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LAS VEGAS — Every year at CES, there’s a theme or expectation that quickly becomes codified the moment you step inside the cavernous and often soulless Las Vegas Convention Center. This year, it was clear that everyone and their grandmother was coming out with a tablet PC. Pre-show estimates put the number around 50. Scuttlebutt inside Central Hall here put that figure closer to 80, although an exact count would be a near-Herculean and mind-numbing task.

What is painfully obvious is that many of these tablet makers showing off their wares will be drubbed by giants like Apple, Samsung, Motorola, RIM, and maybe a couple other fortunate ones. For the rest, 2011 is looking to be a gruesome battle of attribution amongst dozens of other companies.

“The market will only bear so much,” said IDC analyst David Daoud before CES kicked off. “It’s going to get pretty ugly as the year goes on.”

And with so many options out there to pick from, it’s going to be up to the manufacturers to separate themselves with unique features, although some are banking on being the budget-priced model of choice for those looking to spend under $500 on an entry-level tablet. Let’s look at show some of the major players of 2011 might be.

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Erik is the editor of Playbook, Wired.com’s sports blog. He’s also the managing editor of Longshot and a contributor to Pop-Up Magazine.
Follow @erikmal and @wiredplaybook on Twitter.

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LAS VEGAS — With dozens of companies looking to gain tablet PC market share away from Apple and Samsung, it’s going to take a special kind of product to succeed, one that offers consumers fast performance and expanded options on the competition. In other words, something that’s not only different but better, in its own way.

RIM’s BlackBerry PlayBook could be that tablet.

To be sure, the PlayBook is no iPad. It’s smaller and more intimate, and while the OS doesn’t compare to Apple’s iOS for usability and intuitiveness, the PlayBook has enough going for it that Apple would be wise to closely watch the tablet industry’s best new entry.

Powering the PlayBook is a dual-core 1-GHz processor with a full gigabyte of RAM, four times more than the iPad, and it’s clear that PlayBook operations, especially when multitasking, are sucking every last drop of juice out of everything running on that 7-inch LCD screen. (Full 1080p videos can keep playing in the background, even as you cycle through other open applications.)

Upon cradling the PlayBook, the first thing you notice is that it’s insanely light. Coming in at 0.4 inches thick and 0.9 pounds, the PlayBook has a featherweight feel without feeling flimsy. There’s the same sort of structural integrity you feel when grasping an iPad, and that’s going to create an immediately positive first impression for many skeptical buyers. And it one-ups Apple on its famous minimalistic design, eschewing any front-facing buttons while integrating its own proprietary OS that’s more similar to WebOS than iOS, as you swipe and gesture your way between categorized panels of apps.

The PlayBook’s camera options and UI are poised to be some of its bigger selling points. While the iPad boasts no built-in camera, the PlayBook has a 3-megapixel front-facing camera and 5-megapixel camera on the back, as well the ability to shoot in 1080p and stream your high-def media out on a Micro HDMI port. And while experienced users will have no problem switching between the front and back cameras, it could be confusing for novices since you have to (on faith) tap a blank area on the lower-right corner to bring up a camera-task button.

Of course, the PlayBook also has full support for not only HTML5 but Flash 10.1, and while it may be a convenience to not be limited in terms of what sites you can visit, pulling up one or two Flash sites proved to be a choppy and (ironically) limiting experience.

But an ultimately bigger problem aside from hunting down phantom buttons could be battery life. RIM reps wouldn’t comment on how much battery life they expect the PlayBook to maintain on a single charge — the product rep I spoke with confirmed it would be “more than a hour” — but considering the iPad can get 10 hours on a single charge with typical usage and that many other tablet makers here at CES are claiming around 6 hours, the PlayBook must be able to get into that 8-hour range to separate itself from the pack.

But PlayBook scores well for its ability to instantly sync up tasks and other functionality with your BlackBerry via Bluetooth, so it’s not just for 3G tethering. And those early adopters that can hold out until summer will be rewarded with a 4G-enabled PlayBook running on Sprint’s network. Considering (at least for the moment) that any iPhone on AT&T or Verizon (unless it’s LTE-enabled) would be limited to 3G data speeds, 4G mobility could wind up being RIM’s biggest short-term ace.

If — and that’s still a big if — RIM can launch its first-gen PlayBook by March and 4G model by summer, we’d have ourselves the makings of an epic tablet war.

Photo: Erik Malinowski/Wired.com

Erik is the editor of Playbook, Wired.com’s sports blog. He’s also the managing editor of Longshot and a contributor to Pop-Up Magazine.
Follow @erikmal and @wiredplaybook on Twitter.

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LAS VEGAS — If 2011 is truly going to usher in the long-awaited Tablet Wars, then Lenovo has just fired the first shot of the year.

The IdeaPad Slate, one of just a few dozen tablet PCs that are expected to be introduced at CES this week, marks a respectable entry into a marketplace poised to see more than 50 million units sold over the coming year. With a 10.1-inch, high-resolution screen that boasts true 1080p HD, the IdeaPad certainly has the visual chops to make it in what is expected to be a heated competition against Samsung, Toshiba, and other PC makers in the fight to counter Apple’s wildly successful iPad.

What may ultimately separate the IdeaPad Slate, for better or for worse, from its closest rivals is its all-in embrace of a truly native Windows 7 OS, rather than, say, Honeycomb, the eagerly awaited Android rev expected to power tablets ranging from Toshiba to Motorola. Lenovo has also customized the user interface so that apps may be separated into distinct “work” and “play” tabbed areas via the homescreen, so those devotees who have embraced Windows’ latest desktop OS and haven’t yet jumped aboard the Android express may ultimately find themselves gravitating toward this sleek Lenovo offering.

