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Tablet computer

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For the computer input device, see Graphics tablet. For other uses, see Tablet.
File:IPad1stGen.jpg
iPad (1st generation), a tablet computer

A tablet computer, or simply tablet, is a one-piece mobile computer. Devices typically have a touchscreen, with finger or stylus gestures replacing the conventional computer mouse. It is often supplemented by physical buttons or input from sensors such as accelerometers. An on-screen, hideable virtual keyboard is usually used for typing. Tablets differentiate themselves by being larger than smart phones or personal digital assistants. They are usually 7 inches (18 cm) or larger, measured diagonally.[1][2][3]

Though generally self-contained, a tablet computer may be connected to a physical keyboard or other input device. A number of Hybrids that have detachable keyboards have been sold since the mid-1990s. Convertible touchscreen notebook computers have an integrated keyboard that can be hidden by a swivel or slide joint. Booklet tablets have dual-touchscreens and can be used as a notebook by displaying a virtual keyboard on one of the displays.

Conceptualized in the mid 20th century and prototyped and developed in the last two decades of that century, the devices only became affordable and popular in 2010.

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.[4] Among tablets available in 2012, the top-selling line of devices was Apple's iPad with 100 million sold by mid October 2012 since it had been released on April 3, 2010,[5] followed by Amazon's Kindle Fire with 7 million, and Barnes & Noble's Nook with 5 million.[6][7][8]

History

1888 telautograph patent schema
Main article: History of tablet computers

The tablet computer and the associated special operating software are examples 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,[9] which used as display a piece of paper and a pen attached to electromechanical actuators. 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.[vague]

Fictional and prototype tablets

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,[10] in Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey,[11] the description of a Calculator Pad in the 1951 novel Foundation by Isaac Asimov and the Opton in the 1961 novel Return from the Stars by Stanislaw Lem. The electronic guide The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy is featured in Douglas Adams 1978 comedy of the same name. Numerous devices resembling tablets were depicted in Gene Roddenberry 1966 Star Trek series and later spinoff series.[12] These fictional portrayal helped to promote and disseminate the concept to a wider audience.

In 1968, while he was a PhD candidate, computer scientist Alan Kay envisioned a device called a KiddiComp,[13][14] (which he later renamed Dynabook) in his 1972 proposal: "A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages".[15] The paper outlined his ideas for a portable educational device that would have had similar functionality to a laptop computer or tablet.

In 1994 the European Union initiated the 'OMI-NewsPAD' project (EP9252), inspired by Clarke and Kubrick's fictional work.[16] 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.[17]

Early tablet computers

Main article: Early tablet computers

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.[18][19] The term was made popular as a concept presented by Microsoft in 2000[20] and 2001[21] but tablet PCs now refer to any tablet-sized personal computer regardless of the (desktop) operating system.[22] Unlike modern tablet computers, traditional tablet PCs usually had a physical keyboard.

Tablet personal computers are mainly based on the x86 IBM-PC architecture[23] 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.

Intel announced a StrongARM[24] processor-based touchscreen tablet computer in 1999, under the name WebPAD. The tablet was later re-branded as the "Intel Web Tablet".[25]

In 2002, Microsoft attempted to define the Microsoft Tablet PC[26] as a mobile computer for field work in business,[27] 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.[28]

In 2005 Nokia released the first of their Internet Tablet range, the Nokia 770. These tablets ran a Debian based Linux OS called Maemo.

Android was the first of today's dominating platforms for tablet computers to make it to the market. In 2008 the first plans for Android based tablet computers started appearing. The first products were released in 2009. Among them, the Archos 5 that was first released with a proprietary operating system and later (in 2009) released with Android 1.4. Further, the Camangi WebStation was released in Q2 2009 and re-released in new version in April 2010. The first LTE Android tablet appeared late 2009 and was made by ICD for Verizon. This unit was called the Ultra, but a version called Vega was released around the same time. While the Ultra had a 7 inch display, the Vega had a 15 inch display. Many more products followed in 2010. Several manufacturers did however wait for the Honeycomb version of the Android OS, specifically written for use with tablet computers, which was released in February 2011.

