Phones do not satisfy internet users due to their tiny sizes. Laptops and netbooks are too heavy and inconvenient for today’s people preferring high speeds on the Internet and valuing comfort. This reason has prompted the creation of tablets which are extremely popular today. The boom started by the revolutionary of the IT market Apple Inc. which has announced the release of its tablet iPad. Actually Apple had started announcing its tablet in 2002 however the launch of the device took place only in April 2010.

It is natural that the newly-launched device called iPad became the order of the day. Firstly, it was long-expected and secondly it carried the brand of Apple, a recognized leader of the market that is considered to be one step ahead. 

The device appeared to be very beautiful with a great number of various options and features, including the following:

Size and weight:
Dimensions: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm) x 7.47 inches (189.7 mm) x 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
Weight: 1.5 pounds (0.68 kg) Wi-Fi model;
              1.6 pounds (0.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model

Display

9.7-inch (diagonal) LED-backlit glossy widescreen Multi-Touch display with IPS technology and 1024-by-768-pixel resolution at 132 pixels per inch (ppi)

Capacity

16GB, 32GB, or 64GB flash drive

Processor

1GHz Apple A4 custom-designed, high-performance, low-power system-on-a-chip

Battery and power

Built-in 25-watt-hour rechargeable lithium-polymer battery which supports up to 10 hours of surfing the web on Wi-Fi, watching video, or listening to music and up to 9 hours of surfing the web using 3G data network. It is charging via power adapter or USB to computer system

Wireless and cellular

Wi-Fi model

Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Wi-Fi + 3G model

UMTS/HSDPA (850, 1900, 2100 MHz), GSM/EDGE (850, 900, 1800, 1900 MHz), Data only2, Wi-Fi (802.11a/b/g/n), Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR technology

Audio playback

Audio formats supported: HE-AAC (V1), AAC (16 to 320 Kbps), Protected AAC (from iTunes Store), MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps), MP3 VBR, Audible (formats 2, 3, and 4), Apple Lossless, AIFF, and WAV. Frequency response: 20Hz to 20,000Hz

TV and video

Support for 1024 by 768 pixels with Dock Connector to VGA Adapter; 576p and 480p with Apple Component AV Cable; 576i and 480i with Apple Composite AV Cable. H.264 video up to 720p, 30 frames per second, Main Profile level 3.1 with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps per channel, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; MPEG-4 video, up to 2.5 Mbps, 640 by 480 pixels, 30 frames per second, Simple Profile with AAC-LC audio up to 160 Kbps, 48kHz, stereo audio in .m4v, .mp4, and .mov file formats; Motion JPEG (M-JPEG) up to 35 Mbps, 1280 by 720 pixels, 30 frames per second, audio in ulaw, PCM stereo audio in .avi file format

Impressive enough, huh?

However, very soon the admirers of iPad found a number of things that darkened the delight of iPad owners. 

So, many users of iPad considered absence of multitasking as a move into the past. And they are right since it is a great failure: you cannot listen to music while typing a document, you’re not able to open your IM messenger and e-mail at once… A great disappointment!

Among other failures we can mention the following:

No camera: Absence of video cameras deprives the iPad users of a possibility to handle video chats. 

No flash. Ooops! No sites supporting flash for iPad users, including YouTube. However it is necessary to note that YouTube has started integrating HTML 5 in order to avoid dependence on Adobe and its flash. 

No HDMI Out means that you will fail to watch the HD video. A great pity (((. 

No USB ports. To solve this problem one need to purchase an adapter that spoils the appearance of device, i.e. you need to waste ADDITIONAL money. By the way, the problem of HDMI Out can be solved by means of those adapters however you should keep on mind that the resolution of the display (that is not a widescreen) will hardly allow you watching a qualitative HD video. 

No SD-readers. Here no comments needed.

There tens of other claims including a closed App Ecosystem, availability of 4G, dependence on AT&T and etc. 

Price for iPad starts from $499 in the US and €479 Europe in Europe. 

A high one… Do we have any alternatives? Yes sure! Let’s analyze the nearest competitors of iPad that are usually called iPad killers. 

I or We… that it the question

WePad of Berlin-based Neofonie which was developed in cooperation with 4titoo, Siemens, Intel and Adobe companies.
 
This tablet is built on Android and has a number of good features:

• 1.66 GHz Intel Atom N450 CPU;
• 11.6-inch 1366 x 768 touchscreen;
• GMA 3150 graphics
• 16GB flash storage;
• WiFi, Bluetooth 2.1;
• 3G modem;
• 1.3 megapixel camera;
• USB 2.0 ports (2);
• SIM card slot;
• Flash and Adobe AIR support;
• LiIon battery good for up to 6hrs.
• GPS optional

As we can see WePad has a number of features that makes it better than iPad. So, WePad has multitasking, supports flash, has USB ports, camera for video chats, a big display to watch HD video since it is capable of Full HD 1080p playback. The device is sold at price: €449 ($611).



Killed iPad? Actually not, since iPad has some advantages, including a better battery. 

HP Slate will become an iPad Slayer

HP Slate is another rival of iPad which to be launched soon. 

