The Competition has Only Begun for Smartphones and Tablets

The big Las Vegas Consumer Electronics Show which commenced on early this month has turned out as expected – the center stage was taken over by smartphones and tablets. The big electronic names – Samsung, LG, Sony and Motorola displayed wide range of powerful handheld devices. These devices would fill the stores shortly after this time out.

A good number of tablet manufactures are really on the fast move to catch up with Apple’s iPad. It seems that the Motorola’s new Xoom (Android-based) is going to be on the lead soon, along with the Galaxy Tab from Samsung.

Currently, the iPad is yet to meet up with the state-of-the-art features of the Xoom – which include high-resolution screen, video conferencing, rear-and-front facing cameras, as well as Flash video support feature.

Also, Lenovo (Windows 7 IdeaPad Slate), Vizio (VIA Tablet), Dell (Streak 7), Acer (Iconis A500) and RIM (BlackBerry Playbook) displayed promising tablets. If you were there, you must have noticed that one big name was missing from the CES tablet display – Microsoft was missing. It may be difficult to have windows mobile platform measuring up with iOS and the likes of Android devices. This can only be feasible if Microsoft offers a credible hardware. It’s the same setback they suffered with hardware issues in other areas – remember the Zune music players, and the Kin phones?

The opening day keynote slot by Verizon made up most of the headlines, especially with their smartphones. Although this largest wireless carrier in the United States is yet to tell us whether or not to expect their iPhone, a lot of recent Android-based smartphones graced the show.

But, in all, focus was more on the network that would be compatible with the featured smartphones and tablets – this is a new development in the history of CES. Well, come to think of it really – these devices are almost worthless if their data transfer speeds are not enhanced by the networks. Good to know that the new 4G LTE (Long Term Evolution) broadband from Verizon would reduce 41/2 hours download durations (for full-length high definition movie) to 41/2 minutes!

On the other hand, AT&T is on the move – they are concluding their plans on coming up with twenty new smartphones, and more than half of these phones would feature the Android OS (Operating System). Apple on their side watched the CES from a distance as others participated in the smartphone and tablets frenzy. Well, the competition has only begun – just watch out for ground-breaking smartphones this New Year.

Image: by Salvatore Vuono

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