While it's still only summer, a bunch of rivals to theApple iPad are already rumored to be under way for the December holidays, including a
Verizon Wireless is aiming a Chrome OS tablet at release on Black Friday, the busiest shopping day of the year, according to a report in Download Squad. The Download Squad blogger, Lee Matthews, cited an unnamed source as saying that HTC is building the Google tablet.
Matthews also speculated that Google's purported Chrome tablet will be a whole lot cheaper than the iPad -- if not totally free -- with a Verizon data contract, and that it might be based on NVidia's Tegra 2 platform.
Best Buy CTOTweets Tablet Info
Rumors about other tablets stem straight from Best Buy. Best Buy CTO Robert Stephens has twice taken to Twitter to leak information about a possible tablet to be sold under Best Buy's own RocketFish brand. Now there's word from another identified source that Best Buy eyes a "great assortment" of tablets aside from the iPad, which the retail giant already carries.
A couple of weeks back, Stephens tweeted some grainy low res photos of a RocketFish tablet prototype, referring to the subject of the pictures as "proto." In July, he'd tweeted a few features of the possible device: Android OS 2.2, a front-facing camera, and the probable use of Fring for video chats.
Meanwhile, Best Buy is making tablets "a focus" going into the holidays, said Shawn Score, president of Best Buy Mobile, in a recent interview with Forbes. Score didn't mention the RocketFish "proto" and he declined to specify any models at all.
Yet while the tablets Best Buy has in mind "won't be 32" (in number), they also "won't be one, like we have today."
Score also said that, to give customers a choice, Best Buy's "great assortment" of tablets will run on different OS-- including Google Android and Chrome, Microsoft Windows 7, Palm's webOS, RIM BlackBerry, and open source Linux --much like the cell phones Best Buy already sells.
The Forbes blogger, Elizabeth Woyke, also took note that tablets from Samsung, Acer, and RIM are expected to debut in time for the holidays, with another wave of tablets maybe to follow in January.
Best Buy Quiet
Yet if Best Buy does plan to sell iPad rivals, the retailer seems to have largely kept a lid on things until last month, probably because other gadgets were even less ready to go at the time. At a pre-holiday press showcase held in June in New York City, Best Buy spotlighted the iPad, along with iPad accessories like the RocketFish iPad Stand and a lot of iPad cases from Targus.
Best Buy's 2010 Holiday "Look Book" for the media, published shortly afterward, shows only one tablet: the iPad. However, it also contains a blurb about Barnes & Noble's Nook eReader, plus an announcement made in April that Best Buy will feature not just the Nook but "BN eReader software on PCs, netbooks, tablets and smartphones."
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Yes, our source tells us that Google is building a Chrome OS tablet. It's real, and it's being built by HTC. No surprise there, since HTC churned out the Nexus One for Google.
Yes, they plan to offer it in conjunction with Verizon -- which probably doesn't come as a shock to anybody at this point. The two recently tag-teamed that Net Neutrality proposal and they've had plenty of discussions in the past about cooperating in some capacity.
As for the launch date of November 26th, well, that's all kinds of brilliant. It's Black Friday 2010 and the busiest shopping day of the year in the U.S. -- so what better day to have a shiny new tablet in the cabinet at Verizon kiosks and stores all over the country? You can bet Google's Chrome OS tablet will be heavily subsidized, and I'd go so far as to say it will be substantially cheaper than the iPad -- if not totally free -- with a Verizon data contract.
So what will the Google tablet pack for hardware? While our source didn't provide any specifics, my guess is that the device could be based on NVidia's Tegra 2 platform and sport a 1280x720 multitouch display, 2GB of RAM, minimum 32GB SSD, WiFi/Bluetooth/LTE connectivity, GPS, webcam, and possibly expandable storage via a multi-card reader. Again, these were not given to us by our source, but expect it to be every bit as geek-tastic as the Nexus One -- Google won't want to disappoint its early adopters.
[ Slideshow: A visual guide to the BlackBerry Playbook ]
The 7-inch BlackBerry PlayBook represents a fresh start for RIM. It features a new OS called BlackBerry Tablet OS, (the result of RIM's acquisition of QNX earlier this year), and is packed with hardware goodies. For starters the PlayBook sports a dual-core 1GHz processor (1Ghz single-core on the iPad and Galaxy Tab), and boasts a whopping 1GB RAM (twice as much as the Tab and four times as much as the iPad).
[See how the PlayBook compares to the Galaxy Tab and iPad - click here or on the chart below to expand]
High Hopes For New BlackBerry Tablet OS
RIM targets the PlayBook for the corporate folk, but there are plenty of multimedia features to keep consumers happy. The new BlackBerry Tablet OS looks like mashup between the latest BlackBerry OS 6 (found on the new BlackBerry Torch) and Palm's WebOS (now owned by HP), including the cards metaphor used for multitasking.
RIM and Adobe also integrated Adobe Flash Player 10.1 on the PlayBook, as well as Adobe AIR apps. Taking another leaf from Palm's playbook, RIM's upcoming tablet can mirror a BlackBerry phone's data via Bluetooth tethering (anyone remember the Foleo?). RIM now needs to get developers on board to create apps for the PlayBook. New incentives have been added like in-app purchases, as well as access to proprietary APIs for apps like BBIM. Amazon already announced its Kindle reading software for the PlayBook.
