As the opening of the Consumer Electronics Show approaches
on Jan. 6 in Las Vegas, word is
leaking out that dozens of new tablets will be shown at the trade show. Some of
them are simply new versions of existing tablets; some are new versions of
existing platforms (there will be a lot of new Android tablets); and some are
totally new.
With all these new devices comes another level of
complexity for the corporate IT departments that will be expected to integrate
them into the enterprise-computing environment.
Most of the new tablets are Android devices intended to
compete with the Samsung Galaxy Tab devices already on the market. These
devices will come from existing tablet vendors, including Verizon Wireless,
which has just reduced the price of its existing Galaxy Tab, perhaps to make
room in the tablet lineup for something new. There are also vendors new to
Android, such as Vizio, which is said to be launching a new smartphone and a
new Android tablet at CES. There will also be producers of Android tablets from
little-known manufacturers, some of which will offer very low-cost tablets with
limited capabilities.
Meanwhile, there will be other tablets. Hewlett-Packard
is expected to be showing, and perhaps announcing, the availability of, its
long-awaited WebOS-based tablet device. The company has already had a few
showings of prototypes, but at CES, many observers expect to see something
along the lines of what will actually ship in the near future. Lenovo,
meanwhile, will be announcing a tablet, but, so far, there’s no word on whether
this will run Android, Windows or something else.
Of course, everybody knows that Apple will be releasing
the iPad 2 this spring although it likely wonÃ’t be at CES.
So the problem for IT is going to be how to integrate
these tablets, or perhaps more specifically, whether to integrate all of them.
While nearly everything being released is Android-based, all versions of
Android are not equal. There will likely be some corners cut that could affect
the usefulness of these tablets in the enterprise.
For more, read the eWeek article: CES Tablet Debutants Likely to Cause IT Support Trouble.