• 1.6GHz Intel Atom Z530 CPU;
• 8.9 inch, 1024 x 600 pixel capacitive multitouch display;
• Broadcom a graphics accelerator for 1080p HD video playback;
• 1GB of RAM (non upgradable);
• 32GB/64GB SSD;
• 2-cell battery (up to 5 hours of runtime);
• An SDHC card slot, USB port;
• SIM card slot;
• 2 Cameras;
• HDMI output;
• 3G modem (optional)

Price: $549 for 32GB device and $599 for the 64GB one. 

And again, this device exceed iPad in a number of features just alike WePad. Though again, iPad has its advantages as well. 

Speaking about batteries, HP’s Slate has a weak one since nowadays majority of notebooks much longer. And one more fact revealed recently is that the device will be targeted at enterprises mainly.


JooJoo – a cheaper clone of iPad?

JooJoo, formerly known as CrunchPad, of Fusion Garage is said to be the clone of iPad due to its appearance. 
• 7.8″ x 12.8″ x 0.2-0.7,” 2.4 lbs
• Intel Atom N270 and NVidia Ion Graphics.
• JooJoo OS;
• 2.1″ widescreen, multitouch, 1366 x 1768, fingerprint-resistant
• 802.11b/g Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, up to five hours on Wi-Fi
• 4GB solid state drive
• Built-in battery, 5 hour battery life
• front-facing camera; 1080p support
• USB port;
• 3G modem with SIM slot 
• Supports Flash 10.1 and Java

Price: $499.

JooJoo is famous for its speedy startup. It takes you only 9 seconds to connect to the Internet. It is an absolute record.


 

Indian response to Apple iPad

The surprise of this season is an-Android based tablet Adam announced by Notion Ink.  

• 1Ghz nVidia Tegra 2 Dual-Core Arm® Cortex-A9 Mpcore™ Processor
• 16GB/32GB
• 1024x600 10 inch Pixel Qi transflective LCD screen, with a Multi-touch Touchscreen layer 
• A full color LCD transmissive mode and a low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective e-paper mode
• A transflective mode that will make the LCD display visible in sunlight and automatically control brightness
• Ultra Low Power NVidia Graphics processing unit (Tegra 2) with full flash acceleration and 3D rendering performance
• 3x USB ports, 1x HDMI port (1080p)
• MicroSD card slot
• Built-in 180 degree swivel camera capable of capturing photographs (up to 3.2 MP) and video
• Built-in stereo speakers
• Built-in microphone
• aGPS, Wi-Fi, 3G (HSPA/GSM), Bluetooth
• RF proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, 3-axis accelerometer, Touchpad
• Weight & Size: ~600-650 g (1.3-1.4 pounds), 158 × 239 × 13 mm
• Power sources: 
• 3-cell rechargeable battery
• 140 hrs of Audio, and 16 hrs of HD video playback
Prices for the Adam will start at just $327, and go up to $800.
 

 

Netbook or tablet?

And finally the main rival of iPad is Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t. Many of you can say that Lenovo IdeaPad S10-3t is a netbook however the display which swivels around makes it’s a full-scale tablet.

• Intel Atom N450, 1660 Mhz, GMA 3150
• Windows 7 Home Premium 
• 10" 1024 X 600, VGA
• RAM 1024 MB, 160 GB
• Weight 1300gm / 45.9 oz. 
• Size (w/h/d mm) 280/174/20 mm
• USB2.0 (x2)
• SD card slot
• WiFi 802.11 a/b/g
• WebCam 1.3Mp


Price: €449 for Europe and $499 for USA.




As we can see many of the tablets are better than the device of Apple. All of them have features that iPad lacks. They have higher performance and they are cheaper. But what makes people buy iPads? Why they say that iPad sucks and buy them? One reason is brand. Apple is a symbol of quality. More over, Apple is a real revolutionary and people believe them for their quality and prescience. Do you remember the situation with floppies? Apple was one of the first companies that started integrating those floppies and it Apple that refused using floppies first. That time it was like an H-bomb. Apply didn’t want to use the technology which was highly popular and demanded. However the company said that floppies will disappear soon and be replaced by more functional devices. Nobody believed but with time passed it became clear that Apple was right. 

This time Apple refused to use flash technologies considering them old-fashion. Who knows. May be they are really right and no flash technologies are the future of Internet by html5. 

Comparing the specs one could also notice that none of the devices offered battery that exceeds the life of iPad. 

Another reason is availability of the devices. The majority of the so called iPads have not been released yet. 

And despite the prophecy of analysts that iPad sales will fail the statistics show other data. Owing to the popularity of iPad the supposed volume of tablets to be sold in 2010 has increased by 3 times. The number of iPads sold amounted to the supposed number of all tablets to be sold in 2010. Having taken this information into consideration the specialist prepared another forecast. Now according to their report the number of all tablets to be sold this year will be 11 million, and half of them will be iPads. However this forecast can also be inaccurate in view of coming launches of the tablets announced by the recognized leaders on this market. 

As for iPad, probably very soon we will get another device called something like iPad 2 which will have all the features, which the users failed to find in the current device, fixed. 

But everything will be tomorrow not today…