Post-2010 tablets

See also: Mobile operating system

The mobile operating systems of today's tablets have a different kind of interface than the traditional desktop OS. These 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.

Most tablet computers released since mid-2010 use a version of an ARM processor for longer battery life versus battery weight. 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.[29]

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.[30]

The most successful tablet computer is the Apple iPad using the iOS operating system. Its debut in 2010 popularized tablets into the mainstream.[31][32] Samsung's Galaxy Tab and others were also released, 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 is a Unix-like OS, such as Linux or Darwin. Some have 3G mobile telephony capabilities.

The second of the dominating tablet platforms to hit the market was Apple iOS. In April 2010 Apple Inc. released the iPad, a tablet computer with an emphasis on media consumption. Apple is often credited for defining a new class of consumer device.[33] Due to Apples strong market position it shaped the commercial market for tablets in the following year.[34] iPads and competing devices have been tested by the US military.[35]

In 2013, Asus and Samsung released dual booting tablets with Android and Windows 8 operating systems. Moving focus from one operating system to the other and vice versa is seamless,[discuss] without the need to power-off the tablet first. Synchronizing data between the two operating systems works as well. When provided with a detachable keyboard, the devices can serve also as a desktop computer or laptop and are denoted 'three-in-one' devices.[36]

Touch user interface

Samsung Galaxy Tab demonstrating multi-touch

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.[37]

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.[38][39][40] 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 (人 animation, 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 such as the Galaxy Note 10 utilise 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.[41]

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.[42]

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.[43]

Typical features

Hardware features
  • High-definition display with anti-glare technology
  • Wireless internet connectivity (usually with Wi-Fi standard and optional mobile broadband)
  • GPS satellite navigation
  • Stills and video camera functions, photo and video viewing and editing
  • Weigh less and have more battery life than a comparable laptop
  • Bluetooth for connecting peripherals and communicating with local devices in place of a wired USB connection.
  • Docking station: An optional docking station that has a full size qwerty keyboard and USB port.
Software features
  • A pre-installed mobile web browser
  • E-book reading and the ability to subscribe to and read periodicals
  • Downloadable apps such as games, education and utilities
  • Portable media player function including HD video playback (both streaming and locally stored)
  • E-mail and social media apps
  • Potential cell phone functions (Messaging, speakerphone or headset cellphone uses)
  • Video-teleconferencing (Skype, FaceTime, etc.)
Data storage
  • On-board flash memory used for the operating system and storing apps and media
  • Ports for removable storage such as Secure Digital cards.
  • Cloud storage options for storing additional apps, files and syncing data across different devices in conjunction with local storage.
Additional inputs

Besides a touchscreen and keyboard, tablets can also use these input methods:

  • Accelerometer: Detects the physical movement and orientation of the tablet. This allows the touchscreen display to shift to either portrait or landscape mode. In addition, tilting the tablet may be used as an input (for instance to steer in a driving game).
  • Ambient light and proximity sensors, which help distinguish between intentional and unintentional touches.

Form factors

Slates

Writing slate with sponge (~1950). The slate format is named with a metaphor of this low-tech writing device.

Slates, which resemble writing slates, are tablet computers without a dedicated keyboard. Including the iPad and flagship Android tablets, they are the most popular form factor. 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.

A slate's size may vary, starting from 7 inches (approximately 18 cm).[44] In the larger than 10-inch category reside the Toshiba Excite at 13.3 inches[45] and the Dell XPS 18 at 18.4 inches.[46] As of March 2013, the thinnest tablet on the market was the Sony Xperia Tablet Z only 0.27 inches (6.9 mm) thick.[47]

Mini tablets

Comparison of several mini tablet computers: Amazon Kindle Fire (left), iPad Mini (center) and Google Nexus 7 (right)

Mini tablets are smaller and lighter than standard 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 and V73.[48][49][50]

