Fast colour printers on tap

LAS VEGAS: For a long time, the two choices in desktop printers have been inkjet and laser. This year, a significant twist on the inkjet is hitting the market and promises high speed - think one colour page per second - at relatively low cost.

The company behind the new technology, Memjet, hopes to snag a significant share of the US$250bil-per-year worldwide printing market.

"We're bringing revolutionary change to the industry," said Len Lauer, Memjet's CEO.

Memjet can be several times faster than a regular inkjet because instead of having a small print head that sweeps across the page, over and over, Memjet's head is as wide as the page and doesn't move. As the paper travels underneath it, 70,000 microscopic nozzles spurt ink all at the same time.

High-end laser printers can match Memjet's speed but they cost more, both to buy and to use. Lauer expects Memjet-equipped printers to hit the market this year for US$500 to US$600. The ink will cost about 5 cents per page, compared with 12 cents to 25 cents per page for laser toner or consumer inkjet ink.


The page-wide heads and tiny nozzles are made possible by advances in micro-electro-mechanical systems, or MEMS. These are parts made out of silicon using many of the same techniques that go into making computer chips, so manufacturers can create tiny and very precise mechanical assemblies.
MEMS are also used in digital cinema projectors and in the sensors that capture the motion of the Nintendo Wii's remotes and such smartphones as the iPhone. Other companies have demonstrated wide inkjet heads, but Memjet appears to be the first to make it a finished desktop product.

The inventor of the Memjet head is Kia Silverbrook, an Australian, but the privately held company is based in San Diego. Lauer comes from another San Diego-based company, wireless technology developer Qualcomm Inc, where he was chief operating officer.

The first Memjet for the office market will be sold by computer maker Lenovo Corp in China early this year and by other partners in Taiwan and India, the companies announced this week. Memjet hasn't announced a partner for the United States, but Lauer said the printer would be sold here this year as well.
In a demonstration at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a prototype of the office printer churned out colour pages, one per second, of a quality indistinguishable from a good inkjet printer.

"It's a disruptor in that it's very fast for a very low price," said Keith Kmetz, a printing industry analyst for IDC. The technology "has had the market abuzz," he said, but he added that there's more to market success than technology.

Memjet has still has to prove that its partners can market the printers effectively. Memjet has talked about its technology for years while it straightened out some kinks, so it won't catch well-established players such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Lexmark International Inc and Canon Inc by surprise.

"I haven't noticed in my conversations with them that they're gravely concerned," Kmetz said.
Memjet isn't targeting consumers with its printers, at least for now. The home printer market is even tougher than the office market, because manufacturers such as HP subsidise their products heavily, then make the money back from sales of ink cartridges.

Fast printing isn't as important to consumers, who are also printing less and toting more information and pictures around on their smartphones.

Memjet is targeting commercial printing applications, such as photofinishing, with a unit that prints page-wide glossy photos. The goal is to replace drugstore mini-lab prints, which are still mostly created using light-sensitive paper and noxious chemicals.

Memjet's unit is smaller, cheaper and faster. Prints from a prototype shown at CES weren't as vividly coloured as regular mini-lab prints, but Lauer said the technology is still being tweaked.

Label printers with Memjet's heads are already in use. This means that a company such as FedEx Corp, for example, that prints millions of barcode labels every day could now add colour to them, perhaps for its logo or other information that should stand out, Lauer said.

The technology could also be used in cash registers, which would let retailers print out coupons in colour on receipts. However, the 8.5in wide Memjet head is too broad for a cash register, so Memjet would have to make a smaller one.

One customer, Lauer said, uses the label printer to print tens of thousands of personally addressed direct-mail envelopes every day, without needing to pre-print the colour with standard, high-volume "offset" printing.

"Yes, you can now get your junk mail in colour," Lauer said. - AP

Fast colour printers on tap

LAS VEGAS: For a long time, the two choices in desktop printers have been inkjet and laser. This year, a significant twist on the inkjet is hitting the market and promises high speed - think one colour page per second - at relatively low cost.

The company behind the new technology, Memjet, hopes to snag a significant share of the US$250bil-per-year worldwide printing market.

"We're bringing revolutionary change to the industry," said Len Lauer, Memjet's CEO.

