Transport yourself to a boardroom in Cupertino, California. Imagine yourself wearing a polo-neck jumper. Before you sit the sales charts for the iPads on one side, the income flowing into your company’s coffers on the right. Feeling confident? Arrogant, even?
Steve Jobs and friends have every right to be. While the iPad may not have lived up to Jobs’ hyperbole – “It’s the best web experience you’ve ever had... Phenomenal for mail” – there’s no denying that Apple has single-handedly defined a new category of product.
It turns out tablets aren’t merely overgrown phones. Superficially accurate that criticism may be, but it misses the point: a swimming pool isn’t just a big bathtub. Changing the size of an object can fundamentally alter what it’s like to use and what it does.
In the iPad’s case, it’s become a new way to read newspapers, a GPS system for truckers, a gaming device to not only rival the PSP, but in many respects beat it. And much more besides. Sure, it can surf the web and let you check your email, but that’s a given.
Clutching onto the coat-tails of Apple’s success are a legion of me-too devices, in a variety of shapes and sizes. From the 5in Dell Streak that weighs 220g to the 10in ViewSonic ViewPad 10 that approaches 1kg, the choice is bewildering.
We've dissected the strengths and weaknesses of the different operating systems – including those about to appear. And, most crucially, we lay our hands on the tablets so we can provide the definitive reviews.
Some of those tablets, we’re sorry to say, are poorly made. Some look nice, only for us to turn them on and realise their designers have ignored the user experience altogether. Some are great – except for one crucial flaw that robs them of any chance of winning an award.
Which leaves a single question: which device is right for you?
The operating systems:
The apps:
Ten essential Android tablet apps
The tablet reviews:
ViewSonic ViewPad 7
The rival OSes
BlackBerry Tablet OS
RIM's first tablet, slated for a US release in early 2011, is the BlackBerry PlayBook. The OS already looks slick, with many of the promo videos giving a Minority Report feel to the interface. It's a familiar form factor - a slate dominated by a 7in multitouch screen - but BlackBerry obsessives might be disappointed by the lack of an integrated hardware keyboard.
That said, RIM is clearly playing to its strengths by marketing the PlayBook as the world's first professional-grade tablet, and its feature list looks like a list of iPad complaints: theres a micro-HDMI out socket so you can run presentations from it, while the browser is, in RIM's words, "uncompromised". In less political terms, that means it has full support for Flash.
Adobe's involvement is interesting. RIM acquired a company called QNX to make its new BlackBerry Tablet OS, but according to the wording on RIM's developer site, the PlayBook's UI is written in Adobe's AIR runtime.
Other than this, we still know very little about the PlayBook: there's no sense of its battery life, how smoothly the OS runs or what the apps will be like.
BlackBerry App World had 10,000 apps in September, but breakout hits have been few and far between. There are official Twitter and Foursquare clients, but there's some truth to the satirical graphic of Angry Birds for BlackBerry.
Think text such as, "Launch red bird. You missed. Launch another red bird, slightly softer".
At the moment, RIM seems to be doing enough to justify interest: the hardware specification is solid and, unlike Google, it's jumping in with both feet when it comes to making a tablet-focused OS.
The big question mark is over performance: Adobe is known for flashy graphics and slick presentation, but its programs aren't renowned for being speedy.
webOS 2
We know that HP will be launching a high-resolution device boasting a tablet-focused version of webOS - the phone operating system it bought as part of its $1.2 billion acquisition of Palm - at some point in 2011.
It's already leaked the name of a potential family of devices, the PalmPad, and we know from our experiences with webOS-based smartphones such as the Palm Pre Plus that it could rival iOS for smoothness.
Palm's webOS holds a couple of other benefits over iOS. First, it builds social networking into the interface rather than relying on separate apps: HP's term for this is Synergy, with the OS bringing all your Facebook, LinkedIn, Microsoft Exchange and Google information together in one unified view.
Its other big strength is multitasking. Pressing a button brings up all the open apps in a zoomed-out view, so you can flick back and forth between them with the touch of a finger.
HP webOS 2 improves multitasking still further via Stacks: this will allow related open apps to be stacked on top of one another in the interface, so if you click on a URL in an email, the website will sit on top of the email when you zoom out to check open apps.
Another new feature is Just Type, a similar idea to Windows 7's instant search feature, where you type freeform into a textbox and all the relevant programs, documents, emails and websites appear instantly in the results panel.
The weakness for webOS, and probably HP's biggest challenge, is the lack of apps. HP claims there are "thousands" of apps, but we estimate there are currently fewer than 2,000 in the Palm App Catalog (its Apple Store equivalent). If webOS 2 is to be a success, developers will need a lot of enticements to convince them to shift their attention from iOS and Android.