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 has 9.7 inches. Apple announced the new smaller-sized tablet on October 23, 2012.[51]

Amazon released an upgraded version of the Kindle Fire, called the Kindle Fire HD, on September 14, 2012, with higher resolution, more features, and a higher capacity than the original Kindle Fire. The Kindle Fire HD comes in 7 and 8.9 inch sizes.[52]

Phablets

Main article: Phablet

Since 2010, crossover touch-screen devices with screens greater than 5-inches 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.[53] Examples of phablets are the LG Optimus Vu, Samsung Galaxy Note, Samsung Galaxy Note II, and Dell Streak. Samsung announced they had shipped a million units of the Galaxy Note within two months of introducing it.[54][55]

Dedicated keyboards

Convertibles

A Lenovo X61 in slate mode

Convertible tablets have a standard tablet base with a permanently attached keyboard. They more closely resemble 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 that manufacturers have attempted to overcome. The Panasonic Toughbook 19, for example, is advertised as a more durable convertible notebook. The HP EliteBook 2760p convertible notebook uses a reinforced hinge that protrudes slightly from the rear of the unit. And the Acer 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.

The first tablet to have a sliding screen was the Samsung Sliding PC7 Series,[56] a tablet with Intel Atom processor and a sliding screen that allows the it to be used as a laptop or slate tablet when the screen is locked in place covering the whole keyboard. It is intended to combine the virtues of tablet PCs with those of notebooks. The Inspiron Duo from Dell rotates the screen horizontally when opened.

Hybrids

Hybrid tablets have a standard tablet base with a detachable keyboard that resembles a laptop keyboard. They are usually sold together as parts of the same product, unlike slates, whose keyboards are an optional accessory.

The term hybrid was coined by users of the HP/Compaq TC1000 and TC1100 series.[citation needed]

Booklets

Booklets are dual-touchscreen tablet computers with a clamshell design that folds like a laptop. Examples include the Sony Tablet P (which was considered a flop)[57] and the aborted Microsoft Courier.

System architecture

See also: Comparison of tablet computers

Two major computer architectures dominate the tablet market,[58] Intel's x86 and ARM Holdings' ARM 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 CPUs have been incorporated into a number of tablet PCs over the years and have generally have greater performance along with the ability to run full versions of Microsoft Windows, along with 25 years of associated Windows desktop and enterprise applications on the devices. There are also non-Windows based x86 tablets like the JooJoo. Intel is also setting tablet goals for Atom, going forward from 2010.[59][60][needs update]

ARM has been the CPU architecture of choice for manufacturers of smartphones (95% ARM), PDAs, digital cameras (80% ARM), set-top boxes, DSL routers, smart televisions (70% ARM), storage devices and tablet computers (95% ARM).[61][third-party source needed] This dominance dates back to the release of the mobile-focused and comparatively power-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 PDAs and later smartphones, 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 component count along with the size of devices.

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 giving the manufacturer a choice of supplier. 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 ARM-based tablet computer, branded as the Microsoft Surface, as well as an x86-64 Intel Core i5 variant branded as the Microsoft Surface Pro.[62][63][64][65]

Operating systems

Tablets, like conventional PCs, can run a number of operating systems (though dual-booting on tablets is relatively rare). These operating systems come in two classes, namely traditional desktop-based and post-PC mobile-based ("phone-like") OS. There are trade-offs involved between the two:

  • Desktop-based tablets usually have thicker, heavier hardware, operating systems that use up more storage, processors that require more cooling and give less battery life but can run high powered desktop applications like Photoshop in addition to mobile apps and have more ports.[66]
  • Mobile-based tablets have thinner, lighter hardware, operating systems that use up less storage, processors that run cool by themselves, and give more battery life but can only run mobile apps.

Android

Main article: Android (operating system)
An ASUS Eee Pad Transformer running Android 3.2.1 Honeycomb; the keyboard is part of a docking station for the tablet.