Memjet can be several times faster than a regular inkjet because instead of having a small print head that sweeps across the page, over and over, Memjet's head is as wide as the page and doesn't move. As the paper travels underneath it, 70,000 microscopic nozzles spurt ink all at the same time.

High-end laser printers can match Memjet's speed but they cost more, both to buy and to use. Lauer expects Memjet-equipped printers to hit the market this year for US$500 to US$600. The ink will cost about 5 cents per page, compared with 12 cents to 25 cents per page for laser toner or consumer inkjet ink.


The page-wide heads and tiny nozzles are made possible by advances in micro-electro-mechanical systems, or MEMS. These are parts made out of silicon using many of the same techniques that go into making computer chips, so manufacturers can create tiny and very precise mechanical assemblies.
MEMS are also used in digital cinema projectors and in the sensors that capture the motion of the Nintendo Wii's remotes and such smartphones as the iPhone. Other companies have demonstrated wide inkjet heads, but Memjet appears to be the first to make it a finished desktop product.

The inventor of the Memjet head is Kia Silverbrook, an Australian, but the privately held company is based in San Diego. Lauer comes from another San Diego-based company, wireless technology developer Qualcomm Inc, where he was chief operating officer.

The first Memjet for the office market will be sold by computer maker Lenovo Corp in China early this year and by other partners in Taiwan and India, the companies announced this week. Memjet hasn't announced a partner for the United States, but Lauer said the printer would be sold here this year as well.
In a demonstration at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a prototype of the office printer churned out colour pages, one per second, of a quality indistinguishable from a good inkjet printer.

"It's a disruptor in that it's very fast for a very low price," said Keith Kmetz, a printing industry analyst for IDC. The technology "has had the market abuzz," he said, but he added that there's more to market success than technology.

Memjet has still has to prove that its partners can market the printers effectively. Memjet has talked about its technology for years while it straightened out some kinks, so it won't catch well-established players such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Lexmark International Inc and Canon Inc by surprise.

"I haven't noticed in my conversations with them that they're gravely concerned," Kmetz said.
Memjet isn't targeting consumers with its printers, at least for now. The home printer market is even tougher than the office market, because manufacturers such as HP subsidise their products heavily, then make the money back from sales of ink cartridges.

Fast printing isn't as important to consumers, who are also printing less and toting more information and pictures around on their smartphones.

Memjet is targeting commercial printing applications, such as photofinishing, with a unit that prints page-wide glossy photos. The goal is to replace drugstore mini-lab prints, which are still mostly created using light-sensitive paper and noxious chemicals.

Memjet's unit is smaller, cheaper and faster. Prints from a prototype shown at CES weren't as vividly coloured as regular mini-lab prints, but Lauer said the technology is still being tweaked.

Label printers with Memjet's heads are already in use. This means that a company such as FedEx Corp, for example, that prints millions of barcode labels every day could now add colour to them, perhaps for its logo or other information that should stand out, Lauer said.

The technology could also be used in cash registers, which would let retailers print out coupons in colour on receipts. However, the 8.5in wide Memjet head is too broad for a cash register, so Memjet would have to make a smaller one.

One customer, Lauer said, uses the label printer to print tens of thousands of personally addressed direct-mail envelopes every day, without needing to pre-print the colour with standard, high-volume "offset" printing.

"Yes, you can now get your junk mail in colour," Lauer said. - AP

Fast colour printers on tap

LAS VEGAS: For a long time, the two choices in desktop printers have been inkjet and laser. This year, a significant twist on the inkjet is hitting the market and promises high speed - think one colour page per second - at relatively low cost.

The company behind the new technology, Memjet, hopes to snag a significant share of the US$250bil-per-year worldwide printing market.

"We're bringing revolutionary change to the industry," said Len Lauer, Memjet's CEO.

Memjet can be several times faster than a regular inkjet because instead of having a small print head that sweeps across the page, over and over, Memjet's head is as wide as the page and doesn't move. As the paper travels underneath it, 70,000 microscopic nozzles spurt ink all at the same time.

High-end laser printers can match Memjet's speed but they cost more, both to buy and to use. Lauer expects Memjet-equipped printers to hit the market this year for US$500 to US$600. The ink will cost about 5 cents per page, compared with 12 cents to 25 cents per page for laser toner or consumer inkjet ink.


