Microsoft Bets Heavy on Tablet Hybrids, Apple Laughs in Response
New data from Forrester Research and reported by CNET, shows that tablet sales are expected to surge in the next few years, quickly replacing PCs as the computing device of choice. The report indicates that by 2016, tablet sales will hit 375 million worldwide, with Apple's iPad taking one-third of the market.
Not surprisingly, the report pleased Apple CEO, Tim Cook, who sees no limit to Apple's tablet sales. During Apple's second quarter earnings conference this week, Cook also dismissed the idea of a MacBook-iPad hybrid saying, "You can converge a toaster and a refrigerator, but those things are probably not going [to] be pleasing to the user."
However, while Apple may scoff at the idea of tablet hybrids, Microsoft is betting on them with its next generation touch-based operating system, Windows 8, which is expected to power everything from tablets to all-in-one PCs.
Earlier this month at Intel's 2012 Developer Forum in Beijing, Intel demoed the Letexo, a hyrbid tablet / ultrabook device that's rocking an Ivy Bridge processor and Microsoft's Windows 8 OS. The device can be used like a traditional tablet when browsing the web, and can also be propped up against its built-in stand to be used like a laptop, via its attached sliding keyboard.
Cook, however, dismisses the concept saying, "You wouldn't want to put these things together because you end up compromising [on] both and not pleasing either user."
What do you think, readers? Will the launch of Windows 8 lead to a new, successful laptop / tablet hybrid device, or do you prefer a more traditional tablet experience, like the one provided by Apple's iPad? Sound off in the comments below.
Photo credits: Wikispaces and The Verge
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The problem is that many people have "fat fingers" (my brother is one), and can't use a laptop smaller than 14" or so. A hybrid would make for a very small laptop, and a very big tablet. So the target audience would be very, very limited: people with small fingers who can use a small laptop, but strong enough to not mind a large, heavy tablet. This is why Tim Cook made his statement: it isn't that a toaster/fridge couldn't be joined, but it would make for a really tiny fridge and a really big toaster.
Tablets are not good for any real work, so the enterprise environment will be flooded with Hybrid Ultratablets. That's right, I named them first.If done right, Hybrid Windows 8 Ultratablets are the way of the future.
This is the way of the future.
It would take me about a blink of an eye to give up my iPad for such a device.
I like the iPad in many ways, but I'd love it even more if I could use it as a full-blown ultraportable for travel. I can add a keyboard, but can't add a mouse.
With Windows OS I'm guessing I could use the tablet without being locked down to the apps approved by an app store. Portability-heaven without the major sacrifices in productivity (i.e. the apps I want, a keyboard, and a mouse or at least a trackpad) via limitations that I encounter with the iPad.