Crunch Time: What We Don't Know
RIM has left unanswered a few important ingredients to the PlayBook's success. There is no word on pricing (similar to the Samsung Galaxy Tab pricing dilemma), especially as the device won't have 3G capabilities at first, and no carrier subsidies are in sight. RIM intends to also offer 3G and 4G PlayBooks, but there was no specific time frame.
Finally, the availability of the BlackBerry PlayBook is unknown. RIM said it would arrive sometime next year, thus missing on the crucial holiday season this year. However, a Spring 2011 launch can spell trouble for the PlayBook.
Despite superior hardware performance over the iPad right now, Apple is expected to refresh the iPad with cameras, more RAM, and more processing power around the same time as the slated arrival time of the PlayBook. So by the time it arrives, the PlayBook won't have to fight with the current iPad, but with the second generation of Apple's tablet.
iPad vs. Blackberry Tablet PC: Blackberry’s Tablet Will Feature a Fast 1GHz Processor!
Apple iPad vs Blackberry Tablet PC? Nice heads up, right? A tech industry analyst Ashok Kumar has went on record claiming that the upcoming Blackberry Tablet PC is already under final touches by Research In Motion (RIM). Kumar is saying that his source within the company has told him this tablet computer will no longer be a mere companion device for Blackberry phones. It will be a real competitor to the the iPad. The source hinted that as of the moment, the Blackberry tablet project is codenamed Cobalt and its manufacturing blueprint requires it to have a speedy 1GHz processor.
Another feature revealed by Kumar is that the Blackberry tablet’s screen will be smaller than the iPad at only 7-inches. But he says this will be multi-touch capable like what the iPad has. Research In Motion has refused to comment on this revelation. But Kumar insists that the Blackberry-maker plans to debut the Blackberry Cobalt this December or at CES 2011 in Las Vegas next year. The Blackberry Tablet PC release date could be on the first quarter of 2012. What do you think? Is Blackberry Tablet PC an actual product in the making or is it just another vaporware?
 BlackBerry PlayBook |  Apple iPad |  Samsung Galaxy Tab |  Dell Streak | |
| Screen size | 7 inches | 9.7 inches | 7 inches | 5 inches |
| Resolution | 1024 x 600 | 1024 x 768 | 1024 x 600 | 800 x 480 |
| Pixel density (approx.) | 170 | 133 | 170 | 187 |
| Platform | BB Tablet OS | iOS 3.2.2 (4.2 in November) | Android 2.2 | Android 1.6 (2.1 / 2.2 in future) |
| Adobe Flash support | 10.1 | Not Supported | 10.1 | Not supported |
| Processor | 1GHz dual-core Cortex A9 | 1GHz Apple A4 (ARMv7) | 1GHz Cortex A8 | 1GHz Snapdragon |
| Graphics | Unknown | PowerVR SGX 535 | PowerVR SGX 540 | Adreno 200 |
| RAM | 1GB | 256MB | 512MB | 512MB |
| Internal Storage | 16GB / 32GB (unconfirmed) | 16GB / 32GB / 64GB | 16GB / 32GB | 2GB |
| Expansion | Unknown | None | microSD | microSD |
| Connectivity | 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR | 802.11 a/b/g/n, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR | 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 3.0 | 802.11 b/g, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR |
| Cellular data | 3G and 4G promised for future | 3G optional (GSM) | 3G (all carriers) | 3G (sold via AT&T) |
| GPS | None | 3G models only | Yes | Yes |
| Camera | 3MP front, 5MP rear | None | 1.3MP front, 3MP rear | VGA front, 5MP rear |
| Weight | 0.9 lbs | 1.5 - 1.6 lbs | 0.84 lbs | 0.49 lbs |
Samsung's Galaxy Tab features a 7-inch display, Android 2.2, a 1 GHz Cortex processor, Bluetooth 3.0, and two cameras. Can it take on the Apple iPad?
“Samsung recognizes the tremendous growth potential in this newly created market and we believe that the Samsung Galaxy Tab brings a unique and open proposition to market,” said Samsung Electronics head of mobile communications J.K. Shin, in a statement. “The Samsung GALAXY Tab has been designed to enable consumers to maximize their online experience wherever that may be.”
The Galaxy Tab is a 7-inch tablet device with a 1,024 by 600-pixel display, running Android 2.2 “Froyo” and Adobe Flash Player 10.1—and the Galaxy Tab will also be DivX-certified, along with being able to handle a wide range of video formats like XviD, MPEG54, H.263, H.264, and more. Under the hood, the Galaxy Tab features a 1 GHz Cortex processor—not the same as the Hummingbird processor in the Galaxy S phones—along with 512 MB of RAM, 802.11n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 3.0, plus a 3 megapixel front-facing camera along with a 1.3 megapixel user-facing camera for video chat—those last two points are big wins over the iPad, which doesn’t offer any camera at all. The Galaxy Tab packs 32 GB of flash storage and a microSD slot for up to 32 GB of additional removable storage.
The Galaxy Tab also features 3G connectivity: initial specs tout quad-band GDSM/EDGE and tri-band 900/1900/2100 7.2Mbps HSDPA. Early reports on the Galaxy Tab had the device coming to Verizon Wireless in the U.S. which—if true—would indicate Samsung is willing to put different 3G gear in the device for the carrier. The HSDPA specs also omit a band used by AT&T in the U.S., so the device might bear different 3G specs if it were to debut on AT&T.
Of course, as an Android device, the Galaxy Tab will be able to tap into the Android market for applications and games. The Galaxy Tab features a gyroscope and accelerometer for gaming.
Samsung has not announced pricing or any carrier partners for the device in the U.S. or in other markets.