The page-wide heads and tiny nozzles are made possible by advances in micro-electro-mechanical systems, or MEMS. These are parts made out of silicon using many of the same techniques that go into making computer chips, so manufacturers can create tiny and very precise mechanical assemblies.
MEMS are also used in digital cinema projectors and in the sensors that capture the motion of the Nintendo Wii's remotes and such smartphones as the iPhone. Other companies have demonstrated wide inkjet heads, but Memjet appears to be the first to make it a finished desktop product.

The inventor of the Memjet head is Kia Silverbrook, an Australian, but the privately held company is based in San Diego. Lauer comes from another San Diego-based company, wireless technology developer Qualcomm Inc, where he was chief operating officer.

The first Memjet for the office market will be sold by computer maker Lenovo Corp in China early this year and by other partners in Taiwan and India, the companies announced this week. Memjet hasn't announced a partner for the United States, but Lauer said the printer would be sold here this year as well.
In a demonstration at the International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, a prototype of the office printer churned out colour pages, one per second, of a quality indistinguishable from a good inkjet printer.

"It's a disruptor in that it's very fast for a very low price," said Keith Kmetz, a printing industry analyst for IDC. The technology "has had the market abuzz," he said, but he added that there's more to market success than technology.

Memjet has still has to prove that its partners can market the printers effectively. Memjet has talked about its technology for years while it straightened out some kinks, so it won't catch well-established players such as Hewlett-Packard Co, Lexmark International Inc and Canon Inc by surprise.

"I haven't noticed in my conversations with them that they're gravely concerned," Kmetz said.
Memjet isn't targeting consumers with its printers, at least for now. The home printer market is even tougher than the office market, because manufacturers such as HP subsidise their products heavily, then make the money back from sales of ink cartridges.

Fast printing isn't as important to consumers, who are also printing less and toting more information and pictures around on their smartphones.

Memjet is targeting commercial printing applications, such as photofinishing, with a unit that prints page-wide glossy photos. The goal is to replace drugstore mini-lab prints, which are still mostly created using light-sensitive paper and noxious chemicals.

Memjet's unit is smaller, cheaper and faster. Prints from a prototype shown at CES weren't as vividly coloured as regular mini-lab prints, but Lauer said the technology is still being tweaked.

Label printers with Memjet's heads are already in use. This means that a company such as FedEx Corp, for example, that prints millions of barcode labels every day could now add colour to them, perhaps for its logo or other information that should stand out, Lauer said.

The technology could also be used in cash registers, which would let retailers print out coupons in colour on receipts. However, the 8.5in wide Memjet head is too broad for a cash register, so Memjet would have to make a smaller one.

One customer, Lauer said, uses the label printer to print tens of thousands of personally addressed direct-mail envelopes every day, without needing to pre-print the colour with standard, high-volume "offset" printing.

"Yes, you can now get your junk mail in colour," Lauer said. - AP

Tablets chase the iPad's tail

LAS VEGAS: Big Tablets and small Tablets, white ones and black ones. Cheap ones and expensive ones. Brand names famous and obscure at the starting line of a race where the iPad is already a speeding dot near the horizon.

It was impossible to walk the floor at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) without stumbling across a multitude of keyboard-less touchscreen computers expected to hit the market in the coming months.

With Apple estimated to have sold more than 13 million iPads last year alone, the competition is clearly for second place, but even that prize is worth pursuing.

Technology research firm Gartner Inc expects that 55 million Tablet computers will be shipped this year, most of them still iPads, but there will be room for rivals to vie for sales of the remaining 10 million to 15 million devices.

A bevy of consumer electronics makers, including major names such as Motorola Mobility Inc, Toshiba Corp and Dell Inc, showed off their Tablets at the show, betting that this will be the year the gadgets finally take off.


Companies tried for years to popularize tablets, but the frenzy began only with the release of the iPad in April. Now companies whose names don't include the word "Apple" are doing everything they can to differentiate themselves from the Tablet front-runner.

They're adding bells and whistles the iPad doesn't yet have - such as front and back cameras for video chatting and picture taking and the ability to work over next-generation 4G data networks - in hopes of taking on the iPad, or at least carving out a niche.

Motorola's Xoom sports a screen that measures 10.1in diagonally - slightly larger than the iPad's - and dual cameras for video chatting and taking high-definition videos. It will also include the upcoming Honeycomb version of Google Inc's Android software.