Google's Android operating system is frequently used by tablet manufacturers, as it is open source under the Apache license. Android is a Linux-based operating system designed primarily for touchscreen mobile devices such as smartphones and tablet computers. Android supports low-cost ARM systems, much like Apple's iOS. Many such systems were announced in 2010.[67] 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.[68]

Some vendors such as Motorola[69] and Lenovo[70] delayed deployment of their tablets until after 2011, when Android was reworked to include more tablet features.[71] 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.[72]

Google introduced the Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets in 2012. Hardware makers that have shipped Android tablets include Acer, Asus, Samsung, Toshiba, and Sony.[73]

Blackberry

The BlackBerry PlayBook is a tablet computer announced in September 2010 which runs the BlackBerry Tablet OS.[74] 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.

iOS

Main articles: iOS and iPad
File:IPad in Case.jpg
The iPad in a case running the YouTube app.

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 multi-touch gestures, such as moving two fingers apart or together to zoom in or out, also known as "pinch to zoom".[75] iOS is built for the ARM architecture, which uses less power and gives better battery life than x86 processors. 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.[76]

Modbook

Main article: ModBook

Previous to Apple's commercialization of the iPad, Axiotron introduced at Macworld in 2007[77] 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. Another predecessor to the iPad was the Apple MessagePad introduced in 1993.

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.[78]

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 Edition was one of the only linux distributions with 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 by 2014.[79][needs update]

TabletKiosk currently has a hybrid digitizer / touch device running openSUSE Linux. It is the first device with this feature to support Linux.

Nokia

The Nokia N800

Nokia entered the tablet space on May 2005 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.[80] 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.[81]

Intel

Following the launch of the Ultra-mobile PC, Intel 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 (mobile Linux) operating system following the successful launch of the Atom CPU series on netbooks.

MeeGo

Main articles: Maemo, MeeGo, and Tizen

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.[82]

Windows

Windows 3.1 to 7

Main article: Microsoft Tablet PC

Following Windows for Pen Computing for Windows 3.1 in 1991, Microsoft developed support for tablets running Windows XP under the Microsoft Tablet PC name.[83] According to Microsoft's definition[84] in 2001, "Microsoft Tablet PCs" are pen-based, fully functional x86 PCs with handwriting and voice recognition functionality. Tablet PCs would use the same hardware as laptops but added support for pen input. For specialized support for pen input, Microsoft released Windows XP Tablet PC Edition. Tablet support settings have been 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 Ultra-mobile PC initiative in 2006 which brought Windows tablets to a smaller, touch-centric form factor. [85][86] In 2008, Microsoft showed a prototype of a two-screen tablet called Microsoft Courier, but cancelled the project two years later. A model of the Asus Eee Pad shown in 2010 was going to use Windows CE but switched to Android.[87]

Microsoft did not move to the ARM architecture with a lighter version of Windows until the introduction of Windows 8 in 2012.[88]

Windows 8

Main articles: Microsoft Surface and List of Windows 8 and RT tablet devices

Windows 8 uses the Metro user interface suited to touchscreen devices such as tablets.[89] The Windows RT version of Windows 8 runs the ARM architecture which can run on processors from NVIDIA, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments.[90][91] Microsoft launched their own series of tablets called Surface in 2012. The Surface RT uses Windows RT as its operating system while the Surface Pro runs Windows 8 Pro. In addition to the tablets from Microsoft, Acer, Dell, Asus, Lenovo, Samsung, Toshiba, HP and Sony have also released Windows 8 or RT tablets and hybrids.[92]

Discontinued

WebOS

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.[93] HP has announced that they will release WebOS as open-source.[94] In February 2013, HP announced they had sold WebOS to LG Electronics.[95]

Software development

See also: Mobile development

The new class of devices heralded by the iPad has spurred the tendency of a walled garden approach, wherein the vendor reserves rights as to what can be installed. The software development kits for these platforms are restricted and the vendor must approve the final application for distribution to users. These restrictions allow the hardware vendor to control the kind of software that can be used and the content that can be seen in the devices; this can be used to reduce the impact of malware on the platform, to provide material of approved content rating, to control the application quality and also to exclude software and content from competing vendors. The walled garden approach to application development has proven to be a competitive advantage for the iPad over HP's TouchPad, triggering HP's withdrawal from the industry, due in large part to sluggish TouchPad sales after only 49 days on the market.[96]

