2011, The Year of the Tablet, Here's What to Look for

It’s not really news that the tablet segment is going to hit it big time this year. There’s a lot we can expect from the industry now. From what we’ve seen at CES 2011, the competition is just about getting started. We’ll see quite a few devices make it out but here’s a short list of the ones I’d like to see hit India as soon as possible. Take a closer look.

Notion Ink’s Adam
This is no surprise. Naturally I’m rooting for the home team, but it’s not merely because of the fact that the guys putting this thing together are based out of India, it’s the product itself that has me intrigued. The Adam comes off as a very well thought of and put together device. While the Pixel Qi display may be the most sought after, I’m ok with even the basic LCD. The overall functionality that the device claims to bring to the table could make this a serious threat to Apple and some of the others. With HDMI out, a 3MP rotating camera/webcam and USB plug and play features amongst quite a bit more, the Adam’s going to be a tough nut to crack. The addition of NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor will also make this quite an interesting device for all purposes.

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Motorola Xoom
This could be another win for the Motorola camp. Their newly announced super thin Xoom is the first to have a dual core processor which means processing time is seriously boosted. It’ll also feature HDMI out (1080p) or 720p video playback and capture from the built-in 5MP camera. The Gorilla Glass display will also ensure that the Xoom’s 10.1-inch touchscreen handles all the hard knocks you can throw at it. The Xoom will also be loaded up with Android 3.0 aka Honeycomb with full Adobe Flash support. Motorola is also calling it Next-Gen ready as it’s upgradable to 4G. The Adam were to have anything to be afraid of, this could be it, even if it does look a little generic.

Looks generic but that’s not a bad thing

RIM’s BlackBerry Playbook
BlackBerry has seen an unprecedented level of popularity recently in the Indian market. Aside from that, their announcement to enter into the tablet segment has also aroused the interest of any and all avid techies. Will it be totally for enterprise usage? Or can we expect the same kind of multimedia experience as well that we get from new BB devices? The customized OS and UI running on another 1GHz Dual Core processor should make multitasking a fluid process. Unlike the handset’s browser, the Playbook’s will support Flash and has support for HTML 5. The only down side is that the device might not come preloaded with BBM initially and you’ll have to use your handset as a modem for real-time access to data but an alternative is Wi-Fi of course. The device will also sport a 5MP camera at the rear and a 3MP camera in front for video calls, and yes, it will support all popular video codecs meaning 720p video playback and 1080p via HDMI out.