Honeycomb has been designed for the larger touchscreens on Tablets; current versions of Android, used in many of the Tablets at CES, are meant more for the smaller touchscreens on smartphones.
For example, Gmail on a Honeycomb tablet shows a list of e-mail messages in one column and the body of the one you're reading in a second column. On a current Android phone, you'd only see one column at a time.

Motorola is confident that its offering is more full-featured than the iPad. "A lot of people have been waiting for the definitive Tablet," said Paul Nicholson, Motorola's marketing director. "This is the definitive Tablet."

The Tablet will start selling in March for an as-yet-unknown price.

"Today we see a lot of Tablet usage in the home. Perhaps tying it to a faster network can ... really expand the on-the-go use case for these products," said Ross Rubin, an analyst for the NPD Group market research firm.

No matter how well any of the new contenders are received, though, analysts expect Apple to dominate in the Tablet market for at least two years. With Apple's habit of annually refreshing its products, chances are the iPad will gain new features early this year that could launch it even further ahead of the competition.

And the company has something no one else has been able to match: Mind share. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said consumers are buying the iPad because they see their friends and colleagues with it, not because of its specific features.

"Just because Android Tablets may have more features doesn't guarantee they will sell," Rotman Epps said.

But if the market opened up by Apple's other mobile triumph, the iPhone, is any indication, they will. Since its 2007 debut the iPhone has been immensely popular, but it also sparked increased consumer demand for other smartphones - eventually including those running Android.

For AsusTek Computer Inc, the most important focus right now appears to be hardware and software diversification. The Taiwanese computer maker unveiled a number of Tablets at the show, including the Eee Pad Transformer, which is a laptop that splits in two to function as a Tablet, and the Eee Pad Slider, a Tablet with a keyboard that slides out of its left side.

The Transformer is set to begin selling in April for US$399 to US$699, depending on its configuration. And the Slider is set to be sold starting in May for US$499 to US$799.

This puts its cheapest Transformer US$100 below the most inexpensive iPad, which sells for US$499 to US$829, depending on its configuration.

Several other companies unveiled even cheaper Tablets at the show, which could pique consumer interest, though lower prices could come with less-vivid screens and older software.

Richard Shim, a DisplaySearch analyst, said Asus' tactics point to a wider trend in Tablets: The market is branching out extremely quickly in an effort to appeal to a wider range of consumers.

This extends to operating software, too: Some Tablets shown ran Microsoft Corp's PC software, Windows 7. Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd, maker of BlackBerry phones, unveiled its forthcoming PlayBook Tablet, which is geared toward business users and runs software built by QNX Software Systems, which RIM took over last year.

RIM plans to start selling a WiFi version of the PlayBook early this year.
Android was clearly the software of choice, and Honeycomb in particular. Rotman Epps sees this as the software for the first "real" Android Tablet, despite the arrival of several non-Honeycomb Android Tablets such as Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab last year. She thinks Honeycomb will help new

Tablets make their mark.

That's hard to judge now, however: Honeycomb hasn't been released yet. Many Tablets at the show that will be released with that software were not showing off live versions of it at the event.
Several analysts said software - and the apps developed for it - are what will set winning Tablets apart from the pack, but for now it's too soon to tell how compelling they will be.

"At the end of the day, that's what's going to sell the device," Shim said. - AP

Tablets chase the iPad's tail

LAS VEGAS: Big Tablets and small Tablets, white ones and black ones. Cheap ones and expensive ones. Brand names famous and obscure at the starting line of a race where the iPad is already a speeding dot near the horizon.

It was impossible to walk the floor at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) without stumbling across a multitude of keyboard-less touchscreen computers expected to hit the market in the coming months.

With Apple estimated to have sold more than 13 million iPads last year alone, the competition is clearly for second place, but even that prize is worth pursuing.

Technology research firm Gartner Inc expects that 55 million Tablet computers will be shipped this year, most of them still iPads, but there will be room for rivals to vie for sales of the remaining 10 million to 15 million devices.

A bevy of consumer electronics makers, including major names such as Motorola Mobility Inc, Toshiba Corp and Dell Inc, showed off their Tablets at the show, betting that this will be the year the gadgets finally take off.


Companies tried for years to popularize tablets, but the frenzy began only with the release of the iPad in April. Now companies whose names don't include the word "Apple" are doing everything they can to differentiate themselves from the Tablet front-runner.

