Tablets in 2012: What to Expect As tablets move into their adolescence, what changes will we see?

What will tablets look like in the coming year? Tablets are out of their
infancy and moving into adolescence--which
means that we can expect big changes ahead as
tablets' design and components improve. Tablet operating systems will see some new
blood, too, with the introduction of Android 4.0
and Windows 8. How will these changes
manifest? Let's start with design. Lighter and Thinner Tablets Next year you can expect tablets to become even
lighter and thinner than they are now. Actually,
the shift has already begun: For 10-inch-class
tablets, 1.2 to 1.3 pounds is shaking out as the
new normal weight (down from 1.5 to 1.6
pounds as the norm in 2011), and 0.3 to 0.4 inch is becoming the new standard in thickness
(down from 0.5 inch). And those numbers should edge lower still,
especially after Android manufacturers see what
design leader Apple has in store for its iPad 3,
which is widely expected to appear sometime in
the first quarter of 2012. Now that the rush to get a first tablet to market is
past, manufacturers will likely turn their attention
to the nitty-gritty details--display quality, text
rendering, speakers, infrared ports for using a
tablet as a remote control--as they try to get right
in 2012 what they fumbled on during their first time out. We'll continue to see a wide array of
screen sizes--from 7 inches to 10.1 inches--simply
because consumers haven't yet shown enough
of a preference to eliminate some of the middle
sizes. Amazon Kindle FireAdditionally, we'll continue to see prices push
down, thanks in part to models like the Amazon Kindle Fire--a 7-inch tablet that sells for $199, which is just a few dollars below Amazon's cost.
Nvidia's CEO reportedly expects that prices for
tablets using Nvidia's Tegra 3 system on a chip
will drop to $299 by mid-2012. Quad-Core Chips Nvidia launched the Tegra 3 platform in November. Previously known as "Project Kal-El,"
the Tegra 3 packs in a quad-core ARM Cortex A9
CPU, a fifth "low-power" core for handling
secondary tasks (such as playing music), and a
12-core GeForce GPU for graphics-intensive
rendering. With quad-core chips, tablets should become more-capable performers that compete
better with laptops than they do today. Asus Transformer PrimeThe Asus Transformer Prime seems poised to be the first tablet to market to include Tegra 3.
The Transformer Prime is a slimmer and
redesigned version of the first-gen Eee Pad Transformer. The Prime is due to ship in December with an expected price of $500 for a
model with 32GB of storage. Nvidia may have an early monopoly on the quad-
core chip market for tablets. Qualcomm announced that its quad-core Snapdragon chips for tablets won't be out until its Snapdragon S4
line appears in the second half of next year.
Qualcomm has already spoken of its chips being
used for Windows 8 tablets . Meanwhile, Freescale and Texas Instruments have both said that they
also will have quad-core ARM chips in 2012. We expect to hear about more tablets using
quad-core chips--from Nvidia and other
manufacturers--during the 2012 International CES
trade show in January. Higher-Resolution Displays Toshiba Thrive 7" tablet While the 1024-by-768-pixel iPad 2 offers
only 132 pixels per inch, the upcoming Toshiba Thrive 7" tablet will arrive with a 1280-by-800- pixel display that boasts 225 pixels per inch, the
same as on the already-shipping T-Mobile SpringBoard. (Due in December, the Thrive 7" is the smaller cousin of the 10.1-inch Thrive.) The extra pixels are important, as they help
smooth out the text so that you don't see the
dots that form the letters. Rumors are running
rampant that a high-resolution display, akin to but perhaps not quite as high as the one in the iPhone 4S, will be in the next version of the iPad. It's All About the Operating
System Android Ice Cream Sandwich logoTablet operating systems will
evolve in a big way in 2012. Already, we know
that Android 4.0--code-named Ice Cream
Sandwich--is the mobile operating system that
Google is touting as the great unifier between the
divergent Android 2.x phone and 3.x tablet platforms. Asus says it will offer a downloadable firmware
upgrade for the Transformer Prime, to replace its
shipping Android 3.2 OS with Ice Cream
Sandwich. But that update won't be available
until the beginning of 2012. In the meantime, you
can get a glimpse of the new OS via Nvidia's video of Ice Cream Sandwich on the Transformer Prime. The actual benefits and implications of Ice Cream
Sandwich for tablets remain fuzzy, however,
since no tablet has shipped with Android 4.0 yet.
In addition to new tablets carrying Ice Cream
Sandwich, some manufacturers have indicated
that certain already-released Android tablets will get an update to the new OS, but details remain
vague.
Windows 8 Tablets Android isn't the only news on the tablet-OS
front for next year. Microsoft's big coming-out
party for Windows 8 is scheduled for 2012, and
Windows 8 is bound for tablets in a big way. Today, several companies offer Windows 7
slates, including Dell, ExoPC, Fujitsu, Hewlett-
Packard, Motion Computing, Samsung, and
ViewSonic. With prices starting at $650 and
running to nearly twice that, however,
manufacturers typically position these tablets for use in the business world, where the Windows
operating system reigns supreme, and where
buyers tend to have custom software already
designed for the OS. Windows tablets have remained a niche item so
far due to their comparatively higher prices,
shorter battery life, and lack of a touch-optimized
operating system and apps, but that situation
should change with Windows 8. Windows 8 Metro-style interfaceThe Windows 8
interface, filled with big "Metro-style" tiles, is optimized for touch navigation. And, in contrast
to the current Windows 7 tablet models, which
run on Intel Atom CPUs, Windows 8 will be able to run on ARM chips. When it comes to complete end-to-end
compatibility for data, apps, and peripherals,
nothing compares to what a Windows device
can offer. That's a significant advantage over
Android and iOS that Windows tablets should be
able to exploit. Tablets running Windows 8 could address the twin troubles of file handling and
app compatibility across devices, since you will
be able to run the same software on a tablet as
you will on a Metro-capable PC. We still don't have a ship date for Windows 8,
but we've heard rumblings about tablets running
the OS coming as soon as summer 2012 (Nokia's
head of French operations has alluded to that
date). At the very least, Windows 8 tablets with
less-expensive ARM CPUs are sure to shake up the tablet status quo. Apple Tablets Finally, with Apple having just released iOS 5.0, we don't expect a lot
of innovation or announcements surrounding the
iOS operating system and how it plays with the
iPad 3. Those announcements will likely stay
under wraps until closer to midyear, when Apple
holds its Worldwide Developers Conference (the date has not yet been set, but it is rumored to be
in June). Along the same lines, news of the
rumored next Android OS, code-named Jelly Bean,
will have to wait for confirmation at the Google I/
O conference in April.