And they’d getting a pretty decent tablet for their buck, too. The first-gen IdeaPad Slate will boast a 32GB solid-state drive (expandable through a side-memory card slot), along with 2GB of RAM and built-in 3G connectivity. (No carriers have been locked down as of yet.)

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Running this machine, which boasted a decent response time that would beat out Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, is Intel’s Oak Trail chip set, optimized specifically for tablet PCs. Lenovo reps estimate some six hours of Web browsing on a single charge — still far less than the iPad — and between four and five hours for video playback. No retail price has been announced, but you can wager the IdeaPad Slate will run somewhere around $500, and it should hit stores sometime in late spring.

Indeed, industry experts are expecting the tablet floodgates to open come that timeframe, when many of the tablets that will be unveiled here at CES should start to hit the marketplace. Other early entries include Motion Computing’s rugged CL900, which is geared toward business users with its durable exterior shell, 2.1-pound weight, and sub-$1,000 price point, as well as Asus’ mammoth Eee Slate EP121, complete with 12.1-inch screen, 64-gig solid-state drive, and Intel Core i5 CPU.

Yes, CES has barely begun, but the Year of the Tablet is officially in full swing.

Images: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Erik is the editor of Playbook, Wired.com’s sports blog. He’s also the managing editor of Longshot and a contributor to Pop-Up Magazine.
Follow @erikmal and @wiredplaybook on Twitter.

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LAS VEGAS — Eye-Fi will add a new “Direct Mode” to its Wi-Fi-enabled SD cards, allowing cameras to send photos direct to smart-phones and tablets as they are taken.

Currently it is only possible to beam photos from an Eye-Fi filled camera to, say, an iPad with a rather clunky chain of tools. First, you need a pre-existing Wi-Fi network for both camera and iPad to connect to. Then you need the nifty but tricky to set up Shutter Snitch app for the iPad. Then you have to cross your fingers and hope.

Eye-Fi’s Direct Mode turns the card itself into a Wi-Fi access-point, to which you connect your phone. An update to Eye-Fi’s iOS apps will then let them receive photos direct. From there you can upload them, or process them with apps like Instagram. All the existing Eye-Fi functions – direct uploads from the camera, for example – will also still work.

Direct Mode will come as a free firmware update “later in 2011″, and will work with any X2 Eye-Fi cards.

Direct Mode press release [Eye-Fi]

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2011 is shaping up to be a big year for tablets at the Consumer Electronics Show, and TV maker Vizio will be part of the touchscreen scene.

Attempting to beat the onslaught of product releases to come this week on the convention floor, Vizio announced the debut of its soVIA Tablet and VIA Phone, both of which will run on the Android OS.

As to whether the devices will run Froyo, Gingerbread, or another version of Android, Vizio isn’t saying. Both devices will, however, be running the VIA Plus skin, a new app platform debuting with the VIA models.

The specs on the VIA Phone sound enticing. The VIA Phone boasts a 1-GHz processor (manufacturer as yet to be named), 4-inch capacitive touch screen and HDMI output with HD video playback. There’s a front-facing camera to make video chats possible, while the 5-megapixel rear camera allows for photos and HD video capture.

As for the VIA Tablet, it’s got most of what the phone has: a 1-GHz processor, an HDMI output and a MicroSD card slot for memory expansion. The capacitive touch screen measures in at 8 inches slightly smaller than that of the 9.7-inch iPad.

But the real competitive advantage may end up in the price points.

There is a huge gap in the market for people who cant afford the iPad or whatever else,Vizio CTO Matthew McRae told Bloomberg. The company hasn’t announced what the VIA Phone or Tablet will cost as of yet, but according to Bloomberg, McRae says that the products will be “very aggressively priced.”

In addition to Vizio, several key manufacturers, including Toshiba, LG and MSI, are expected to unveil tablet devices at this week’s show. Stay tuned on Gadget Lab for live coverage from the CES show floor.

See Also:

• Vizios Wireless TV Connects to the Web Through New Widget Stream
• Vizio Gives Up on Plasma TVs

Photo courtesy Vizio

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This week Brian X. Chen and I get all giddy and excited about the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, aka CES.

CES is a weeklong preview of what kinds of gadgets you’ll see in 2011. We’ll be there from January 4-9, blogging right here on Gadget Lab.

Tablets are likely to big at CES this year, just as they were in 2010. But in 2011, we think manufacturers’ promises might even come true.

LG, MSI, Motorola and Toshiba are all rumored to be releasing tablets. HP, which acquired Palm earlier this year, is also planning to release a webOS-based tablet in the coming year — but we’re not expecting to see it at CES.

Intel and AMD are both working on next-generation processors, including Intel’s “Sandy Bridge” CPUs and AMD’s “Fusion” line of chips that combine CPU capabilities and graphics processing in a single package. What’s that mean for you? Lower power, longer-lasting netbooks and tablets.

Look for dual-core smartphones to boost the processing power in your pocket, largely on the basis of Nvidia’s Tegra processor.

There will be lots of 3-D televisions at the show, but what we’re more excited about is the advent of more 3-D cameras and camcorders, like one that Fujifilm introduced in 2010. If you could actually make your own 3-D pictures and movies easily, you might have a reason to buy 3-D displays like the Nintendo 3DS or — who knows? — any one of the increasing number of 3-D TVs.

