The tablet wars have finally arrived in India with the impeding launches of the HTC Flyer and Motorola Xoom later this month. There are no price specifications or exact launch dates yet.
All this comes after BlackBerry maker RIM announced that it will be bringing the BlackBerry PlayBook to India later this month.
For those who don't know the HTC Flyer, it is a 7-inch tablet powered by Android 2.3 Gingerbread operating system and will come equipped with a Qualcomm 1.5Ghz processor with 1 Gb of RAM. The main USP of the flyer will be its stylus, which aims to provide a unique experience.
In comparison, the Motorola Xoom is a 10.1-inch tablet and it became the first tablet to run Google's tablet optimized operating system Android 3.0 Honeycomb. It will run dual-core 1GHz NVidia Tegra 2 processor along with 1 GB of RAM.
While the HTC Flyer will feature a single 5 megapixel camera, the Motorola Xoom will boast of dual cameras, a 5-megapixel snapper in the rear and a 2 megapixel camera for video chats.
The tablet market suddenly took-off in India with the launch of Apple's all conquering iPad. It will be interesting to see if either of the soon to be launched tablets are able to make inroads in the market.
The competition is heating up for 'tablets' in India, with Taiwanese handset maker now bringing its 'Flyer' to India in the next few weeks. "HTC Flyer will be launched shortly, in the next couple of weeks," HTC Corporation President (South Asia) Lennard Hoornik said.
HTC Flyer's competitors in India include Samsung's Galaxy Tab, Blackberry Playbook, Motorola Xoom and the Apple iPad. The seven-inch touch screen tablet has a 1.5GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor. It has 1GB of RAM and an in-built memory of 16GB and a 5 megapixel camera. Though the company declined to comment on the pricing, it maintained that it would be "competitive with other devices".
Blackberry Playbook is expected to be launched in the country by the end of the month (pricing not announced), while Apple iPad (priced at about Rs 29,500) and Samung's Galaxy Tab (about Rs 26,000) are already available here. The price of the PlayBook in India could range between Rs 22,000 and Rs 32,000, depending upon its storage capacity, from 16 GB to 64 GB. Globally, PlayBook is available at USD 499, USD 599 and USD 699 for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, respectively.
Since the launch of Apple's iPad, the tablet market is witnessing huge competition, with new contenders launching their devices. Apple's rival in the computing space, Dell had launched the 'Streak' last year in India, while homegrown telecom handset makers like Spice and Olive have also launched similar devices at much lower price points.
According to analysts, sales in the tablet PC segment in India are expected to touch one million units over the next 12 months. With 3G (high-speed internet services) being rolled out aggressively, the opportunity has only expanded, they said.
Facebook had its application for the iPhone ready right when the Apple App Store opened in July 2008. But more than a year after the iPad went on sale, there is still no official Facebook app for it.
That is about to change. People briefed on Facebook's plans say that in coming weeks the company plans to introduce a free iPad application that has been carefully designed and optimized for the tablet.
The app has been in production at Facebook for almost a year, going through several design iterations, and is now in the final stages of testing, according to these people, who declined to be named because they were discussing confidential product plans.
One person who works with Facebook said Mark Zuckerberg, the company's chief executive and founder, has been heavily invested in the process, overseeing design decisions and the app's unique features.
People who have seen the application said it has a slick design that has been tailored for the iPad and its touchscreen interface. Facebook developers and designers have also overhauled the Facebook Chat and Facebook Groups features for the application. And the app will go beyond the features available on the Facebook Web site by allowing users to shoot and upload photos and videos directly from the iPad's built-in cameras.
"The photo and video experience is amazing, offering full resolution and full-screen images," said a person who has seen the app.
Jaime Schopflin, a communications manager at Facebook, declined to discuss any future products. "We have a great relationship with Apple that is exemplified by our iPhone application, but with regards to an iPad application we have nothing to announce now, and cannot comment on future Facebook products," she said. Apple declined to comment.
Facebook's users have complained in the past that its Web interface is not optimized for the iPad or any other touchscreen experience. In response, a number of outside developers have introduced Facebook-friendly applications for the iPad, including My Pad, iFace and Friendly
The new app could be a boon to both Facebook and Apple. Mobile applications and optimized mobile Web sites have been a major area of growth for Facebook, with the company saying that there are now more than 250 million Facebook users actively accessing the service on a mobile device. Facebook is approaching 700 million users worldwide.
A compelling Facebook application for the iPad could help Apple woo customers who are torn between buying an iPad and a competing Google Android tablet. Apple has sold more than 25 million iPads since the device was introduced last year.
Apple also plans to help Facebook promote the new application by featuring it prominently in the App Store, said a person familiar with the plans for the app.
