a conductive material, such as a finger tip, for input, they are not common among (stylus using) Tablet PCs but are more prominent on the smaller scale "tablet computer" devices for ease of use, which generally do not use a stylus, and need multi-touch capabilities.
Other touch technology used in tablets include:
- Palm recognition. It prevents inadvertent palms or other contacts from disrupting the pen's input.
- Multi-touch capabilities, which can recognize multiple simultaneous finger touches, allowing for enhanced manipulation of on-screen objects.
Some professional-grade Tablet PCs use pressure
sensitive films that additionally allow pressure sensitivity such as those on graphics tablets.
Concurrently capacitive touch-screens, which use
finger tip detection can often detect the size of the touched area, and can
make some conclusions to the pressure force used, for a similar result.
Typical functions
Typical functions of tablet computers in 2012 are:
- High Definition displays with anti-glare technology
- Wireless mobile browser functions (using 2G, 3G, 4G or WiFi)
- E-mail and social media devices (typically with integration apps to bring all feeds into the same view)
- Potential cell phone functions (Messaging, video calling, speakerphone or headset cellphone uses)
- Video-teleconferencing (Skype, FaceTime, etc)
- GPS satellite navigation
- Stills and video camera functions, photo and video viewing and editing
- E-book reading and the ability to subscribe to and read daily/weekly/monthly/annual magazines, newspapers, or other periodicals.
- Read Interactive and traditional graphic novels and comic books
- Downloadable apps (games, education, utilities)
- Portable media player function including the ability to watch video (both streaming and locally stored)
- Weigh around one or two pounds (0.5 - 1 kilogram)
- Battery life of three to twelve hours depending on usage pattern.
Other features
- Accelerometer: A device that detects the physical movements of the tablet. This allows greater flexibility of use since tablets do not necessarily have a fixed direction of use. The accelerometer can detect the orientation of the tablet relative to the horizontal plane, and movement of the tablet, both of which can be used as an alternative control interface for a tablet's software.
- Ambient light and proximity sensors are additional "senses", that can provide controlling input for the tablet.
- Storage drive: Large tablets use storage drives similar to laptops, while smaller ones tend to use drives similar to MP3 players or have on-board flash memory. They also often have ports for removable storage such as Secure Digital cards. Due to the nature of the use of tablets, solid-state memory is often preferable due to its better resistance to damage during movement. Some tablet computers utilize cloud storage in conjunction with local storage to increase storage capacity. Large media files such as videos, photos, eBooks, and music stored on the cloud can be streamed seamlessly into the tablet computer using a wireless Internet connection. This frees up the physical drive to hold less gluttonous data associated with applications and utilities.
- Wireless: Because tablets by design are mobile computers, wireless connections are less restrictive to motion than wired connections. Wi-Fi connectivity has become ubiquitous among tablets. Bluetooth is commonly used for connecting peripherals and communicating with local devices in place of a wired USB connection.
- 3D: Following mobile phone, there are also 3D slate tablet with dual lens at the back of the tablet and also provided with blue-red glasses.
- Docking station: Some newer tablets are offering an optional docking station that has a full size qwerty keyboard and USB port, providing both portability and flexibility.
Form factors
Tablet computers come in a range of sizes, currently
ranging from tablet PCs to PDAs. Traditional tablet personal computers tend to
be as large as laptops and often are the largest usable size for mobile tablet
computing while the new generation of tablet computers can be much smaller and
use a RISC (ARM or MIPS) CPU, and in size can border on PDAs.
Slate
Writing slate with sponge (~1950). The slate
format is named with a metaphor of this low-tech writing device.
Slate computers, which resemble writing slates, are tablet computers without a
dedicated keyboard. For text input, users rely on handwriting recognition via
an active digitizer, touching an on-screen keyboard using fingertips or a stylus, or using an external keyboard that
can usually be attached via a wireless or USB connection.
Slate computers typically incorporate small (8.4–14.1
inches/21–36 centimetres) LCD screens and have been popular in vertical markets such as health care, education,
hospitality, aviation (pilot documentation and maps), and field work.
Applications for field work often require a tablet computer that has rugged
specifications that ensure long life by resisting heat, humidity, and
drop/vibration damage. This added focus on mobility and/or ruggedness often
leads to elimination of moving parts that could hinder these qualities.
Booklet
Booklet computers are dual-touchscreen tablet computers that fold like a
book. Typical booklet computers are equipped with multi-touch screens and pen writing recognition
capabilities. They are designed to be used as digital day planners, Internet surfing devices, project planners, music
players, and displays for video, live TV, and e-reading.