Like the show? You can also get theGadget Lab video podcast on iTunes, or if you dont want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out theGadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Labvideo oraudio podcast feeds

Or listen to the audio: Gadget Lab audio podcast #98 (.mp3 or .ogg)

An award-winning writer specializing in technology, science and business, Dylan Tweney is a senior editor at Wired.com and publisher of tinywords, the world’s smallest magazine.
Follow @dylan20 and @gadgetlab on Twitter.

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Microsoft plans to introduce a special version of Windows for low-powered mobile devices like tablets at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show, according to multiple reports.

The Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg claim to have both heard that Microsoft will discuss a version of Windows that supports mobile ARM chips and other low-power processors. WSJ adds that the new Windows OS isn’t expected to be available for two years.

My instant reaction to these reports: WTF?

Microsoft already has a new version of Windows designed for mobile devices: Windows Phone 7. The company hired new executives, spent million of dollars on development facilities, rethought its entire mobile strategy and took an entire year to whip up a touch-friendly mobile OS from scratch.

In terms of power and features, Windows Phone 7 hasn’t caught up with Android or iOS yet, but it’s a solid start. It’s certainly more fit for tabletization than the desktop Windows. There are many reasons why Windows 7-based tablets make no sense.

Windows Phone 7 is also light years ahead of Microsoft’s previous mobile OS, Windows Mobile, to say nothing of Windows CE, Microsoft’s first mobile OS, which lives on as an “embedded” OS powering hospital devices, manufacturing equipment, point-of-sale devices, and the like.

So why in the world would Microsoft throw more money and talent at a new mobile version of Windows when it’s already made great progress on a newer, better one?

I like the well-informed Mary Jo Foley’s skeptical interpretation of the news. She thinks that Microsoft will announce a new version of Windows Embedded Compact, a trimmed-down version of Windows CE made especially for enterprise devices. That OS, which is currently in beta, already runs on ARM, and might make a suitable platform for Windows-powered tablets, especially the kind attached to your UPS driver’s barcode scanner.

Among other points,Jo Foley notes that the timing is right, and that Microsoft announced tablet partners earlier this year who are already in the business of making Windows Embedded Compact devices.

That outcome would make a lot more sense to me, and if Jo Foley’s right, Microsoft’s “tablet” news won’t be as exciting for the average gadget geek aching for a Microsoft-powered iPad competitor (unless you have a urinary tract disorder).

Photo of Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer at CES 2010: Jon Snyder/Wired.com

Brian is a Wired.com technology reporter focusing on Apple and Microsoft. He’s also writing a book about the always-connected mobile future called Always On (publishing April 2011 by Da Capo).
Follow @bxchen and @gadgetlab on Twitter.

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HP has quietly put together a full slate of WebOS-powered palmPad tablet PCs that will be unveiled at the upcoming Consumer Electronics Show, according to a report from FoxNews.com.

HP did not immediately return Wired’s call.

We’re expecting tablet-centric announcements from such tech giants as Microsoft, Samsung, and Motorola, but HP’s presence in Vegas could potentially throw the entire proceedings on its collective ear. HP spent $1.2 billion to acquire struggling mobile computing pioneer Palm earlier this year, and speculation has run rampant that the computer giant plans to use PalmOS not just for smartphones, but for a new tablet device.

With tablet sales projected to approach 20 million this year and exceed 50 million in 2011, there’ll be no shortage of jockeying for market position at the trade show. Competition for eyeballs is expected to ruthless.

If the documents cited by FoxNews.com are accurate, then the palmPad will initially launch with three base models, with a fourth (geared toward university students) scheduled to launch around the third quarter of next year.

Any sort of palmPad momentum heading into 2011 would be a boon for the Palo Alto-based company, which had already put its HP Slate on life support when it acquired Palm in late April, setting off speculation that Palm’s WebOS for smartphones might be adapted and ported over to a new HP-branded tablet, whether that be a “Slate” or some next-gen model.

Now it appears that HP has taken those original Slate specs and updated them for a new palmPad-branded platform. It’s primed to run on WebOS version 2.5.1. In addition, there’ll also be dual cameras (sporting 1.3 and 3-megapixel resolution) with LED flashes, according to the report.

Few other details were revealed, but what we’d most like to know is what processor it’ll use (likely Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset), exactly how large the screen will be (though it should be comparable to the iPad’s 9.7-inch display), and what the storage capacity will look like across the different three models.

Whether the palmPad debuts at CES or not, anything resembling a successful launch in early 2011 would present HP with a decent chance to make up ground on Samsung, which has sold more than 1 million Galaxy Tabs less than two months after its October launch.

Both would be far behind tablet leader Apple, which sold roughly 4 million iPads in the most recent quarter alone, and may have sold as many as 28 million of the devices by the time 2011 ends.

Image: FoxNews.com

Erik edits Wired.com’s Playbook blog, which focuses on the Wired world of sports, from baseball to BMX and everything in between.
Follow @erikmal and @wiredplaybook on Twitter.

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ShutterSnitch, the iPad app that lets you beam photographs directly from your camera to your iPad, has been updated to version 2, and it adds a whole lot of really neat new features.

First – what ShutterSnitch won’t do: unless you jailbreak your iPad to let it create its own ad-hoc Wi-Fi network, ShutterSnitch requires either a router or a computer to create that network. If you have a battery-powered Mi-Fi, that will work just fine.