In addition to the iPad app, Facebook also plans to introduce a better version of its Web site for the iPad. It is unclear when this will be unveiled, but it is not intended to compete with a Facebook iPad or iPhone application, and instead is meant, "to supplement these experiences," this person said.
ony has released an app making its Music Unlimited online streaming available on smartphones running Google's Android system, amid growing competition from Amazon and Apple in cloud-based services.
Sony's digital cloud-based music service, which launched in December and is available in Europe, the United States, Australia and New Zealand, allows users to stream millions of songs to Sony devices but previously lacked mobile access.
Sony last week said it would restore all Qriocity online music and video distribution services everywhere except Japan after shutting it and the PlayStation Network down in April after hackers compromised personal data from 100 million accounts.
The launch of the new app will make the service available on smartphones running Android as well as devices such as the PlayStation3, Internet-connected Sony televisions and Blu-ray players.
The app will be available to users in the United States, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Spain, Britain, Australia and New Zealand.
The service allows users to stream music content from a catalogue of more than seven milllion songs licensed from labels such as Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, Warner Music Group, EMI Music and independent labels.
Monthly subscription fees start at $3.99.
Earlier this month Apple unveiled its iCloud service that stores music, photos and other content on the Web and shares it across multiple devices.
Online retailer Amazon unveiled its own Cloud Drive and Cloud Player services in March, which allows users to store their digital music online and play it on a computer or an Android device.
Taiwan based HTC has launched their latest flagship smartphone the Sensation in India today.
The device will incorporate trademark HTC design elements such as an Uni-Body design, and will boast of a large 4.3" qHD display with a resolution of 960x540. It will be powered by Google's Android 2.3 OS and will have the latest iteration of HTC's Sense UI.
The device will come armed with a Dual-Core Qualcomm Snapdragon processor clocked at 1.2Ghz and 768Mb of RAM. This processor is the first of its kind because of its asymmetrical processing making the HTC Sensation the first asymmetrical dual core processor powered device in the country.
Apart from this the device will come with an 8-megapixel camera with 1080p recording and playback abilities at 30 frames per second. The new camera will boast of a new instant capture feature.
The new HTC Sense 3.0 UI will feature a new lock screen, 3D swiping between widgets and will have a redesigned weather widget, which will have improved animations.
Previously HTC launched the HTC Desire, which became the first 1Ghz device in the country and more recently they launched the Incredible S and the Salsa which became the first HTC device focused on social networking.
The Sensation is available in the market at a MRP of Rs 32,700.
A court in south China has jailed three people for stealing the design to Apple's iPad2 tablet computer and using it to manufacture counterfeits, state press said Wednesday.
The theft from a plant run by Foxconn, a contract electronics manufacturer, in Guangdong province late last year resulted in fake iPad2s being sold in China before Apple's official launch of the product, the Guangzhou Daily said.
Rampant piracy of everything from consumer electronics to luxury handbags and apparel have caused friction between China and its trade partners, leading to billions of dollars in losses annually to intellectual property theft.
A court in Shenzhen city last week sentenced Xiao Chengsong, the legal agent of Maita Electronics, to 18 months in prison and fined him 150,000 yuan ($23,000) for buying the design from two Foxconn workers, the report said.
Xiao allegedly paid 200,000 yuan for the iPad2 design, it said.
Foxconn employee Lin Kecheng, was sentenced to 14 months and fined 100,000 yuan, while another worker identified as Hou Pengna was given a two-year sentence suspended for one year and fined 30,000 yuan, it said.
All three were convicted of the crime of violating commercial secrets, it said.
The iPad2 was officially launched in China, the world's biggest Internet market, in May.
In 2010, Apple's iPad, the first generation of the tablet computer, was also pirated before its official launch in China and sold as the "iPed" for only a fraction of the cost of the real product.
Dolby Laboratories said Wednesday it has filed patent infringement lawsuits against Research In Motion in the United States and Germany and is seeking to halt sales of devices made by the Blackberry maker.
"Litigation was regrettably our last resort after RIM declined to pay for the use of Dolby's technology," Dolby general counsel Andy Sherman said in a statement. "We have a duty to protect our intellectual property."
Dolby said the lawsuits concern Dolby patents covering digital audio compression technologies.
RIM is using Dolby's patented technologies in its Blackberry smartphone and Playbook tablet computer without having obtained licenses, Dolby said.
Dolby said all of the other major smartphone makers have agreed to license the Dolby technologies.
Dolby said it is seeking financial damages and injunctions to halt sales of "the many RIM products" that infringe Dolby's patents.
Dolby said the technologies in question allow smartphones, portable music players, and tablet computers to play back music and other digitized audio that has been compressed to less than 10 percent of its original digital file size.
