Thin Tech Takes off In 2012

If there was any doubt, international CES 2012 confirmed that 2012 will be the year of thin technology. The focus of the industry has been shifting for some time. Now it appears that we have hit the critical mass point, where consumer demand is being matched by manufacturers supplying a steady stream of slim and sexy devices.

This year’s CES has featured a plethora of new devices that push the thinness envelope. The usual suspects — tablets and smartphones — were there. There was the Toshiba Excite tablet that was a mere 7.7 millimeters thick and claimed the title of the thinnest tablet of them all. There was also the Huawei Ascend P1 S which is a meager 6.8 millimeters and claims to be the slimmest of any smartphone on the market. It beats out the already insanely thin Motorola Droid 4 which is just 7.1 millimeters thin. What was more interesting is the way the thin theme has extended into almost every segment of the industry. Devices you would not initially think about are jumping on the thin bandwagon. Other devices like flat-screen TVs have become so thin they make even the thinnest tablet and smartphone want to run to fat camp.

Do you need a super-thin mouse? You are in luck, the MoGo Mouse TM100 is just 5 millimeters thick and is available right now on Amazon for the equally thin price of $19.95. The TM100 is a two button wireless mouse that is thin enough to fit into the PC Card slot of your laptop. You can use that slot to charge the mouse as well as to store it when its not in use. The mouse charges in about 30 minutes and a charge lasts for over 8 hours. The device is Bluetooth-enabled and has a range of 30 feet. If the profile of the mouse is too small you can flip out a small kickstand that elevates the device, making using it more akin to what you are used to with a standard mouse.

Some Unexpected Items Get a Thin Makeover

If you thought that a mouse was the most unlikely device to get a thin makeover then prepare to be surprised. Samsung has proudly announced that it now makes the world’s thinnest 3D Blu Ray player. The as yet unnamed device comes in at a very svelte 23 millimeters. And it has the ability to convert standard discs to 3D in real time. That’s not all, the device is also Internet-enabled and can access popular services such as Facebook and Youtube. For comparison, the ‘Slim’ version of the PS3 is well over 60 millimeters thick. Thin as it might be, what use is a thin 3D Blu Ray player without a big screen TV to match? LG will make that question moot with its new 55 inch OLED TV that is an astounding 4 millimeters thin.

Let’s put that into the proper perspective. The slimmest tablet on the planet is 7.7 millimeters thick. That tablet has a screen that measures roughly 10 inches. This new TV by LG has a screen that is five times larger yet the device is barely more than half the thickness of that tablet. What’s more, this isn’t a proof of concept build. Its a finished product that LG says it wants to deliver to a mass market audience. It also claims that it intends to price it so that it will be within the reach of wide cross-section of consumers.

How long our present obsession with thin technology lasts remains to be seen. . Right now though, and for the foreseeable future, it appears that you can never be too thin.

Iconia Tab A700 Debuts at 2012 CES

After a week of leaks, suggestions, rumors, and speculations, Acer is finally showing off its Iconia Tab A700 Ice Cream Sandwich tablet at CES. This is not your average tablet, be assured. It is a sexy beast that sports a full-HD, 10.1-inch screen and the brawn of a quad-core Tegra 3 processor.

Full HD is a rare feature in mobile devices. Even industry leader Apple does not have it on the iPad 2, which only has 1024 x 768 display. The Iconia Tab A700 features a screen that boasts a resolution of 1920 x 1200. That’s even higher than the 1920 x 1080 needed to qualify. In order to make full use of such a display, a device would need a behemoth of a processor. Acer delivers with a Tegra 3 quad-core powerhouse that is rated at 1.3 Ghz. Rounding off this fit-for-a-king meal is a serving of Ice Cream Sandwich as the shipping OS.

The Iconia Tab A700 will get its juice from a 9800 mAh battery that will be good for about 10 hours of video playback. The new tab will also support Bluetooth and has a HDMI port as well as the now standard microSD. You will be covered in the camera department by a 5 MP HD rear camera as well as a front camera that is said to be capable of 720p. Coming in at 9.8 millimeters and 1.43 pounds, it is not the most svelte tablet on the market. But with its extra HD and Tegra 3, it is sure to make up for an extra millimeter or two around the waist. This device is a serious step up from Acer’s A200, which is already on sale in the UK for around $462.

It seems that in the few short years since the iPad hit the market, tablets have captured the collective psyche of gadget geeks and the general consumer alike. Tablets are also shining at this year’s CES. What this points to is a continued period of growth and development for tablet divisions at all the major computer houses. We ain’t seen nothing yet. Indeed, the promise of such remarkable innovations is more than worth the double negative.

The Acer Iconia A700 is expected to go on sale during the second quarter of 2012. There is no official word yet on pricing.

iPad3 Is On The Way — Will Apple Cut the Price of iPad2?

For a moment, pretend you’re doing marketing for Apple and you have a whack of new iPad tablets to launch.  The iPad4 is the one you’ll roll out in the fall of 2012, to compete with Microsoft and Intel for the Christmas market.  The iPad3 is the one you’ll roll out in the spring of 2012 because, well, spring is when you released the first two.  The iPad2 is the 2011 version, and the iPad granddaddy came out in 2010. (That one isn’t really worth mentioning, as the technology is so two years ago.)

The concept of iPad3 and iPad4 are speculation at this point, reported by Digitimes. The 3 will supposedly have great new apps, but with the same screen resolution as the 2. The 4 will have all the great new apps plus a better screen resolution.

So far, your Apple marketing contemporaries have launched iPads at about $500 USD for a basic 16GB model, with $100 increments for each of the 32GB and 64GB versions.  But if you did the same the iPad3, and then the same again a few months later with the iPad4, isn’t there a risk of harming the sales of one product in favour of another?

Speculation That Price-Cutting is About to Start…

No, because you’re in Apple marketing, remember?  Speculation is that you are planning to drop the price of the iPad2 to $299…a significant decrease from the $499 your friends probably paid.  If you do that, Apple would have the new low-end 2 (2011 apps, good screen) the mid-end 3 (2012 apps, good screen) and the high-end 4 (2012 apps, better screen)—nine new choices, considering each would come in 16, 32, or 64GB options

In addition to one-upping yourself with a new product every year and competing with the annual upping by your competition, you are also creating your own competition with a similar product at a lower price-point.

‘Isn’t that counter-productive?’ the economists ask.

‘Ask an automobile manufacturer’ you smugly reply.

That said, with 38.1 million in Apple tablet sales in 2011 and a reported 74% US market share, it may be that Apple marketers have been doing just fine without your help.