So, what’s new? Rob Galbraith, photographer, blogger and gear-head, has been testing v2.0 for some time, and has a detailed run-down on every new aspect. The first big changes are speed and stability: instead of crashing, you can now pump big files into the app, as fast as you like, and it will keep on going. Your collections can be a lot bigger, too: ShutterSnitch will let you put thousands of images together without bogging down.

But you’re here for the new gimmicks, right? Now you can enjoy full-resolution zooms and support for RAW files (although remember this works over Wi-Fi, so those big files will be slow to transfer). There is support for simple metadata, including geotagging (this grabs the location from your iPad and embeds it into the photo.)

But best of all are Actions. You can automate what happens to the photos when they arrive, adding metadata, saving a copy to the photo-roll and even exporting, sending photos to Flickr, Facebook or an FTP server. And there are plenty of other tweaks, too, including slideshows and external-display support.

To use ShutterSnitch, you’ll also need a way to send the photos. The easiest way is with an Eye-Fi SD-card, which turns any camera into a wireless photo-transmitter. If you have a transmitter for your SLR, one of Canon or Nikon’s units, for example, those work too.

ShutterSnitch 2 is in the App Store approval tubes right now, and should hit any day soon. The update will be free for ShutterSnitch 1.x owners, and $8 to buy new. The price will go up to $20 early in the new year.

A first look at ShutterSnitch 2.0 for the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch [Rob Galbraith]

ShutterSnitch app [iTunes]

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In this week’s episode of the Gadget Lab podcast, Dylan Tweney and I analyze Google’s Chrome OS notebook and the idea of a Windows 7 tablet while giving a sneak peek of an awesome new iPad game.

Dylan shows off Google’s stealthy blackCR-48 notebook. The Chrome OS operating system, which is based on a browser, is fast and pretty capable, but Dylan couldn’t get a full day’s work done thanks to his need for Firefox. On the hardware side, the keyboard’s pretty nice, but the trackpad is clunky. Keep in mind, however, that this is a pilot device, so it’s not like you’re going to buy one.

I talk smack about a rumor that Microsoft is planning to yet again announce a Windows 7 tablet at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show. Why am I so pessimistic? Because this has been done over and over again, and Windows tablet PCs have constantly failed. Microsoft would be better off scaling up the new Windows Phone 7 OS to run on a tablet, but it’s unlikely we’ll see that happening next year because the phone platform is just getting started.

On to more fun news, I show off the new iPad version of Pocket God, a game that was a huge hit on the iPhone. You play the role of God, messing around with little creatures called Pygmies by manipulating their environment with your fingers. The iPad version, called A Journey to Uranus, just came out today. It’s even better because you get an entire universe to screw around with the Pygmies on different planets.

Like the show? You can also get theGadget Lab video podcast via iTunes, or if you dont want to be distracted by our unholy on-camera talent, check out theGadget Lab audio podcast. Prefer RSS? You can subscribe to the Gadget Labvideo oraudio podcast feeds

Or listen to the audio here:

Gadget Lab audio podcast #97

Brian is a Wired.com technology reporter focusing on Apple and Microsoft. He’s also writing a book about the always-connected mobile future called Always On (publishing April 2011 by Da Capo).
Follow @bxchen and @gadgetlab on Twitter.

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Word on the street is that Microsoft plans to announce a Windows-powered iPad contender at next month’s Consumer Electronics Show.

We’ve seen this movie before.

Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer waved around a Hewlett-Packard “slate” running Windows 7 at CES 2010. HP later hyped up the device with specifications and a possible price tag, and then killed it before it even shipped.

So it’s a bit like dja vu reading in The New York Times that Ballmer is taking the stage to talk slates again. Mind you, this time he’s going to show off not just one Windows 7 slate, but several, according to NYT’s Nick Bilton.

But increasing the device count isn’t going to make a Windows 7 slate any better. Here are seven reasons buying a Windows 7 slate would be a bad idea.

Windows is not for fingers

Windows 7 is designed for desktop computing, not multitouch tablets. Dragging around windows to switch between applications is not the kind of thing you’d do on a tablet; it’s why we use keyboards and mice.

At CES 2010 there were a few pilot tablets running Windows 7. They were difficult to use because the Windows 7 interface on a tablet was an ergonomic nightmare. Scrolling was laggy, and some devices we tested even froze while we were shooting video demonstrating the products.

Even with a touch-friendly skin on top, there are still going to be times when you wish you had a mouse — like when a dialog box pops up that hasn’t been optimized for touch, and its control buttons are too tiny for your fat digits.

Windows is too bloated for mobile devices

Windows 7 is a big improvement from Vista and XP, but it’s still got a lot of the same Windows headaches. Plug in a peripheral, for example, and Windows 7 has to search a sluggish database for a device driver. The idea behind a mobile device is that you’re on the go and you need apps that keep in pace with your movement, and Windows just isn’t optimized for that.

On top of that, the power management is not designed for an always-on, carry-everywhere-you-go experience. For a tablet competitive with the iPad you need an OS with extremely fast boot times that can run on low power for epically long hours; Windows 7 has neither of those features. (The iPad, for instance, has a standby battery life of 30 days.)

There will be too many unpredictable variations

Microsoft’s M.O. with Windows is to license the OS to any manufacturer that wants it, and the OEMs ship Windows notebooks with their own custom software (aka bloatware). There are a thousand different variations on keyboards, controls, aspect ratios and more. The same would happen with tablets. By contrast, Android and iOS have more-or-less predictable hardware, something that Microsoft itself recognized was important in Windows Phone 7, its mobile OS.

