Galery

1

Ivan Petkov 

Last year was perhaps the most successful for Apple, the company that managed to forever change the definition of music (MP3) player (iPod), smartphone (iPhone) ... and perhaps of what the PC is. With the emergence of the iPad last year not only a new type of device was created, but many analysts began to anticipate that we have seen how the ordinary user interacts with the computer and of our notion of the computer.

iPad, the undisputed champion

Interestingly, the rumours of its emergence appeared a year earlier. None of the other manufacturers, however, even monopolies in the PC operating systems like Microsoft did not respond in any way. As if no one believed that there is a room for another product type, let alone a successful product. Shortly before that netbooks had appeared - cheap small laptops that are just for everyday tasks like Internet, music, chat ... They were well appreciated and it seemed that the market niches are filled. But now that Apple developed and launched iPad, which despite the initial skepticism and criticism, for a short time became a very successful product without any competition. In no time IPad managed to establish itself as a great tool for reading online editions, for viewing photos, for Internet ... The tablet has proved so successful that it forced publishers and web site owners to comply with the lack of Flash and to use the newly born standard HTML5, designed for watching video on the Internet, as well as a substitute of the Flash technology. This is how the tablet was born.

Android - Google's proposal

Android OS is not a tablet. It is an operating system originally developed for smartphones. Thanks to Android, smartphones became very popular and beat the sales and popularity of iPhone. Android, however, was not developed and designed for tablets. It took Google almost a year to present a version of Android, which is optimized for tablets to allow manufacturers to offer a fully functional tablet, a competitor of the iPad.

More players: RIM and HP

Two other major players: RIM – the manufacturer of the popular Blackberry smartphones and HP - the largest PC manufacturer in the world, joined the competition for consumer interest in tablets. RIM offered an interesting tablet called PlayBook, which currently can not win popularity. HP bought the veteran Palm and are about to offer a full range of smartphones and tablets, which will seek a niche market. HP tablet is named TouchPad.

Microsoft: the sluggish giant

Microsoft was the first that developed an operating system for smartphones - Windows Mobile. However, they were not at the heart of the smartphones revolution, and they are totally behind in tablets. While some users have suggested tablets with Windows 7, they did not become popular due to the fact that Windows is not designed to work with your fingers on the small screen tablet. Currently, they are developing Windows 8, which will have a special optimized version for tablets, and the first devices are expected to be launched next year.

The future of tablets

So, we know the players but what can they offer and will the tablet become the preferred form of device with which we will interact with the Internet, write e-mails, read, and watch video online?

As I mentioned, many analysts believe that the tablets will affect not only the sales of laptops and netbooks, but also of desktop computers. What are the advantages of the tablets that make them popular among users of all ages: