laptop,laptops,toshiba laptop,best laptops,laptop notebook,acer laptop,laptop cases: Top Android Tablets Cannot Compete with iPad 2, Says CEA

Android 3.0 Honeycomb tablets could have a tough time ahead, according to the Consumer Electronics Association.AuthorAndrew WilliamsPublished22nd Mar 2011

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CEA Director of Industy Analysis Steve Koenig has talked-down high-end Android tablets� chances of stealing the Apple iPad 2�s market supremacy in 2011. He says that they ask buyers to cough-up more money for a fundamentally less attractive device.

The Consumer Electronics Association is the force behind the CES annual tech show, which takes place in Las Vegas each January. Today we talked to CEA�s Steve Koenig who said that �RIM, Motorola (and) Samsung can�t beat Apple on price� in the tablet market, and that buying one of these iPad 2-rival tablets isn�t alluring � that you �pay several hundred dollars more for an �uncool� product.�

Here Koenig refers to the mainstream buyer, millions more of whom will buy tablets this year according to the bold predictions of many a market analyst. Although he didn�t claim the Motorola Xoom was immune from this Apple effect, he did cite the tablet as being the one with the �best chance� of competing, thanks to an impressive integration of Google�s new tablet-focused Android 3.0 Honeycomb operating system. Other tablets didn�t get off so lightly, Koenig remarking that �90 per cent of the tablets out there are not even close� to iPad 2-quality.

Other tablet platforms in-waiting were also given a mention. Koenig says that the BlackBerry PlayBook has a good chance of hooking-in an early fanbase thanks to the �entrenched� ranks of BlackBerry users worldwide, and that a dedicated tablet platform is �something we�ll hear from Microsoft this year.� He commented that a port of Microsoft�s Surface �makes sense.� Surface is currently used to power huge table-like computers costing many thousands of dollars, and recalling images from the 1982 sci-fi movie Tron, but shrunken down to tablet-sized proportions it could work well, already supporting near-essential tablet features like multi-touch.

Koenig was careful not to label any of these decried tablets as dead on arrival though, noting how the �market opportunity is shifting" towards devices that lie in the screen-inch void that sits between mobile phones and laptops � between 5in and 15in. When none of these high-end electronics are particularly cheap to design or produce, how many can be sustained, even if the market is growing?

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