Rivals to the iPad will come in similar shapes but all screen sizes, judging by the launches here in Berlin on Thursday of tablets from Samsung and Toshiba (pictured).
The competition is also packing its cheaper devices with features the iPad may not have for some time, such as cameras with video calling.
Tim Bradshaw gave his first impressions on the Samsung Galaxy Tab in the previous post and I was able to get a quick look at the Toshiba Folio 100 at its press conference.
Both have similar form factors to the iPad, but the Galaxy Tab weighs half as much with its 7-inch screen, while the Folio 100 weighs a little more, as you would expect with a 10.1-inch screen, compared to the iPad’s 9.7-inch one.
If you consider, the Dell Streak has a 5-inch screen and the Philips GoGear Connect’s is 3.2 inches, the look of apps on these different Android tablets is going to be different on every one, posing a challenge for developers.
Samsung said around 90 per cent of apps in the Android Market worked fine on its devices and it had been working with developers of those that didn’t in order to fix them. Toshiba, like Samsung, seems to be working on its own layer for Android, adding music and other content offerings as part of its Toshiba Places online service.
The Folio 100 will have no trouble displaying high-quality video with its second-generation Tegra processor from Nvidia and it has a number of features that are lacking in the iPad – Flash 10.1, a memory card slot to boost its 16Gb memory and a 1.3 megapixel webcam for video calling.
While the Samsung tablet is a product of the mobile phone division, the Folio comes from Toshiba’s computer division – hence Samsung preferring to sell the Tab through operators at first and Toshiba going for an unsubsidised product in the stores.
Even unsubsidised, the Folio looks excellent value for money next to the iPad – it goes on sale in the UK in October at £329 – £100 cheaper than the equivalent iPad version.