Convertible
Convertible notebooks have a base body with an
attached keyboard. They more closely resemble modern laptops, and are usually heavier
and larger than slates.
Typically, the base of a convertible attaches to the
display at a single joint called a swivel hinge or rotating hinge. The joint
allows the screen to rotate through 180° and fold down on top of the keyboard
to provide a flat writing surface. This design, although the most common,
creates a physical
point of weakness on the
notebook.
Some manufacturers have attempted to overcome these
weak points. The Panasonic
Toughbook 19, for
example, is advertised as a more durable convertible notebook. (Panasonic also
offers the Toughpad, a water- and shockproof Android
tablet.) Meanwhile, the HP EliteBook 2760p convertible notebook uses a
reinforced hinge that protrudes slightly from the rear of the unit. And, one
model by Acer, the TravelMate C210, has a sliding
design in which the screen slides up from the slate-like position and locks
into place to provide the laptop mode.
Sliding screens were presented at CES 2011. The first
product to use it is the Samsung Sliding PC7 Series, a tablet with Intel Atom
hardware and a unique sliding screen that allows the product to be used as a
laptop or slate tablet when the screen is locked in place covering the whole
keyboard. The concept must still prove its reliability, but is intended to
combine the virtues of tablet PCs with those of notebooks. Also presented was
the upcoming Inspiron Duo from Dell, which rotates the screen
horizontally when opened. Convertibles like that with hardware specs of a
netbook are called netvertibles.
Hybrid
Hybrids, a term coined by users of the HP/Compaq TC1000 and TC1100 series, share the features of the slate and
convertible by using a detachable keyboard that operates in a similar fashion
to a convertible when attached. Hybrids are not to be confused with slate
models with detachable keyboards; detachable keyboards for pure slate models do
not rotate to allow the tablet to rest on it like a convertible.
Mini tablet
Nexus 7, a 7 inch tablet computer
Mini tablets are smaller and lighter than original
larger full-sized tablets. The first successful ones were introduced by Samsung (Galaxy Tab 7-inch), Barnes and Noble (the Nook Tablet), Blackberry Playbook, and Amazon
(the Kindle Fire) in 2011, and by Google (the Nexus 7) in 2012. Most of them work like a
regular tablet, though some of them may not have all the features and functions
found in bigger tablet computers. The typical mini tablet is generally 6 or 7
inches (15 - 17.6 cm) diagonal. Mini tablets, such as the Toshiba Regza 6-inch tablet and the Sylvania 7-inch, are
easier to transport in pockets and purses than the larger 9+ inch types, such
as the iPad.
Apple has released their own smaller version of the
iPad tablet, called the iPad Mini. Its size is 7.9 inches, almost 2
inches smaller than the regular size iPad tablet, which is at 9.7 inches. This
is thought to compete with other mini-tablets, such as the Nexus 7 and Kindle
Fire. Apple announced the new smaller-sized tablet on October 23, 2012.
Amazon released an advanced version of the Kindle
Fire, called the Kindle Fire
HD, on
September 14, 2012, with higher resolution, more features, and higher capacity,
than the original Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire HD comes in various sizes, and
its mini version is also 7 inches.
Phablet
Since 2010, crossover touch-screen devices with screens
of 5-inches and above have been released. That size is generally considered too
large for a smartphone and too small for a tablet,
creating a hybrid category different from the previous common classifications.
This hybrid is being called a phablet by Forbes and Engadget. Phablet is a portmanteau of the words phone and tablet.
Popular examples of phablets are the LG Optimus Vu, Samsung
Galaxy Note and Dell Streak. Samsung claims they had shipped a
million units of the Galaxy Note within two months of introducing it.
System architecture
Intel's x86, including x86-64 has provided the brains of the IBM compatible PC
since 1981, and Apple's Mac computers since 2006. The CPU's have been
incorporated into a number of tablet PCs over the years and have generally
offered greater performance along with the ability to run a full versions of
Microsoft Windows, along with the associated 25 years
of associated Windows desktop and enterprise applications on the devices. There
are also non-Windows based x86 tablets like the JooJoo.
ARM has been the CPU architecture of choice for:
mobile phone, pda, camera, set-top box, dsl routers, television, storage
device and tablet computer manufacturers this century. This dominance dates
back to the release of the mobile focused and comparatively power / battery
efficient 32 bit ARM610 SoC (System On a Chip) originally designed for the
Apple Newton and Acorn A4 back in 1993. The chip was rapidly adopted by the
likes of Psion, Palm and Nokia for their own PDA offerings and later smart
phones, camera phones, cameras, etc..... ARM's licensing model has also helped
in this spread and current dominance of the mobile device space; by allowing
device manufacturers to: licence, alter and fabricate custom SoC derivatives,
specifically tailored to their own products. This has helped manufacturers
extend battery life and shrink the component count along with the devices size.