Barnes and Noble adopted the walled garden strategy with its Nook Color and Nook Tablet e-book reader tablets, which FastCompany writer Austin Carr refers to as "an odd idea of progress", since B&N lacks the competitive advantages of number of apps and price enjoyed by Apple and Amazon.com. B&N's strategy became especially notable following pronouncements by B&N executives criticizing Amazon.com's walled garden approach, which they contrasted with B&N's emphasis on user choice. Specifically, in a mid-December interview, B&N CEO William Lynch called Amazon's Kindle Fire a "deficient" media tablet designed as a "vending machine for Amazon's services", and a device aimed to "lock consumers into [Amazon's] ecosystem". In contrast, B&N's Nook Tablet gave users choice and a much more "open" experience which, according to Lynch, may be one of the Nook Tablet's most significant selling points. In the same interview, B&N's director of developer relations Claudia Romanini reiterated, "It's about giving [consumer] choice and range. What we mean in terms of choice, is that we don't lock a customer into a service and say, 'This is the way you're going to get your media.'".[97] Indeed, Nook Tablets shipped until December 2011 were lauded by reviewers and users for permitting users to download and sideload third-party apps,[98][99] but, one week before Christmas, B&N began pushing an automatic, over-the-air firmware update 1.4.1 to Nook Tablets that removed users' ability to gain root access to the device and the ability to sideload apps from sources other than the official Barnes and Noble app store (without modding).[100][101][102][103][104]

Proponents of open source software deem that these restrictions on software installation and lack of administrator rights make this category one that, in their view, cannot be properly named "personal computers".[105][106][107] Some newer tablet computers using mobile operating systems don't use the walled garden concept, and are like personal computers in this regard.[citation needed]

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.[4]

As of October 2012, the top-selling tablet is Apple's iPad with 100 million units sold,[5] 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.[6] For the first time in history, display screen shipments for tablets exceeded shipments for laptop display screens, as of October 2012.[108] As of Q1 2013, Gartner announced that Android's share of tablets was at 56.5 percent, while Apple's iPad had a 40 percent share.[109]

