|
My take ...
The hardware is a definite winner, the software is only a maybe.
As a pure ebook reader I'm not sure that it has anything to offer over what I already have.
As an ebook reader that also does a bit more, the possibilities are there, but the jury is still out. The problem is what do you do with that extra power? The apps in the android store are quite useful on my android phone, but I'm not sure I need shopping apps, small-screen games, or google sky on this device.
I'm sure that is why they are hosting their own app store. They want to encourage the development of more tablet-orientated apps. The question is whether they will be able to attract sufficient independent developers. It's somewhat of a chicken and egg issue. If you sell tens of millions of these, the developers will come. If you have lots of good apps, you will sell tens of millions of these.
As it is, I don't think they can compete against the ipad or windows tablets such as the upcoming HP. Both of these other solutions have more built-in software capabilities, and the ipad at least will probably have a healthier app store due to its prestige/visibility.
From an ebook arena, I'd just love to see an ebook app that takes advantage of all of that great software. Something that reads books, and lets me highlight them and annotate them. And as a college professor, I'd like the ability to export highlighted text as a pdf so I could use it for grading.
Personally, I'm not the fond of the ipad. I'd like to see this work if it is available with an interesting set of software. Right now, I'm expecting the most interesting solutions to come from MS. I know everyone loves to hate them, but the reason they won against Apple in the PC market was that they were more open! Each manufacturer could develop their own hardware design and deliver it using windows. No restrictive app policies. I expect to see many more flavors of windows tablets, and I expect a better software selection for windows tablets than for the Adam.
I hope I'm wrong, because I think Notion Ink really got the hardware right! I love that curve where the camera is. It seems like it would make a great grip for holding the tablet as I read it.
MLH
|