Do you have a pen? — State of Play
Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer demonstrated the HP tablet last night at CES.
At Microsoft’s opening keynote for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Ballmer unveiling a slate device that was “something that’s almost as portable as a phone and that’s as powerful as a PC running Windows 7.”
The HP tablet is a basically a color e-reader running Amazon Kindle software, with few other details besides a sub-$500 price point and an estimated arrival on the market by mid-2010.
Three slate devices were presented by Ballmer. Microsoft’s CEO also briefly showed off one from Archos and a larger-screen slate from Pegatron, for reading newspapers and magazines.
While many assume the HP tablet will be using an Atom processor and Windows 7, Ballmer didn’t specifically confirm that. Many new e-Readers are using a 1 GHz Snapdragon processor so perhaps a Windows Mobile 7 mobile device running a e-book readers like the Kindle might be a possibility.
Other e-readers are committed to using Qualcomm’s Snapdragon. But Microsoft would then be competing against “free” – the Android OS – and the much larger Android Marketplace. Not to mention Apple’s App Store.
Ballmer also announced:
- New Windows Mobile 6.5 phones, including the HTC HD2, in partnership with T-Mobile USA and HTC. That phone will be based on Toshiba’s Snapdragon processor running at 1GHz.
- Microsoft Mediaroom 2.0, the next version of its Internet Protocol Television solution for service providers. It provides the ability to stream live and on-demand content to the TV but also devices such as PCs and phones with the same on-demand experience on the PC with Windows Media Center in Windows 7.
- A preview of Halo Reach, continuing the Halo X-Box line and a preview of the work behind “Project Natal,” the controller-free gaming experience that tracks movement of the body and facial expressions, and even responds to your voice.
Ballmer said that Xbox 360 is nearing 40 million units shipped worldwide. Since its debut in 2001, the popular Xbox platform has helped sell 500 million games, equal to about $20 billion in retail sales, he said.
Elsewhere at the show yesterday, Qualcomm announced the launch of another smartbook based on its Snapdragon platform, in partnership with HP. Qualcomm didn’t say when the HP Android smartbook will be available.
Dow Jones Newswires reports that the smartbook will be based on Google’s Android platform and will be positioned as an alternative to traditional Windows/Intel-powered netbooks. Qualcomm announced a similar deal with laptop-maker Lenovo earlier in the week. Qualcomm’s Snapdragon combines a processor developed by ARM with cellular baseband circuitry and other features. Other ARM licensees talking up smartbooks in Las Vegas this week include Freescale and Nvidia.
A few days ago Freescale Semiconducter and Pegatron announced a reference design for a netbook with an ARM-based processor that could be sold for as little as $199. Based on the ARM Cortex A8, Freescale’s solution includes a lineup of software, components and resources to help OEMs quickly develop and deploy netbook devices.
For emerging ARM-based netbooks, Microsoft could offer Windows Embedded CE or Windows Mobile which already run on ARM. ARM processors from FreeScale, Qualcomm and Texas Instruments will certainly lead to a proliferation of inexpensive netbooks, many running Android, and some costing as low as $200, say industry observers.
According to analyst firm ABI Research, consumers are expected to purchase 140 million netbooks in 2013, compared with only 15 million sold in 2008.