See also

References

  1. ^ Editors PC Magazine. "Definition of: tablet computer". PC Magazine. Retrieved April 17, 2010. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  2. ^ Editors Dictionary.com, "tablet computer – 1 dictionary result", Dictionary.com, retrieved April 17, 2010 {{citation}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  3. ^ http://news.cnet.com/8301-31021_3-20006077-260.html?tag=newsLeadStoriesArea.1 What makes a tablet a tablet? (FAQ)] CNET.com May 28, 2010
  4. ^ a b Angela Moscaritolo (2012-06-18). 31 Percent of U.S. Internet Users Own Tablets "Survey: 31 Percent of U.S. Internet Users Own Tablets". PC Magazine. Retrieved 2012-10-20. {{cite news}}: Check |url= value (help)
  5. ^ a b Brian X. Chen (2012-10-23). "Apple, Facing Competition, Introduces a Smaller iPad of no significant change". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-10-24.
  6. ^ a b Brian X. Chen (2012-10-19). "How Are 7-Inch Tablets Doing?". The New York Times. Retrieved 2012-10-20.
  7. ^ [1]
  8. ^ "Massacre of the tablets | FP Tech Desk | Financial Post". Business.financialpost.com. 2011-12-24. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  9. ^ Gray, Elisha (1888-07-31), Telautograph (PDF), United States Patent 386,815 (full image) {{citation}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
  10. ^ Did Arthur C Clarke invent the iPad?
  11. ^ NewsPad depiction - 2001 A Space Odyssey
  12. ^ Star Trek Official Web site Database Article
  13. ^ Richards, Mike (January 23, 2008). "Why the iPhone makes 2008 seem like 1968 all over again". Open2.
  14. ^ Steinberg, Daniel H. (April 3, 2003). "Daddy, Are We There Yet? A Discussion with Alan Kay". O'Reilly Media.
  15. ^ Kay, Alan (1972). "A Personal Computer for Children of All Ages".
  16. ^ Visions and Realities in the NewsPad Constituency, by Alfonso H Molina
  17. ^ Editors Risc User Magazine. "The Story of NewsPAD". Risc User. Retrieved February 20, 2013. {{cite news}}: |author= has generic name (help)
  18. ^ Beck H et al, Business Communication and Technologies in a Changing World, Macmillan Education Australia, 2009, p 402
  19. ^ Haven, Kendall F. 100 greatest science inventions of all time, Libraries Unlimited, 2006, p 191
  20. ^ Bill Gates introduces Tablet PC, COMDEX Nov 2000
  21. ^ Page, M Microsoft Tablet PC Overview, TransmetaZone, December 21, 2000
  22. ^ Kuhn, Bradley M. Free software and cellphones, Free Software Foundation, 2010
  23. ^ Are Intel, AMD threatened by tablet growth? Every two to three tablets sold means one lost PC sale, analyst says accessdate=2010-10-24
  24. ^ "Intel to use StrongARM in Web Tablet". Cnet. Retrieved 29 May 2013.
  25. ^ Intel Web Tablet
  26. ^ John Markoff, The New York Times, August 30, 1999, "Microsoft brings in top talent to pursue old goal: the tablet"
  27. ^ "Tablet PC: Coming to an Office Near You?".
  28. ^ Bright, Peter Ballmer (and Microsoft) still doesn't get the iPad, Ars Technica, 2010
  29. ^ The Coming War: ARM versus x86 Mirror for: The Bright Side of News April 8, 2010
  30. ^ Damon Poeter (Dec 27, 2012), "Non-Apple Tablets Making Small Gains on iPad", PC Magazine Matt Hartley (December 24 2011),"Massacre of the tablets", Financial Post
  31. ^ Roger Kay on Intel and Microsoft, as quoted April 29, 2011: "Clearly, each one is looking at a post-PC world..." MarketWatch
    • Kevin Parrish (28 Oct 2010) "Microsoft's Ray Ozzie sees Post-PC world", Tom's Hardware US "It's important that all of us ... form a realistic picture of what a post-PC world would actually look like ... Those who can envision a plausible future that's brighter than today will earn the opportunity to lead [in the market]." —Ray Ozzie's memo to Microsoft on the eve of his retirement.
  32. ^ Worstall, Tim (July 2, 2011). "iPad: One of the Most Successful Products Ever". Forbes. Retrieved June 10, 2013.
  33. ^ "The iPad's victory in defining the tablet: What it means". Infoworld.
  34. ^ Gilbert, Jason (August 19, 2011). "HP TouchPad Bites The Dust: Can Any Tablet Dethrone The IPad?". Huffington Post.
