I thought woohoo...
… until I saw the word 'Android' :(
Why can't anyone make a decent non-iphone / non-android tablet?
Mere days after HP threw its TouchPad tablet under the bus, Lenovo has tossed its new iPad-killer candidate into the marketplace. The 10.1-inch Lenovo ThinkPad Tablet, which went on sale on Tuesday, has a focus and features that give it a far better chance than HP's megaflop to claw some market share away from Apple's "magical …
RIM's tablet would have been far more favourably received if the software was finished when it was released. The thing wouldn't even let you read email without bridging the tablet to a phone. Supposedly this was for "security" but the real reason is likely that their backend code was so bolloxed that it was easier to write this horrible kludge than fix the thing properly in the timeframe.
What's so tacky all of a sudden about a minimalist black rectangle? I believe large numbers of people, within living memory, were willing to pay hundreds extra for a device in black. Personally, I think metal trim on plastic and shiny chrome finishes are tacky, but what do I know. It must be all those useless buttons. So few of us today have fingers.
Positives
1. Pen/Handwriting input and document markup.
2. Lenovo build quality, support and eco-system.
3. Lenovo business 'vaqluepack' (although compared to the suite of applications included with the Thinkpad it does seem a little lightweight).
4. Significantly cheaper than a Windows Tablet.
5. Easier to deploy enterprise applications on to than an ipad/iphone.
Negatives
1. Running Android, so existing mobile client applications will need to be ported - however the availability of enterprise tools such as iAnywhere will assist (yes I know there is an overlap with the Good-for-Enterprise suite but none of my clients use it).
2. Glossy screen (okay its gorilla glass) does rule out many field worker applications where the screen needs to be readable outdoors.
3. No fingerprint reader.
So there USP is "we have a couple more ports than an ipad and a whole load of bloatware". Well im sure a lot of Businesses will be thinking "hmm, we can save $50 a go on a dongal, thats almost $17 a year over 3 years, bargin and Lenovo unlike HP are a big company so we can be sure of updates fixes and support".
despite the Touchpad being a commercial failure ..I managed to pick one up cheap... and you know what it is actually quite good... surfs the web, plays FLASH video ... and has great audio.
the WebOS is so much nicer to use than Android in the tablet form factor ... maybe Honeycomb fixes the tablet issues?
That said I hope someone else succeeds ..having a monopoly player, whether it is Apple or Microsoft or Google is not a great thing.
I too have a Touchpad. The first thing I noticed that is better than my iPad is the on screen keyboard has numeric keys above the letters. So much easier when typing in passwords.
The second thing is you tube. I plan to use this for playing video. The device plays youtube clips better than my iPad and the audio is better because of the stereo speakers.
I actually think that they may be on to a winner here. OK, as a niche product it'll never shift shedloads, but I know several IT depts that are sick of telling their users that they will not supply or support iPads for the business. Some of these run Lenovo as their staple laptops, so I can see them at least testing whether they have a use for the business. If Lenovo have bundled this thing properly, then it could become the business tablet of choice, as the iPad is the consumer one.
Lenovo did manage to turn IBM's business laptop division around, maybe they can do the same for Android tablets?
Good to see Lenovo didn't try and emulate the design features we've seen from Apple, Samsung and a few others, it looks quite unique.
I don't believe their choice of Android is a bad one, it works well and most fondleslab owners can relate to it.
Good luck to them in what has sort of become a two horse market (Samsung / Apple) and let's see if Lenovo can commit to their product unlike HP. If so, the consumer becomes the winner again
Well it looks unique as far as tablets go. It does however look exactly like every ThinkPad ever made. Which isn't a terrible thing - they're pretty robust and long-lasting (this typed on a 3-year-old ThinkPad which shows all signs of lasting for several more years) but in design terms not exactly exciting. Which of course is what corporate IT departments everywhere want!
Archos are releasing an Android 3.2 10" 16GB dual core device in September for $379. This is the direction prices should be heading. If a relatively minor company can put out decent spec tablets for that price, then why can't the brand names?
I reckon they still don't get it. They think people are going to spend stupid money for a tablet. Of course some people might spend stupid money but those people are likely to be buying an iPad. Android has to offer the same experience for less. Tablets should be competing with each other not with the iPad.
It's just another wannabe tablet... what is different from all other Android tablets ?
Why don't we get 3G ?
Is it thinner / lighter than an iPad ?
There is no point whatsoever making a tablet business oriented the way Windows customers think they want it, all the safety is in NOT having business data local on the tablet.The tablet is the UI to the corporate virtual desktop or Citrix or MSTS or cloud, not a stand alone computing device. Do NOT repeat the failure of business phones from some 5 years ago.
Many business users will use thick client apps that store (local data) and forward (remote data). There's no point to a mobile device otherwise (see endless criticism against Chromebooks). Granted, given that most data hacks are done when data is at rest, app devs need to think through their security implementations.
The other thing businesses need is enterprise group policy on the tablet, and associated management tools. Google's cloud-only approach, and it's comptetitive relationship with Microsoft means Android isn't going to get anything like such enterprise support.
It's why I believe that non-iOS tablets won't hit the business mainstream until Windows 8 is released.
I've said this before, but widescreen is actually better for business. I've got both an iPad and an Eee Transformer, and I've used both for work.
A4 docs don't fit on an iPad's screen nicely. Most docs are portrait, and in portrait mode, the iPad has large black bars down the sides of A4 docs at full page view; it's even worse when apps have toolbars. On the Eee, by contrast, a portrait doc fills the full width of the screen and still just leaves space for toolbars top or bottom. In other words, A4 portrait docs (which is the majority of business docs) are much more readable on the Eee than on the iPad without resorting to zooming and panning (which is a pain).