They're adding bells and whistles the iPad doesn't yet have - such as front and back cameras for video chatting and picture taking and the ability to work over next-generation 4G data networks - in hopes of taking on the iPad, or at least carving out a niche.

Motorola's Xoom sports a screen that measures 10.1in diagonally - slightly larger than the iPad's - and dual cameras for video chatting and taking high-definition videos. It will also include the upcoming Honeycomb version of Google Inc's Android software.

Honeycomb has been designed for the larger touchscreens on Tablets; current versions of Android, used in many of the Tablets at CES, are meant more for the smaller touchscreens on smartphones.
For example, Gmail on a Honeycomb tablet shows a list of e-mail messages in one column and the body of the one you're reading in a second column. On a current Android phone, you'd only see one column at a time.

Motorola is confident that its offering is more full-featured than the iPad. "A lot of people have been waiting for the definitive Tablet," said Paul Nicholson, Motorola's marketing director. "This is the definitive Tablet."

The Tablet will start selling in March for an as-yet-unknown price.

"Today we see a lot of Tablet usage in the home. Perhaps tying it to a faster network can ... really expand the on-the-go use case for these products," said Ross Rubin, an analyst for the NPD Group market research firm.

No matter how well any of the new contenders are received, though, analysts expect Apple to dominate in the Tablet market for at least two years. With Apple's habit of annually refreshing its products, chances are the iPad will gain new features early this year that could launch it even further ahead of the competition.

And the company has something no one else has been able to match: Mind share. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said consumers are buying the iPad because they see their friends and colleagues with it, not because of its specific features.

"Just because Android Tablets may have more features doesn't guarantee they will sell," Rotman Epps said.

But if the market opened up by Apple's other mobile triumph, the iPhone, is any indication, they will. Since its 2007 debut the iPhone has been immensely popular, but it also sparked increased consumer demand for other smartphones - eventually including those running Android.

For AsusTek Computer Inc, the most important focus right now appears to be hardware and software diversification. The Taiwanese computer maker unveiled a number of Tablets at the show, including the Eee Pad Transformer, which is a laptop that splits in two to function as a Tablet, and the Eee Pad Slider, a Tablet with a keyboard that slides out of its left side.

The Transformer is set to begin selling in April for US$399 to US$699, depending on its configuration. And the Slider is set to be sold starting in May for US$499 to US$799.

This puts its cheapest Transformer US$100 below the most inexpensive iPad, which sells for US$499 to US$829, depending on its configuration.

Several other companies unveiled even cheaper Tablets at the show, which could pique consumer interest, though lower prices could come with less-vivid screens and older software.

Richard Shim, a DisplaySearch analyst, said Asus' tactics point to a wider trend in Tablets: The market is branching out extremely quickly in an effort to appeal to a wider range of consumers.

This extends to operating software, too: Some Tablets shown ran Microsoft Corp's PC software, Windows 7. Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd, maker of BlackBerry phones, unveiled its forthcoming PlayBook Tablet, which is geared toward business users and runs software built by QNX Software Systems, which RIM took over last year.

RIM plans to start selling a WiFi version of the PlayBook early this year.
Android was clearly the software of choice, and Honeycomb in particular. Rotman Epps sees this as the software for the first "real" Android Tablet, despite the arrival of several non-Honeycomb Android Tablets such as Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab last year. She thinks Honeycomb will help new

Tablets make their mark.

That's hard to judge now, however: Honeycomb hasn't been released yet. Many Tablets at the show that will be released with that software were not showing off live versions of it at the event.
Several analysts said software - and the apps developed for it - are what will set winning Tablets apart from the pack, but for now it's too soon to tell how compelling they will be.

"At the end of the day, that's what's going to sell the device," Shim said. - AP

Tablets chase the iPad's tail

LAS VEGAS: Big Tablets and small Tablets, white ones and black ones. Cheap ones and expensive ones. Brand names famous and obscure at the starting line of a race where the iPad is already a speeding dot near the horizon.

It was impossible to walk the floor at this year's International Consumer Electronics Show (CES) without stumbling across a multitude of keyboard-less touchscreen computers expected to hit the market in the coming months.

With Apple estimated to have sold more than 13 million iPads last year alone, the competition is clearly for second place, but even that prize is worth pursuing.