  35. ^ "Taking iPads into battle". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  36. ^ "Can't Decide Between Windows or Android? Samsung's ATIV Q Convertible Does Both". June 20, 2013.
  37. ^ Barnett, Shawn. "Jeff Hawkin". The man who almost single-handedly revived. Pen Computing Magazine.
  38. ^ Best Buy: iPad cutting into laptop sales
  39. ^ Notebook sales growth goes negative. Can we blame the iPad yet?
  40. ^ Tablets hurt PC sales but not Macs
  41. ^ China using keyboards versus tablet input
  42. ^ jkOnTheRun:So what is multi-touch?
  43. ^ Buxton, Bill. "Multitouch Overview"
  44. ^ Franklin, Eric (2012-10-30). "Tablets buying guide | Tablets - CNET Reviews". Reviews.cnet.com. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  45. ^ Franklin, Eric (2012-04-10). "The Toshiba Excite 13 sports the largest tablet screen yet | Android Atlas - CNET Reviews". Reviews.cnet.com. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  46. ^ King, Charles. "Dell's XPS 18 is the latest 'big tablet' innovation". TabTimes. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  47. ^ "Xperia™ Tablet Z | Waterproof and dustproof tablet". Sony. 2013-03-26. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  48. ^ "V73".
  49. ^ Sylvania SYNET7LP 7-Inch Mini Tablet (Black) - Amazon.com. Retrieved 7 July 2012.
  50. ^ Donald Melanson - "Toshiba shows off 6-inch tablet display with 498ppi resolution" engadget.com. Retrieved 8 July 2012.
  51. ^ "Events". Apple. Retrieved 2013-06-14.
  52. ^ Heather Kelly and Doug Gross - Amazon announces new wave of Kindles - CNN Tech - September 6, 2012. Retrieved 2 December 2012.
  53. ^ Kay, Roger. "5" Is the market ready for a 'phablet'?". Forbes.
  54. ^ "5" Smartphones: LG Optimus Vu vs. Samsung Galaxy Note". February 14, 2012.
  55. ^ "Samsung tablet PC".
  56. ^ product presentation and demo Samsung Sliding PC7 Series, AllTouchTablet, 2011
  57. ^ "The 8 biggest product flops of 2012 (#4)". Marketwatch. Retrieved 30 June 2013.
  58. ^ Intel has ARM in its crosshairs
  59. ^ Intel shows pricing pressures for Atom due to competition from ARM accessdate=2010-10-17
  60. ^ Intel launches FPGA-equipped Atom accessdate=2010-11-23 An FPGA, or field programmable gate array can then be custom-programmed by tablet computer vendors who have purchased these integrated circuits from the semiconductor device manufacturers.
  61. ^ Jeff Chu (18 Dec 2012) "Where's ARM at CES?" http://blogs.arm.com/smart-connected-devices/870-ever-wonder-where%e2%80%99s-arm-at-ces/
  62. ^ "Apple iPad Price, Features Say "ARM" All Over". bnet.
  63. ^ ARM vs. Intel: How the Processor Wars Will Benefit Consumers, By TIM BAJARIN, 2012-7-16
  64. ^ The Economist - Space invaders, America’s Intel and Britain’s ARM have long dominated different bits of the global chip market. Now each is attacking the other’s stronghold, Published 2012-01-07
  65. ^ 25bn ARM processors shipped, 2012
  66. ^ "Microsoft Surface Pro review". engadget. Retrieved 16 June 2013.
  67. ^ "9 Upcoming Tablet Alternatives to the Apple iPad". Mashable. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
  68. ^ "Don't bank on KMart's $150 Augen tablet getting Android Market access". liliputing. Retrieved August 7, 2010.
  69. ^ Motorola Android tablet in 2011
  70. ^ Lenovo is waiting for Honeycomb accessdate=2010-10-24
  71. ^ The successor to Gingerbread, Android project Honeycomb is targeted for tablet computers. – Daniel Lyons ( Oct. 11, 2010), Newsweek p. 49
  72. ^ Google has lost control of Android By Joe Wilcox Beta News, 2012 April 28
  73. ^ "15 best Android tablets in the world". Cnet. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  74. ^ BlackBerry PlayBook preview BlackBerry PlayBook announcement September 27, 2010
  75. ^ "Six Years Ago, Apple Made a Crowd Gasp With Pinch to Zoom and Swiping". Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  76. ^ "Apple tablet rumors redux: 10.7-inch display, iPhone OS underneath". Engadget. Retrieved August 6, 2010.
  77. ^ Tifanny Boggs (2007) "Axiotron and OWC Unveil the ModBook"
  78. ^ "Plasma Active".