Windows 7
Microsoft can justifiably claim that it's been producing tablet PCs for years, although for the most part these have been convertibles: a touchscreen laptop with a twistable screen, so you can either use your Windows PC as a regular laptop or as a "slate".
While this form factor has its fans, particularly in larger businesses and some industries, it's failed to make inroads elsewhere. Undaunted, Microsoft has publicly claimed that Asus, HP, Samsung, Sony and Toshiba will soon be selling Windows 7 slates. Indeed, Microsoft could even claim the ViewSonic ViewPad 10 as such a device.
Despite having a touch interface integrated into the OS, using a Windows 7 tablet is no match for the slick experience found on an iPad.
There's no instant-on, you have to fiddle around with tiny buttons designed to be clicked by a mouse, and the tablets themselves are heavier because you need a powerful processor with active cooling.
Almost all the software designed for Windows 7 is again designed with a mouse and keyboard in mind, with dedicated touch apps - such as those found in the Windows Touch Pack - few and far between. Our experience with the ViewPad suggests the OS comes to life only when you attach a keyboard and mouse.
We believe Microsoft would be far better advised to adapt its new Windows Phone 7 operating system to the tablet form factor. This OS is designed from the ground up to work with digits rather than mice, and if Microsoft can convince its vast army of partner developers to create apps (using familiar tools, so there's no need for them to learn new programming skills), this could end up being the biggest competitor to Apple's iOS.
Google Android
Android tablets are in a strange no-man’s land: many big-name manufacturers have announced models, a few have released them, while a vast number of cheap “wannabe iPads” have also gone on sale.
Just to add to the uncertainty, Google itself seems uncertain. “Froyo [Android 2.2] isn’t optimised for use on tablets,” Hugo Barra, Google’s director of products for mobile, told technology website TechRadar in September 2010. “If you want Android Market on that platform, the apps just wouldn’t run – Froyo just isn’t designed for that form factor.”
On the evidence of almost all the Android-powered tablets we’ve seen, Barra is right: there’s a strong need for Google to produce a separate tablet version of Android.
The grid of apps looks distinctly basic – there’s no evidence of font smoothing to make the text look crisper on a large panel, for instance – and the back-end settings often refer to a phone rather than a tablet.
But it’s apps that show the Android tablets in their weakest light. Core apps such as the browser and Google Maps benefit simply by displaying more details on the extra screen space, but there are few tablet-specific apps for them.
Even the one advantage Android holds over iOS – Flash support – is compromised: buy a tablet with Android 2.2 on board, and there’s no guarantee it will be either installed or installable. Right now, it’s a case of buyer beware, so do your research first.
Market
To try to work around the limited compatibility with existing apps, manufacturers are partnering with developers (such as Toshiba and ViewSonic with DataViz, Samsung with ThinkFree) to create “HD” apps.
Another trend is for manufacturers to create their own software markets, but so far the quality and quantity of apps on offer pales in comparison to that of Apple’s. You’ll be lucky to find what you want, and unless the apps are made by professionals, the quality is unlikely to come close to that of an iOS app.
Just to add to the confusion, not all Android slates will have access to the Android Market. For example, while we feel enthusiastic about Creative’s budget Android tablets, the ZiiO 7in and 10in, the fact they don’t support the official Android Market (instead, there’s Creative’s own ZiiStore) is disappointing.
Even if you do buy an Android slate with Market preinstalled, there’s no section for tablet-specific apps. It’s a far more fragmented experience than browsing for apps on the iPad with its ruthlessly vetted iTunes App Store.
This lack of simplicity is arguably a disadvantage of Android being based on open-source software, but there are plus points. You, as a user, can install your own software from outside the Android Market – and the same is true for manufacturers.
It isn’t just software, either: you can hack and tinker with the OS and its interface, and so can manufacturers. HTC is well known for its “Sense” additions to the user interface on its Android-powered phones, and there’s nothing to stop a manufacturer of an Android tablet adding the same kind of extensions to make it easier to use. Dell, for instance, does precisely that with the Streak.
Android is also open in that Google doesn’t impose significant restrictions on hardware design: it licenses the software to manufacturers and they’re free to do with it what they like (although it’s rumoured that to gain access to the latest builds of Android, manufacturers need to “consult” Google).
Handset variety
As a result, a wide variety of Android phones are available, and the same is already becoming true of Android tablets – Samsung’s Galaxy Tab has a 7in screen, for example, while ViewSonic offers both 7in and 10in products. Just note that, like so many “announced” Android tablets, the ViewPad 7 isn't available yet.
