Hasta La Gadget!

Anyone who believes we’re nearing some sort of saturation point with the two hottest device classes of the moment — smartphones and tablets — ought to check out this latest data from investment bank RBC Capital Markets. It shows an estimated 394 million people already possess one of these newfangled gadgets, and — while we don’t consider the world’s population a relevant metric here — sets that number up against some other illustrative stats.The most important one for smartphone growth is the tally of mobile subscribers, which stands at just over five billion presently and dwarfs any inroads that smart mobile devices have made to this point. The total of nearly 1.3 billion PCs should also be encouraging for companies seeking a market for their tablets, as it quantifies the sheer volume of computers we use and need. So, next time anyone asks you if it’s “too late” for Nokia to right its smartphone strategy or HP to deliver its tablets, you can juice up your negatory response by dropping this statistical knowledge bomb.

Smartphones and tablets still have a long way to grow originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Mar 2011 09:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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On Wednesday, Apple introduced the world to the iPad 2. A beautiful device, to be sure. Feature packed? You bet. Soon to be selling like hotcakes? Absolutely. But the introduction of an iteration on an already existing product wasn’t the most notable piece of the event, nor was the surprise appearance of Steve Jobs. No, Wednesday’s event was significant because it introduced the world to Apple’s real vision for the foreseeable future, a theme the company has hinted at but never fully expressed. This week, Apple showed everyone where it was headed, challenged competitors on that direction, and made it clear that the company not only has staked a claim in that space, but is defining it.

This week, Apple stepped into the “post-PC” era of computing — and there’s no looking back, at least not for the folks in Cupertino.

By joining the company’s ongoing vision of a “different” kind of computing with a soundbite friendly piece of marketing-speak, Apple has changed the rules of the game, and made the competition’s efforts not just an uphill battle, but — at least in the eyes of Steve Jobs and co. — essentially moot. But what exactly is the “post-PC” world? And why is it significant? Let me explain.

Continue reading Editorial: It’s Apple’s ‘post-PC’ world — we’re all just living in it

Editorial: It’s Apple’s ‘post-PC’ world — we’re all just living in it originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Mar 2011 19:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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It’s taken almost a year to get here. The first tablet to matter since the original iPad. The Xoom is the first real Android tablet, arriving ahead of the iPad 2 by a hair. Since it’s living in the “year of iPad 2,” as Apple put it, it seemed only fitting to wait to drop judgment until we’d seen everything the iPad 2 had to offer. Frankly, there’s no way the Xoom could live up to everything it needs to be. It’s not even done yet, really. It has problems. But it’s still very good. It’s the first non-iPad tablet worth buying. And it’ll get better. More »

It’s not rare to hear talk of other operating systems employing webOS-like elements — we’ve been asking to see its elegant notification system in iOS for years — but RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook borrows so heavily from the UI concepts of the software built by Palm and now owned by HP that it could easily be confused for a webOS tablet. It handles multiple concurrent applications using a card view and allows you to shut down unwanted apps by swiping them off the screen, a multitasking implementation that exhibits “uncanny similarities” in HP’s eyes to its own TouchPad tablet. Still, the Hewlett Packard team insist that they’re focused on their own products and will “keep innovating, we’ll keep honing and those guys hopefully will continue to see the value in it and keep following us by about a year.” Ouch.

RIM’s response, as espoused by Jeff McDowell, has been to say that “when you’re trying to optimize user experience that juggles multitasking, multiple apps open at once and on a small screen, you’re going to get people landing on similar kinds of designs.” This essentially sidesteps the issue by throwing a subtle compliment HP’s way, but it brings up an interesting question — shouldn’t companies aim to make the best software possible, in spite of it potentially looking like a ripoff of someone else’s work?

HP derides BlackBerry PlayBook OS as a ‘fast imitation’ of webOS, RIM says it’s just good UI design originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Mar 2011 17:30:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Motorola’s Sanjay Jha hints at a 7-inch tablet before the end of the year, foresees tablet prices dropping originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 28 Feb 2011 13:48:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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