  79. ^ "Ubuntu coming to tablets, phones and smart TVs by 2014".
  80. ^ Andrew Orlowski. "Nokia's Great Lost Platform". The Register.
  81. ^ "Nokia's Great Lost Platform - Page 4".
  82. ^ Sousou, Imad. "What's Next for MeeGo". meego.com. Retrieved 28 September 2011.
  83. ^ Microsoft Tablet PC
  84. ^ Tablet PC Brings the Simplicity of Pen and Paper to Computing: In a conversation with PressPass, Tablet PC general manager Alexandra Loeb discusses how the Tablet PC will bring...
  85. ^ "Live from Steve Ballmer's CES 2010 keynote". Engadget. Retrieved August 4, 2010.
  86. ^ Initial Windows 7 tablets are slated to appear during holiday 2010 season. accessdate=2010-10-19
  87. ^ "ASUS Eee Pad EP101TC opts for Android, dumps Windows Embedded Compact 7". Engadget. Retrieved May 28, 2013.
  88. ^ "Windows RT (Windows 8 ARM) also reaches RTM status". Neowin. Retrieved 27 May 2013.
  89. ^ Avi Greengart of Current Analysis states "Windows 8 basically assumes that every PC is a tablet", as reported by Gordon Mah Ung et.al. (October 2011) Maximum PC p.27 ISSN 1522-7249
  90. ^ Microsoft, as quoted by Mary Jo Foley, and Microsoft blog post accessdate=2012-02-09
    • Gordon Mah Ung et.al. (October 2011) Maximum PC p.24 ISSN 1522-7249
  91. ^ No Windows 7 for ARM accessdate=2010-10-17
  92. ^ "Best Windows 8 tablets: all the Windows 8 tablets we've reviewed". Tech Radar. Retrieved 12 June 2013.
  93. ^ HP Webcast announcing the end of Touchpad, webOS devices accessdate=2011-08-18
  94. ^ HP announces that webOS and ENYO, its application development platform, are being contributed to the open-source community. accessdate=2011-12-09
  95. ^ "LG Electronics Acquires webOS from HP to Enhance Smart TV". Retrieved 10 June 2013.
  96. ^ This "vicious cycle" (slow hardware development masking slow hardware, causing slow response, causing slow software development, causing sluggish performance at an unrealistic price, causing sluggish sales) serves only to impede further software investment. "HP reboots to confront Tablet Effect" Barron's, August 20th, 2011
  97. ^ Austin Carr (December 17, 2011). "Kindle Fire Vs. Nook Tablet: "Choice" And Trash Talk". fastcompany.com. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  98. ^ Eric Mack (December 22, 2011). "How to root the Nook Tablet". Gizmag.com. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  99. ^ By Sorin Nita (November 17, 2011). "Nook Tablet Can Sideload Android Apps without Needing Root". news.softpedia.com. {{cite web}}: |access-date= requires |url= (help); Missing or empty |url= (help)
  100. ^ Smith, Peter (December 21, 2011). "Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet both get 'upgraded' with reduced functionality". IT World. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
  101. ^ Verry, tim (December 21, 2011). "Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet Receive Root Access Killing Software Updates". PC Perspective. Retrieved January 10, 2012.
  102. ^ Joseph Parishon (December 20, 2011). "Nook Tablet firmware update 1.4.1 disables sideloading apps". TheVerge.com. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  103. ^ "B&N NOOK Tablet 1.4.1 update kills sideloading, lets you keep apps installed so far". Liliputing.com. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  104. ^ Troy Wolverton, San Jose Mercury News (November 25, 2011). "Barnes and Noble's new Nook Tablet doesn't measure up to Kindle Fire: Barnes & Noble's latest digital tablet may be an upgrade to the Nook Color, but is not as strong as Amazon.com's Kindle Fire". Seattle Times. Retrieved March 28, 2012.
  105. ^ Brown, Peter iPad is iBad for freedom, Free Software Foundation, 2010
  106. ^ Cherry, Steven The iPad Is Not a Computer, IEEE Spectrum, 2010
  107. ^ Conlon, Tom "The iPad’s Closed System: Sometimes I Hate Being Right", Popular Science, 2010
  108. ^ October tablet display shipments exceed laptop display screen shipments (November 2012)
  109. ^ "Google's products dig deeper into people's lives". May 16, 2013.
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