You’ll have to maintain it like a Windows machine

Windows has always been a prime target for the authors of viruses and botnets because of its gigantic userbase. On a Windows 7 tablet you’d have to install anti-virus software, which would inevitably affect battery life and overall performance.

Then you’d probably want to install memory optimizing utilities, a better disk defragmenter, and maybe a registry cleaner. After a year it would start slowing down like Windows machines always do, and you’d have to do a clean install of the OS.

In short, a Windows tablet would give PC users lots of flexibility — but it would be antithetical to the experience of an easy-to-use consumer device that you don’t have to maintain.

Brian is a Wired.com technology reporter focusing on Apple and Microsoft. He’s also writing a book about the always-connected mobile future called Always On (publishing April 2011 by Da Capo).
Follow @bxchen and @gadgetlab on Twitter.

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Samsung’s 7-inch tablet isn’t “dead on arrival” after all. In fact, Samsung has sold over a million of them in less than two months.

Released in mid-October, the Galaxy Tab is the first serious contender to Apple’s iPad. It sports a 7-inch touchscreen and runs a modified version of Google’s Android operating system.

“I can confirm 1M Galaxy Tabs sold globally,” a Samsung spokeswoman said in an e-mail statement.

Holy moley. That’s not too far away from the iPad, which sold 1 million units in just 28 days.And it’s a number that should have Steve Jobs eating his hat after he ruthlessly derided 7-inch tablets during a recent earnings call.

“7-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with the iPad, Jobs said. “These are among the reasons that the current crop of 7-inch tablets are going to be DOA dead on arrival.

So much for that.

The Galaxy Tab’s hot sales show that the tablet category has plenty of room for competition and growth. 2010 was truly the year the tablet became mainstream after several flops in the past, thanks to the success of the iPad.

Photo: Jim Merithew/Wired.com

Brian is a Wired.com technology reporter focusing on Apple and Microsoft. He’s also writing a book about the always-connected mobile future called Always On (publishing April 2011 by Da Capo).
Follow @bxchen and @gadgetlab on Twitter.

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Over in the UK, something is happening that will bring cheer to the miserable, heavily-drinking denizens of that gray, cold land: Competition. To be precise, competition in iPad plans.

3G operator “3″ has entered the iPad subsidy game, going squarely up against Orange, which announced its own plans earlier this week. The prices for the iPad itself are the same as Orange is asking – 200, 250 and 350 for the 16, 32 and 64GB models. The difference is in the data plans. 3 offers a massive 15GB per month, or around 500MB per day. To get these prices, you’ll need to sign a two-year contract.

When I’m not trapped in my elevator-free apartment, my iPad is in constant use on my own 3G data plan. Even then, I have never come close to hitting the 2GB cap. So unless you watch a lot of streamed video, 15GB may as well be unlimited.

This is what happens when you have a lot of equally good operators all chasing the same customers. In the US, a Verizon iPhone can’t come fast enough.

iPad Plans on 3 [3 via Pocket Lint]

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Year-over-year smartphone sales are up 98% worldwide. Over 80 million of the over 400 million handsets sold in the third quarter were smartphones.

The sheer growth of the global market and the meteoric rise of Android means that hardware and software companies who once dominated this market can ship tens of millions additional units and still lose share, in some cases by double digits.

Smartphone OS providers have entered a period of accelerated platform evolution, stimulated by more regular product releases, new platform entrants and new device types, said Gartner analyst Roberta Cozza. Any platform that fails to innovate quickly either through a vibrant multi-player ecosystem or clear vision of a single controlling entity will lose developers, manufacturers, potential partners and ultimately users.

Market share and unit numbers don’t tell us everything, even how profitable a mobile company has become. But they do reveal an evolving space.

Customers in North America, Western Europe, and East Asia — what Gartner’s report calls “mature markets” — are gravitating towards full-featured, name-brand, consumer-oriented smartphones. This seems to be partly a function of wider 3G data capability, greater hardware and software choices, and especially lower prices. Gartner’s report singles out ZTE’s sub-100 Android phone with the UK’s Orange carrier. Smartphones can be burners now.

Meanwhile, generic manufacturers are cranking out handsets for developing markets in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Growth in non-3G mobiles isn’t as sharp as smartphones in terms of percentages, but the global distribution is radically different.

This growth on either side squeezes out name-brand midlist feature phones — Gartner’s report singles out LG — who can’t command the prices or share they used to hold through carrier sales in Europe, Asia and North America.

The report closes by predicting that the growth of the media tablet market (projected sales of 54.8 million units) will begin to affect smartphone sales, attracting consumer dollars and developer attention away from some platforms and towards others — especially Apple’s iOS.

It’s a sharp reminder that companies with forthcoming tablets like Samsung or RIM/Blackberry aren’t simply trying to open up new growth areas or slow iPad purchases. These companies need to offer tablets in order to protect their customer and developer relationships in their core businesses — multimedia entertainment for Samsung, smartphones for RIM.

“Apple’s dramatic expansion of iOS with the iPad and the continuing success of the iPod Touch are important sales achievements in their own right,” said Carolina Milanesi. “But more importantly they contribute to the strength of Apple’s ecosystem and the iPhone in a way that smartphone-only manufacturers cannot compete with.

Gartner Says Worldwide Mobile Phone Sales Grew 35 Percent in Third Quarter 2010; Smartphone Sales Increased 96 Percent [Press Release]

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Yes, the iBend is yet another iPad stand, but this one is truly remarkable. Weighing in at around the same a sheet of card, and just about as thin, the iBend gains rigidity when it is bent into a curve.