The multiple licensee have also ensured multiple generic ARM fabricators are
supplying near identical products into the market, while encouraging price
competition.This has historically forced unit prices down to a fraction of
their x86 equivalents, as well as offering the manufacture some insurance
against supply insecurities. The architecture has historically had limited
support from Microsoft, with only Windows CE available, but with the release of
Windows 8, in 2012, Microsoft has announced greater support for the
architecture, as well as shipping their own range of ARM based tablet
computers, branded as the Microsoft Surface, though a later x86 Atom based PRO
variant of the Surface will be delivered
Operating systems and vendors
Tablets, like regular computers, can run a number of operating systems. These come in two classes, namely
traditional desktop-based operating systems and post-PC mobile-based
("phone-like") operating systems.
For the former class popular OS's are Microsoft Windows, and a range of Linux distributions. HP is developing enterprise-level tablets under Windows and consumer-oriented tablets under
webOS. In the latter class the popular
variants include Apple iOS, and Google Android.
Manufacturers are also testing the market for products with Windows CE, Chrome OS, and so forth.
Traditional Tablet PC operating
systems
Microsoft
Following Windows for Pen Computing, Microsoft has been developing support for tablets
running Windows under the Microsoft
Tablet PC name.
According to a 2001 Microsoft definition of the term,
"Microsoft Tablet PCs" are pen-based, fully functional x86 PCs with handwriting and voice
recognition functionality. Tablet PCs use the same hardware as normal laptops
but add support for pen input. For specialized support for pen input, Microsoft
released Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Today there is no tablet specific version of Windows
but instead support is built in to both Home and Business versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7. Tablets running Windows get the
added functionality of using the touchscreen for mouse input, hand writing
recognition, and gesture support. Following Tablet PC, Microsoft announced the UMPC initiative in 2006 which brought Windows tablets to a
smaller, touch-centric form factor. This was relaunched in 2010 as Slate PC,
to promote tablets running Windows 7, ahead of Apple's iPad launch.
Slate PCs are expected to benefit from mobile hardware advances derived from
the success of the netbooks.
While many tablet manufacterurs are moving to the ARM architecture with lighter operating systems,
Microsoft has stood firm to Windows. Microsoft has announced Windows 8 which will have the new Metro user interface suited to touchscreen
devices such as tablets. .
For the first time, Windows will be able to run the
ARM architecture because of Windows RT which can run on processors from
NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments Microsoft has also launched their own
tablet called the Microsoft Surface.
Prior to Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8, Windows CE was used to target smart phones in
the form of Windows
Phone 7. Windows
Phone 8 uses the same code as Windows 8. Also, some manufacturers, however,
still have shown prototypes of Windows CE-based tablets running a custom shell.
Linux
One early implementation of a Linux tablet was the ProGear by FrontPath. The ProGear used
a Transmeta chip and a resistive digitizer. The ProGear initially came with a
version of Slackware
Linux, but could
later be bought with Windows 98. Because these computers are general purpose IBM PC compatible machines, they can run many
different operating systems. However, the device is no longer for sale and
FrontPath has ceased operations. It is important to note that many touch screen
sub-notebook computers can run any of several Linux distributions with little
customization.
X.org now supports screen rotation and
tablet input through Wacom drivers, and handwriting recognition software from
both the Qt-based Qtopia and GTK+-based Internet
Tablet OS provide
promising free and open source systems for future development. KDE's Plasma Active is graphical environments for
tablet.
Open source note taking software in Linux includes
applications such as Xournal (which supports PDF file
annotation), Gournal (a Gnome based note taking application), and the
Java-based Jarnal (which supports handwriting recognition
as a built-in function). Before the advent of the aforementioned software, many
users had to rely on on-screen keyboards and alternative text input methods
like Dasher. There is a stand alone handwriting
recognition program available, CellWriter, which requires users to write
letters separately in a grid.
