Through the many years I’ve been covering the technology industry, I’ve always enjoyed Apple rumors. From the absurd to the downright obvious, there is no limit to what people will say about Apple’s plans for the future. But as of late, I’ve been most intrigued by continued rumors that Apple is working on a television that would pit it against some of the best plasma and LCD makers in the business.
As you’ve probably gathered from reading my columns here on SlashGear, I’m pretty much obsessed with every single product that can help improve my entertainment in the living room. Whether it’s an HDTV, set-top box, game console, or surround-sound system, I love it.
Apple’s iPhone has done quite a bit to change the mobile market. It has ushered in the touch-screen craze, delivered an easy way to get third-party programs onto the platform, and generally changed how all other mobile phones are judged. But one of the most significant changes the iPhone initiated was the growth of gaming on smartphones. Thanks to the Apple App Store, more and more people are downloading games like Angry Birds, Cut the Rope, and countless others. The iPhone is now a full-fledged gaming device that, by all measures, can be compared to the Nintendo DS and Sony’s PSP.
The HTC Flyer is an anomaly. So far, stylus-driven tablets have either been bargain-basement slabs with resistive touchscreens and hair-tearing usability, or expensive Windows-based machines with slick active digitizers but software more suited to desktop than pen. We’ve grown used to jabbing at our tablets with our fingers; Steve Jobs has even told us that’s the only way a modern slate really works. So where does the Flyer come in?
Each day, I’m usually presented with a very simple question that requires an extremely involved answer: “What television should I buy?”
As one might expect, I usually go through a litany of questions to determine what the person in the market for a new TV is really after. I ask them how much they want to spend, what kind of content they plan to watch, how far away they will be sitting, if they prefer any companies’ products, and many more questions.
In the end, Nokia CEO Stephen Elop really didn’t have a choice. When he surveyed the competitive landscape, he found that he was boxed into a corner. While Android might have looked attractive as an alternative for their fledgling smartphone business, to back it would make him just another Android licensee. And while he could have tapped into their software ecosystem, it would have been hard for him to differentiate at the hardware level and thus be thrust against the dozens of Android handset vendors chasing the growing smartphone market.
You remember Google TV, right? It was supposed to be the software, running on several different devices, that would reinvent how we consume entertainment in the living room. And perhaps most importantly, it was supposed to be the platform that would beat all competitors.
“The surest way for an analyst to generate attention is by making an Apple prediction. Apple has a cult following, and its product development and launch strategy is famously secretive, so the fact that your source is the lunch counter guy across the block from the Hon Hai factory in Taiwan won’t be discovered (or may even be considered authoritative!)”
Those were the opening lines in my first column for SlashGear back in October of 2009. I went on to note that while I don’t usually make specific product predictions, I would go out on a limb and provide a guess on when we’d see an iPhone on Verizon Wireless: in 2014, when Verizon Wireless completed its LTE rollout.
The video game market finds itself in a rather interesting place. Its consoles are still selling exceptionally well, some of the best games released in a long time hit store shelves in 2010, and yet, consumers, pundits, and analysts are wondering when Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo will be announcing new consoles.
Earlier this month at the Consumer Electronics Show, a slew of televisions were shown off by the top TV vendors in the business. Many of the sets featured 3D and came with the ability to run applications. They all featured nice designs and in most cases, had a price tag that most consumers could live with if they want to go out and get a new television.
3D was the home entertainment industry’s big push for 2010, and it’s not giving up in 2011 either. CES 2011 saw the usual array of ever-larger HDTVs offering active and passive 3D playback options, and some manufacturers suggest this year will mark the tipping point for 2D/3D balance in their ranges. It’s not only big screens, either; at the tiny end of the scale, gadgets like the Nintendo 3DS and various 3D cameras and camcorders promise fun in the third-dimension. Now LG has confirmed that the LG G-Tablet, the company’s freshly-detailed 8.9-inch Android 3.0 Honeycomb slate, will support not only 3D video capture via a pair of cameras on the back, but on-device 3D playback too. Question is, will the need for special glasses turn off would-be 3D tableteers?
It’s hardly been a good week for Samsung. Not only has the company been forced to backtrack on its Galaxy Tab sales figures, admitting it was counting vendor shipments rather than end-user purchases, but return rates are also said to be far higher than expected. Considering the Galaxy Tab has been the poster child of Android slates so far, it’s an embarrassing showing against the nigh-unstoppable Apple iPad. Question is, was it Froyo that scuppered the Tab – a smartphone OS asked to do tablet duties it simply couldn’t fulfil – or is 7-inches simply the wrong size? And, with Honeycomb fast approaching, can Google’s new OS turn the tide?