The plastic iBendXL (the smaller iBend is for the iPhone) sips flat. You pull it out and bend it, producing two hooks at the front which grab the bottom edge of the iPad and a gentle curve at the back which creates a flat rest for the iPad to lean on. It reminds me of the fascinating models and diagrams in my old math classroom which showed variously truncated cones, cut by flat planes at different angles.

The iBendXL costs $10, and the smaller iBend is $5. Both are slim enough to be slipped betwixt the iDevice and whatever case contains it, and should be tough enough to last a good long time. What this stand really suggest, though, is a DIY project. I doubt the iBend folks are going to put up a printable PDF template anytime soon, but a rainy afternoon spent with some scissors, card and a French curve should get you pretty close. Available now, in plain colors or in fancy arted-up designs.

iBend product page [iBend. Thanks, Rishi!]

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The 3Feet is an almost-indestructible, over-engineered plastic stand for pretty much any tablet or smartphone that needs a one. I tried one out, and found that maybe the best thing about it isn’t the capable range of tablet-cosseting features, but the fact that you can tinker and play with it for minutes on end.

The stand consists of five separate parts, all of which slot together with various deviously-conceived hingeing mechanisms. Thankfully, it comes pre-assembled, otherwise you’d likely mistake it for an impossible-to-solve puzzle and spend hours trying to put it together. In use, though, the 3Feet is very simple. You pull a tab on the back (marked “pull”) and it opens up into an A-frame, much like a tiny easel. Slots and rods molded into the plastic fit together to allow two angles, and a little lugged shelf folds down from the front to grab the bottom edge of the tablet.

This fold-open lip is oversized for the iPad, which means you can easily use it even whilst in a case (there is also a hole through which the charging cable can pass). It also means you’re not limited to the iPad: you can drop in pretty much anything, from a cellphone to a Kindle. The stand is sturdy enough to keep even the relatively heavy iPad safe in both portrait and landscape orientations.

The stability is helped by rubber bands made from silicone, which stop it sliding across the desk and also keep the happy tablet scratch-free (although the plastic stand probably wouldn’t damage much anyway).

The final trick is in a little kick-stand which flips out from the back when the main “leg” is folded flat. It is small, but somehow manages to both hold the stand at the right angle for on-screen typing, and also be sturdy enough to keep the iPad steady.

There’s not much to criticize about the 3Feet stand. It is light enough and compact enough that you can toss it in a bag and forget about it, and it’s even dishwasher-safe. And the complex folding design means you probably won’t be able to stop playing and fiddling with the thing. Hell, it’s even cheap, at just $15, and comes in a wide range of (interchangeable) colors.

The only thing that might put you off is the looks. This is a product for which the term “utilitarian” was invented. That’s not to say it is ugly, or even that the appearance hasn’t been considered. I can’t quite put my finger on it, but somehow it reminds me of medical devices, or perhaps even the toys of my childhood, which tended to be chunky and long-lasting rather than stylish and short-lived.

Or maybe I’m just seduced by the fact that this makes the ultimate executive stress-toy, something to keep your hands and brain busy when you should be working. Available now, from Amazon.

3Feet product page [3Feet. Thanks, Steve!]

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“Beautiful Modeler” is a pair of applications that lets you sculpt virtual modeling-clay with your fingers, thanks to the iPad’s multi-touch capabilities.

The iPad itself is the controller, and displays nothing but five dots that represent your fingertips. A companion app, running on a nearby Mac on the same Wi-Fi network, shows the actual model on-screen. By moving your fingers around, you can squish and shape the malleable chunk of virtual Play Doh in real time, pushing and pulling it until you have the shape you want. You can also turn and flip the on-screen object by turning and flipping the iPad, thanks to its accelerometers. This is the reason the lump is shown elsewhere, and not on the iPad’s own display – it’s hard to see the screen when it is facing away from you.

The apps, from Karl D.D. Willis, will output the results in Standard Template Library (STL) format and can be passed direct to a 3D printer to turn your virtual object into a real one. You can even choose to output a negative version of your shape. In the video, Willis uses this to make a lamp. In reality, you could print a negative mold and then cast your object in any material you like.

If you fancy taking a crack at this cyber-pottery, you can grab the source code from Willis project page and compile it yourself. You’ll need an iOS developer account to actually load it onto your iPad, but if you’re nerdy enough to have a 3D printer around, that shouldn’t be a problem, right?

Beautiful Modeler [Interactive Fabrication via I.Materialise. Thanks, Joris!]

Photo: Karl D.D. Willis

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Archos announced it was working on Android-based multimedia tablets in lots of form factors long before the iPad got everyone tablet-crazy. This week, the company began shipping its 4.3-inch and 7-inch models to customers in the US and Europe, while some Europeans may have gotten their 10.1-inch units early.

The Archos 43 is straightforward: 4.3″ FWVGA screen (480×854 pixels), Android 2.2 OS with an Archos skin, 1GHz ARM processor and 16 GB of flash memory for $250. (The tech specs say it also comes in an 8GB version, but that’s not an option now at the Archos store.)

The Archos 70 is a little more interesting, if only because it’s actually slightly more retro. It’s got the same guts as the 43, but a slightly lower-resolution screen (800 by 480) and a 250 GB hard drive (the kind that spins) option that’s forthcoming for $350. (Right now, only the 8GB flash model for $280 is available — which doesn’t seem like so much of an upgrade over the 43, with fewer pixels and less memory.)