A number of Linux based OS projects are dedicated to
tablet PCs, but many desktop distributions now have tablet-friendly interfaces
allowing the full set of desktop features on the smaller devices. Since all
these are open source, they are freely available and can be run or ported to
devices that conform to the tablet PC design. Maemo (rebranded MeeGo in 2010), a Debian Linux based graphical user environment, was developed
for the Nokia
Internet Tablet devices
(770, N800, N810 & N900). It is currently in generation 5, and has a vast
array of applications available in both official and user supported
repositories. Ubuntu since version 11.04 has used the tablet-friendly Unity UI, and many
other distributions (such as Fedora) use the
also tablet-friendly Gnome shell (which can also be installed in Ubuntu if
preferred). Previously the Ubuntu
Netbook Remix edition was one of
the only linux distibutions offering a tablet interface with all the
applications and features of a desktop distribution, but this has been phased
out with the expansion of Unity to the desktop. A large number of distributions
now have touchscreen support of some kind, even if their interfaces are not
well suited to touch operation.
Canonical has hinted that Ubuntu will be
available on tablets, as well as phones and smart televisions, by 2014.
TabletKiosk currently offers a hybrid digitizer /
touch device running openSUSE Linux. It is the first device with this feature
to support Linux.
Intel and Nokia
The Nokia N800
Nokia entered the tablet space with the Nokia 770 running Maemo, a Debian-based Linux distribution custom-made for
their Internet
tablet line. The
product line continued with the N900 which is the first to add phone capabilities. The user interface and application
framework layer,
named Hildon, was an early instance of a software platform for generic computing in a tablet
device intended for internet consumption. But Nokia didn't commit to it as their
only platform for their future mobile devices and the project competed against
other in-house platforms. The strategic advantage of a modern platform was not
exploited, being displaced by the Series 60.
Intel, following the launch of the UMPC, started the Mobile
Internet Device initiative,
which took the same hardware and combined it with a Linux operating system
custom-built for portable tablets. Intel co-developed the lightweight Moblin operating system following the successful launch of
the Atom CPU series on netbooks. Intel is also setting tablet goals for Atom,
going forward from 2010.
MeeGo
MeeGo is a Linux-based operating system developed by Intel and Nokia that supports Netbooks, Smartphones and Tablet PCs.
In 2010, Nokia and Intel combined the Maemo and Moblin projects to form MeeGo.
The first tablet using MeeGo is the Neofonie WeTab launched September 2010 in Germany. The WeTab uses an
extended version of the MeeGo operating system called WeTab OS. WeTab OS adds
runtimes for Android and Adobe AIR and provides a proprietary user
interface optimized for the WeTab device. On 27 September 2011 it was announced
by the Linux
Foundation that MeeGo
will be replaced in 2012 by Tizen, an open source mobile operating system.
Post-PC operating systems
Tablets not following the personal computer (PC)
tradition use operating systems in the style of those developed for PDAs and smartphones.
iPad
The iPad in
a case
The iPad runs a version of iOS which was first created
for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Although built on the same
underlying Unix implementation as MacOS, the operating system differs radically
at the graphical user interface level. iOS is designed for finger based use and
has none of the tiny features which required a stylus on earlier tablets. Apple
introduced responsive multi touch gestures, like moving two fingers apart to
zoom in. iOS is built for the ARM architecture, which uses less power, and so
gives better battery life than the Intel devices used by Windows tablets.
Previous to the iPad's launch, there were long standing rumors of an Apple
tablet, though they were often about a product running Mac OS X and being in line with Apple's
Macintosh computers. This became partially true when a 3rd party offered
customized Macbooks with pen input, known as the Modbook.
Previous to Apple's commercialization of the iPad,
Axiotron introduced at Macworld in 2007 an aftermarket, heavily modified Apple MacBook called Modbook, a Mac OS X-based tablet personal computer. The
Modbook uses Apple's Inkwell for handwriting and gesture
recognition, and uses digitization hardware from Wacom. To get Mac OS X to talk to the digitizer on the
integrated tablet, the Modbook is supplied with a third-party driver called TabletMagic; Wacom does not provide driver support for this
device.
Blackberry
The BlackBerry
PlayBook is a tablet
computer announced in September 2010 which runs the BlackBerry
Tablet OS. The OS is
based on the QNX system that Research in
Motion acquired in
early 2010. Delivery to developers and enterprise customers was expected in
October 2010. The BlackBerry PlayBook was officially released to US and
Canadian consumers on April 19, 2011.
Android
An ASUS Eee Pad Transformer running Android 3.2.1 Honeycomb; the keyboard is part
of a docking
station for the
tablet.
Google's Linux-based Android operating system is used
by tablet manufacturers following its success on smartphones due to its support for low-cost ARM systems much like Apple's iOS. Many were announced in
2010. However, much of Android's tablet initiative came from manufacturers as
long as Google primarily focused on smartphones and restricted the App Market
from non-phone devices.