Technology research firm Gartner Inc expects that 55 million Tablet computers will be shipped this year, most of them still iPads, but there will be room for rivals to vie for sales of the remaining 10 million to 15 million devices.

A bevy of consumer electronics makers, including major names such as Motorola Mobility Inc, Toshiba Corp and Dell Inc, showed off their Tablets at the show, betting that this will be the year the gadgets finally take off.


Companies tried for years to popularize tablets, but the frenzy began only with the release of the iPad in April. Now companies whose names don't include the word "Apple" are doing everything they can to differentiate themselves from the Tablet front-runner.

They're adding bells and whistles the iPad doesn't yet have - such as front and back cameras for video chatting and picture taking and the ability to work over next-generation 4G data networks - in hopes of taking on the iPad, or at least carving out a niche.

Motorola's Xoom sports a screen that measures 10.1in diagonally - slightly larger than the iPad's - and dual cameras for video chatting and taking high-definition videos. It will also include the upcoming Honeycomb version of Google Inc's Android software.

Honeycomb has been designed for the larger touchscreens on Tablets; current versions of Android, used in many of the Tablets at CES, are meant more for the smaller touchscreens on smartphones.
For example, Gmail on a Honeycomb tablet shows a list of e-mail messages in one column and the body of the one you're reading in a second column. On a current Android phone, you'd only see one column at a time.

Motorola is confident that its offering is more full-featured than the iPad. "A lot of people have been waiting for the definitive Tablet," said Paul Nicholson, Motorola's marketing director. "This is the definitive Tablet."

The Tablet will start selling in March for an as-yet-unknown price.

"Today we see a lot of Tablet usage in the home. Perhaps tying it to a faster network can ... really expand the on-the-go use case for these products," said Ross Rubin, an analyst for the NPD Group market research firm.

No matter how well any of the new contenders are received, though, analysts expect Apple to dominate in the Tablet market for at least two years. With Apple's habit of annually refreshing its products, chances are the iPad will gain new features early this year that could launch it even further ahead of the competition.

And the company has something no one else has been able to match: Mind share. Forrester analyst Sarah Rotman Epps said consumers are buying the iPad because they see their friends and colleagues with it, not because of its specific features.

"Just because Android Tablets may have more features doesn't guarantee they will sell," Rotman Epps said.

But if the market opened up by Apple's other mobile triumph, the iPhone, is any indication, they will. Since its 2007 debut the iPhone has been immensely popular, but it also sparked increased consumer demand for other smartphones - eventually including those running Android.

For AsusTek Computer Inc, the most important focus right now appears to be hardware and software diversification. The Taiwanese computer maker unveiled a number of Tablets at the show, including the Eee Pad Transformer, which is a laptop that splits in two to function as a Tablet, and the Eee Pad Slider, a Tablet with a keyboard that slides out of its left side.

The Transformer is set to begin selling in April for US$399 to US$699, depending on its configuration. And the Slider is set to be sold starting in May for US$499 to US$799.

This puts its cheapest Transformer US$100 below the most inexpensive iPad, which sells for US$499 to US$829, depending on its configuration.

Several other companies unveiled even cheaper Tablets at the show, which could pique consumer interest, though lower prices could come with less-vivid screens and older software.

Richard Shim, a DisplaySearch analyst, said Asus' tactics point to a wider trend in Tablets: The market is branching out extremely quickly in an effort to appeal to a wider range of consumers.

This extends to operating software, too: Some Tablets shown ran Microsoft Corp's PC software, Windows 7. Research In Motion (RIM) Ltd, maker of BlackBerry phones, unveiled its forthcoming PlayBook Tablet, which is geared toward business users and runs software built by QNX Software Systems, which RIM took over last year.

RIM plans to start selling a WiFi version of the PlayBook early this year.
Android was clearly the software of choice, and Honeycomb in particular. Rotman Epps sees this as the software for the first "real" Android Tablet, despite the arrival of several non-Honeycomb Android Tablets such as Samsung Electronics' Galaxy Tab last year. She thinks Honeycomb will help new

Tablets make their mark.

That's hard to judge now, however: Honeycomb hasn't been released yet. Many Tablets at the show that will be released with that software were not showing off live versions of it at the event.
Several analysts said software - and the apps developed for it - are what will set winning Tablets apart from the pack, but for now it's too soon to tell how compelling they will be.

"At the end of the day, that's what's going to sell the device," Shim said. - AP