Archos also has a 2.8-inch Froyo PMP for $100 — a nice little iPod Touch/Nano replacement — but most of its Android units are still officially unavailable. The 10.1-inch version was briefly reported to be shipping in Europe, but has since either been pulled or sold out. There’s also a 3.2-inch PMP with a video camera that’s still on the way.

That 250 GB hard drive reminds me that most of the companies releasing Android tablets now have been developing them for years — long enough that they were never really designed to compete with the iPad, but the iPod Classic and iPod Touch. It’s as if the iPhone’s touchscreen created an evolutionary fork in media players, with the slim, oversized iPad going one way and the square, high-capacity Archos 70 going another.

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It’s nearly impossible for Sony to create a Playstation or PSP phone offering the same controls and same games as either device. Instead, Sony seems to be pushing for a different kind of mobile gaming altogether, using tablets and phones as the hardware for a new casual gaming platform.

“Mobile gaming is a very important business area for us,” said Sony’s chief financial officer Masaru Kato, according to a transcription of an earnings call provided by Seeking Alpha. “We started out with the PSP that was our first mobile gaming console, but since then the market as you know has expanded into bigger arenas; gaming on mobile phones, gaming on tablets and on certain mobile devices.

“The PSP being a proprietary platform was more concentrated I’d say on the core gaming segment than the light game, but now we are addressing that market as well,” Kato added. “I can not be specific as to how we will introduce new product to address these markets, but one thing I can say is that we have those markets addressed and we will come out with products and services to capture the broader gaming market.”

A transcription by Engadget adds the following: “As for the tablet … obviously as a mobile strategy, this occupies a very important position. On one hand there is PC, and on the other hand there is joint venture with Ericsson on smartphone and for the games devices. And tablets fall somewhere in between.

“It is true Apple has led the market, but when we are to enter the market we would like to put a Sony character onto a new product – and that is the effort we are making right now. Therefore I think you can hope for a very good product to come out.”

Engadget read this mostly as a quasi-confirmation of the purported Playstation Phone photos they leaked last week — which was then denied, then not quite denied, then ignored — but I come away from the call with something quite different.

The PSP is, as Kato says, a dedicated mobile device for core gamers. It’s not a phone replacement. The PSP/Playstation’s analog sticks will never slide underneath a mobile phone’s screen without making the device incredibly thick; Sony can replace them with a touchpad, but then it’s really a derivative experience.

On the other hand, smartphones and tablets open devices up to all sorts of hardware possibilities that the current PSP doesn’t have: accelerometers and gyroscopes, 3G networking, etc.

This is the market Apple’s dominating in mobile, that Nintendo opened up on the console, and that Microsoft is trying to enter by bringing Xbox Live games to Windows Phone 7.

It’s a natural move for Sony: why make an Ericsson Android gaming smartphone that wedges the six-year-old PSP platform inside it when you can make Android gaming smartphones, feature phones and tablets that bring something new (for Sony) and competitive (with Apple and Microsoft) to the market?

If we’re getting wild with it, as long as we’re talking Android, why not bring a similar game platform as applications for Sony’s products on Google TV? Sony games without having to buy a Sony box — which might explain that giant controller.

There will always be a market for dedicated mobile gaming, which is why the PSP will continue to develop and add features and compete with Nintendo. But in mobile, the market for casual gaming is larger by orders of magnitude. Sony has all of the tools to reach that space and offer something both competitive and compelling.

PS Phone: Sony admits “new product” [Eurogamer]

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It’s been a long, long time coming, but OnOne has finally gotten around to making an iPad version of its handy DSLR Camera Remote for the iPad. The app, previously available for the iPhone and iPod touch, allows you to remote-view what your SLR sees on the iPad’s screen, and also control most aspects of the camera therefrom.

Actually, you’ll have to wait a little longer for the imaginatively-named DSLR Camera Remote HD to hit – it’s due late November, but that does’t stop me getting excited. The iPad’s jumbo display is the reason: the iPhone’s screen isn’t much bigger than that of a modern-day SLR, so it made little more than a fancy, if useful, remote. Now you can preview and compose your shots on the iPad’s big screen, which opens up many more opportunities. Hell, in the studio, where portability isn’t a big deal, you might even use this right next to the camera just for that big preview.

Sadly, DSLR Remote still can’t fire the camera directly. You need to tether it to a computer running the companion server app. From there, you can peek your camera’s live-view, adjust exposure, focus and even use the iPad as an intervalometer for those time-lapse sequences you’ve always wanted to do.

There are some new features for the iPad version, too. You can now use gestures to pan and zoom the image for closer inspection, and also choose to save a low-res version of the picture to the iPad’s camera-roll. Finally, you will b able to shoot video and even monitor it with compatible cameras. The iPhone version will also get these additions in the next update.

Sounds great, right? You may want to sit down. The iPad app will cost you $50. The update to the iPhone app is free ($20 to buy new), but you’ll have to pay another $10 in-app to get the video-shooting functionality. Canon and Nikon only.

DSLR Camera Remote HD [OnOne via Rob Galbraith]

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It’s the year of the tablets as electronics makers rush to get one of the hottest gadgets of the year into the hands of users. Acer is the latest to announce it will launch a new line of tablets.

The devices will be introduced in New York on November 23 and will be priced ranging from $300 to $700, according to a Dow Jones Newswires report.

Acer tablets will join a crowded and extremely competitive market. Since the launch of the Apple iPad in April, most major electronics makers have announced their own devices to take on the iPad. So far, Apple has sold more than 4.3 million iPads.

In June, Dell launched a 5-inch tablet called Streak, while Samsung recently debuted a 7-inch device called the Galaxy Tab. Meanwhile, BlackBerry maker Research in Motion’s tablet Playbook is expected to hit stores next year.