In short, you’re not restricted to one type of device: while the Tab is a premium product with built-in 3G and costs over £400, people unwilling to spend that much can opt for “budget” Android devices such as the Archos 101.
Despite Android’s open nature, manufacturers and mobile operators conspire – deliberately or not – so that it’s tricky to upgrade your phone to the newest version of Android. For example, customers who bought the HTC Hero had to wait nine months after the launch of Android 2 before they could upgrade their phones. Dell Streak owners faced a similar sense of frustration: Android 2.2 was released in May 2010, but they received only an upgrade in November.
Android 3
There is good news on the horizon. Google has already iced its plans to release Chrome OS, turning its attention to tailoring Android for tablets. That will solve a number of the problems we’ve highlighted here, and will hopefully spur even more developers to create apps that suit the larger screen.
That momentum will, hopefully, extend to manufacturers. Both HTC and LG appear to be waiting until a tablet-friendly version of Android 3 is released, and we know Acer will be launching 5in, 7in and 10in devices in spring 2011. So the future is bright for Android tablets; just don’t expect perfection today.
Apple iOS
When talking about Apple iOS for tablets, it’s impossible to avoid talking about the iPad. There’s only one iOS slate, and until the expected revision arrives early in 2011, that’s the way it will stay.
This isn’t the disaster it could have been. Even though it’s a few months old and has sold by the millions, the iPad retains an air of specialness we haven’t seen any other slate match.
People seem uniformly cautious about touching it at first, but the moment the first screen of icons slides smoothly across the glass, or a familiar website or service such as Google Maps opens up, they find themselves drawn in effortlessly.
However, if you buy an iPad expecting it to behave like a PC – with an operating system that you can install whatever software you like and have full control over the file system – then you’ll be deeply disappointed.
There’s no support for adding USB drives. No way to output video via HDMI. It can’t use a phone for tethering. And, in what many consider to be its most damning limitation, it can’t and won’t run Flash. The reasons are both technical and political, with Steve Jobs citing reasons of security, battery life and that Apple knows “from painful experience that letting a third-party layer of software come between the platform and the developer ultimately results in substandard apps and hinders the enhancement and progress of the platform”.
Whatever the rationale, the end result is that you can’t currently watch embedded videos on many sites, including this very site.
Nor can you play any of the millions of Flash games available, or access the many Flash-based educational resources. (Although, as we’ll see, the plentiful apps on offer help to offset this disappointment.)
Apps
Apple takes a similarly hard line when it comes to installing software: all apps must be approved by Apple to get into the App Store, and it’s the only way to add new software to iOS devices. Unless you’re looking for “adult content”, however, there isn’t much that’s lacking. Around 300,000 apps are on offer, from household names such as Facebook to home-grown stars such as Angry Birds.
The iPad can run almost all iPhone apps, which appear marooned in black space at the native iPhone resolution, or pixel doubled. But you’ll quickly learn to forego these in favour of the dedicated iPad apps.
There’s a whole section of the App Store dedicated to the iPad, and installation is straightforward: within two or three taps the apps are ready and waiting to be used.
It’s an excellent home for reading material, from innovative RSS readers and content aggregators such as Pulse and Flipboard, to digital magazines such as our sister title iGizmo and US digital trendsetter Wired. This marriage between apps, OS and hardware is what sets iOS apart.
Tiny touches
Apple has gone to great lengths to make sure there’s a tremendous physicality to the way elements of the iOS user interface behave: from screen swipes carrying momentum to the beautifully rendered animations, the cumulative effect of all the tiny touches is extremely strong.
Once you’ve used an iPad, the fit and finish of even the best Android tablets – by which we mean the Dell Streak and Samsung Galaxy Tab – seems somewhat lacking.
There are downsides to Apple’s vice-like grip, and the biggest restriction of all is that Apple has complete control over the hardware: only Apple makes iOS devices, so if you want a tablet with a camera you’ll have to look elsewhere.
Likewise, one with a 7in screen. “7in tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with the iPad,” said Jobs in October.
As all Apple customers know, you can expect a new model 12 months on from the current one. And you can expect it to make you feel the existing hardware is obsolete. So it goes.
Just works
In summary, the iPad will probably be far more locked down than any computer you’ve ever used – but it also “just works” in a way that’s unlike any computer you’ve ever used. There are no fans and no hard disks, so it’s silent, and most software loads in an instant. Even the games, which do take a moment longer to appear onscreen, still load far quicker than Xbox or PlayStation rivals.
Apple iOS isn’t the sole future of computing (as some claim), but it’s certainly the best tablet operating system. In part it’s because it’s early days for this market; the brutal truth is that only Apple has created an operating system that’s at home on a tablet. And it shows.