Some vendors such as Motorola and Lenovo delayed
deployment of their tablets until after 2011, when Android was reworked to
include more tablet features. Android 3.0 (Honeycomb) and later versions are
optimized specifically for larger screen sizes, mainly tablets, and have access
to the Google Play service. Android is the software
stack for mobile devices that includes operating system, middleware and key applications.
Other vendors sell customized tablets such as Nook and Kindle Fire which are used for mobile content from their own Website, and seldom
from the larger Google Play system. This has led to market fragmentation.
HP
Hewlett Packard announced the TouchPad, running webOS 3.0 on a 1.2 GHz Snapdragon CPU, would
be released in June 2011. On August 18, 2011, HP announced the discontinuation
of the TouchPad, due to sluggish sales. HP has announced that they will release
webOS as open-source.
One Laptop per Child organization
The One Laptop
per Child (OLPC)
organization is developing a new version of the OLPC, strongly resembling a
tablet computer, called the OLPC XO-3, running its "Sugar" operating system, based on Linux. The new XO-3 will be based on ARM technology from Marvell.
India
OLPC plans to introduce a tablet computer to India for
$100. Nicholas Negroponte, Chairman of OLPC, has invited the Indian researchers
to MIT to begin sharing the OLPC design resources for their tablet computers.
OLPC has been awarded a grant for an interim step to their next-generation
tablet, OLPC XO-3.
Sales
Among
tablets available in the market, Apple's iPad (left) is the top-selling tablet with
100 million units sold by mid October 2012, followed by Amazon's Kindle Fire (right) with 7 million.
According to a survey conducted by the Online
Publishers Association (OPA) in March 2012, 31% percent of Internet users in
the United States own a tablet, up from 12% in 2011. The OPA estimates that
tablet ownership among the U.S. Internet population will rise to 47%. The
survey also found that 72% of tablet owners had an iPad, while 32% had an Android tablet in
2011; and by 2012, Android tablet adoption has increased, with 52% of tablet
owners using an iPad, while 51% use an Android-powered tablet. The percentages
do not add up to 100% because some tablet owners own/use more than one type of
tablet.
As of October 2012, the top-selling tablet is Apple's iPad with 100 million units sold, and according to
estimates by Forrester
Research, the iPad
family is followed by Amazon's Kindle Fire with 7 million, Barnes and
Noble's Nook 5 million, and Google's Nexus 7 with 3 million units. For the
first time in history, display screen shipments for tablets exceeded shipments
for laptop display screens, as of October 2012.
Advantages of tablets pc:
1. portability (can work from everywhere and small enough to put in handbags)
2. small weight (lighter than most laptops)
3. smaller in sizes
4. a flexible screen (You can choose to place the screen in landscape or portrait.)
5. an attractive design
6. the handwriting recognition
7. can be used as a GPS navigation device
8. offer the same functionality as a normal computer
9. gesture recognition
10. a powerful pen recognition
11. ideal when you are in a conference
12. XP-compatible regular applications can run on the tablet PC
13. can be laid flat on the working surface
14. great and handy for note taking
15. you can connect a keyboard to a tablet computer but it is less portable in such a configuration
16.
surfing the web is much healthier within the tablet (because most web
websites are designed with laptops and desktops in head)
17. a multi-touch tablet permits you to interact with all the subject matter material quickly
18. ease and comfort and ease of use
19. an effective learning and teaching enhancement tool
20. use as an interactive teaching aid for tutorials and external student consultation
21. provide a very powerful audio recording
22. connection to the internet from anywhere
23. you can continue and finish their work while in transit
24. serve as an organizer to professional with much less paper on hand
25. good for a project presentation
26. longer battery lifetime
Disadvantages of tablets pc:
1. hardware is prone to damage
2. weaker capabilities
3. traditional keyboards are much more comfortable
4. the screen size is too small in comparison with a laptop
5. higher cost
6. do not come with optical drives for use with CDs or DVDs
7. ineffective for the cognition of complex engineering concepts
8.
potential screen damages and repair costs (more chances of screen
damage to tablet PCs than to laptops; tablet computers are prone to
problems like cracks, dead pixels, blown back-light bulbs and bad
sensors)
9. difficulties to work on the small screen as compared to larger screen size of the laptops
10. less number of ports
11. cannot embrace massive amounts of data
12. the type and speed of the input process (inputs with tablet PCs become slower than those with laptops)
13. lack of the keyboard for data entry (but you can connect a keyboard to a tablet computer)
14. the LCD screen is one of the most expensive parts to replace on a tablet PC
15. can not play big game
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