Separately, T-Mobile has said it will offer the Samsung Galaxy Tab for $400 (after a rebate) and with a two-year service agreement.It is similar to Sprint’s pricing for the device. Verizon has said it will sell the Galaxy Tab for $600 without a contract.

Acer might try to ink a similar deal but it will have to do more in terms of product features to stand out. Acer hasn’t said if the new tablets will be based on Windows or Android OS.

But one thing’s likely–Acer is going to find it hard to see the same kind of success in the tablet market that it has with netbooks.

Photo: Acer Aspire in slate form (arabani/Flickr)

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Maybe Flash on a tablet isn’t as bad as Steve Jobs says it is. That’s what Adobe and Research In Motion want you to think after watching the video below.

Taped at Adobe’s MAX conference this week, the segment shows the BlackBerry PlayBook running media apps coded in Adobe Air, which is based partly on Flash. The video also shows YouTube.com playing a video with Flash 10.1 player.

“We’re not trying to dumb down the internet for a small mobile device,” says Mike Lazaridis, RIM’S CEO, during the PlayBook demonstration. “What we’re trying to do is bring up the performance and capability of the mobile device to the internet.”

Though there is no mention of Apple in the video, the comments about dumbing down the internet appear to target the iPad, which does not support Flash. In a famous blog post published April, Apple CEO Jobs explained why Apple was leaving Flash out of its mobile operating system, citing issues such as application crashes and battery drain. Later, when Flash debuted on the Android OS, some independent tests found that Flash was causing crashes on Android devices and that performance was sluggish, but battery drain was not significant.

The BlackBerry PlayBook will be shipping early next year. RIM has not announced a price.

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Apple is turning the physical switch on the iPad into a mute button whether you like it or not, according to a purported e-mail sent by Steve Jobs.

The switch on the iPad currently locks or unlocks screen orientation on the device, but in beta versions of the next iOS update (4.2), it instead mutes or unmutes audio, just like the switch does on the iPhone.

An iPadcustomer claims he sent Jobs an e-mail asking whether the switch could be optionally set to lock screen orientation rather than mute audio, and the CEO replied, “Nope.”

Well, that stinks. From my testing of iOS 4.2 beta on an iPad, I’m not a fan of the change, nor are many others I’ve spoken to. The button to decrease volume already mutes the iPad if you hold it down, so why do we need a switch to do the same thing?

Photo: Bryan Derballa/Wired.com

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Samsung’s Galaxy Tab, one of the first tablets to contend with the iPad, is getting multiple price tags.

Samsung on Monday confirmed that Sprint will sell the 7-inch Galaxy Tab for $400 with a two-year contract. Incidentally, a leaked Best Buy brochure hints that the retailer will sell a Wi-Fi-only Galaxy Tab for $500.And last week, Verizon said it would offer a contract-free version of the Galaxy Tab for $600. The Galaxy Tab goes on sale mid-November.

At first glance, these prices seem competitive with Apple’s iPad, but they’re not that impressive.Sprint’s pricing for the Galaxy Tab is a raw deal: It will cost you $400, but you’ll pay at least an additional $720 over the two-year contract. (Apple’s 3G iPad is contract-free, so you can activate cellular data whenever you need to use it, and opt out when you don’t.)

Verizon’s $600, contract-free Galaxy Tab and Best Buy’s $500 Wi-Fi appear to match the pricing of the iPad. (The iPad costs$500 for its Wi-Fi only model, and the 3G model starts at $630 without a contract.) However,the iPad has a bigger screen and more apps.

The pricing of the Galaxy Tab only proves Steve Jobs’ point. Apple’s CEO said in an earnings call last week that other manufacturers were having difficulty producing tablets at a competitive price with the iPad.

Jobs also pronounced 7-inch tablets “dead on arrival,” arguing that their screen size was too small for a good touchscreen software experience. However, that’s up for debate; we’ll have to wait to see the consensus when the Galaxy Tab finally ships in November.

Photo courtesy of Samsung

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7-inch tablets may have drawn Steve Jobs’ contempt, but they could be a very good thing for consumers.

During Apple’s earnings call yesterday, Apple’s CEO argued forcefully that a 7-inch Android tablet could never compete with Apple’s nearly 10-inch iPad.

7-inch tablets are tweeners: too big to compete with a smartphone and too small to compete with the iPad, Jobs said, in an extended thrashing of Apple’s competitors. These are among the reasons that the current crop of 7-inch tablets are going to be DOA dead on arrival.

What I don’t understand is why that’s necessarily a bad thing for Android or tablet-makers.

If Jobs is right that the 7-inch tablets won’t be able to beat Apple’s iPad on price, that could indeed be a deal-breaker. But the pricing we have seen on smaller Android tablets suggests that they’ll be at least $100 cheaper than the current entry-level iPad, even without a data plan. If they’re sold with data plans and carrier subsidies like smartphones, they could be even cheaper than that.

Lower cost isn’t the only appeal of going small. 7-inch tablets are lighter than 10-inch devices. They’re infinitely easier to hold in one hand. They’re easier to type on with two hands (particularly if you have small hands). They fit into smaller bags. And you use them to do different things.

Really, a 7-inch tablet is closer to an e-reader, a personal media player or a handheld gaming device than the iPad is. It’s no coincidence that most e-readers, such as the Kindle and Sony Reader Daily Edition, have 6- or 7-inch screens: That’s about the size of a paperback book.

More…

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