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Tablet Wars – iPad vs Surface vs Nexus 7

June 29, 2012 by Omkar Jadhav 2 Comments

With the long history and availability of tablets in the market, none of them have been potent enough to rival the Apple’s iPad. Market statistics prove it. While, this is not just about the hardware and software richness, it’s more about convincing and winning the mass consumers. A long list of tablets have come and failed. They were somehow flawed with either features and/or design. Hence, they have been unsuccessful in convincing the mass consumer market. This year we might witness a major change with the announcement of Microsoft’s Surface tablets and Google’s Nexus 7 tablet. The 2 recently announced tablets have plenty of sensible features to offer you’ve always wanted to see in a tablet. Read more as I talk about how each of the 3 major tablets might ably win the mass consumer market.

ios-vs-andriod-windows — iOS vs Android vs Windows

Why Apple iPad has been winning

Apple’s vast eco-system of apps has yet to be matched by any other software company. Though Android has achieved a rapid growth in their apps collection it hasn’t yet surpassed their rival’s offerings. Also Apple’s notable hardware and software integration along with finesse in hardware design has been able to create a far superior user experience that has yet to be rivaled. This self-sustaining ecosystem comprising of iPhones, iPads, MacBooks, platform specific apps, operating systems and their cross platform integration has been the thriving force behind this market reach.

Strengths – App Store, Presence in Smartphone, Notebook and Desktop Markets, Build quality and design, Wide range of Accessories, commendable hardware and software integration.

How Microsoft’s Surface can win

Surface showed some amazing never-seen-before features that no other tablet could pull off this gracefully. A full desktop PC experience in a package which is slim and handy, has only been embodied by Microsoft’s Surface yet. It is just a tablet, but with capabilities surpassing those of other tablets, notebooks and most PCs. Does it really perform as good? This is yet to been seen. Windows already has a vast eco-system with over 1billion PCs from tablets – desktop computers – laptops – ATMs all over the globe. With Surface as a productivity device can attract and complement a considerable portion of this existing customer base. By offering options such as high speed USB ports, SD card slots, video out ports, touch & type keyboard covers and many unmatched functions Microsoft can outsmart its competitors with its Surface range of products. Eventually, the price and the entire product package is what will determine the magnitude of its success.

Strengths – Full Desktop Capabilities, Kickstand, Touch/Type Keyboard, Windows 8, Well-established Windows Eco-system, Premium Design.

How Google’s Nexus 7 can win

Google with its latest tablet innovation Nexus 7 has pitched an unexpected product. Priced just at $199 and $249 (8GB,16GB), falling in the same category as a Kindle Fire($199) and boasting specs unmatched by any other tablet in that price segment or even in higher price segments. It boasts a 7″ 1280×800 HD display, along with a Tegra 3 chipset with a Quad-Core CPU and a 12 core GPU, front facing camera 1.2MP, Wi-Fi bluetooth, NFC, gyroscope, accelerometer battery packing up to 9hours of video playback and 300hours of standby time and weighing just 340gms. With this amazing feature rich high end tablet priced at a mass market level Google has another chance, though this time by its new partner ASUS and not by Samsung – the biggest hardware partner of Google whose efforts in tablet segment haven’t had much of an impact. Google with its Android has already cast its imprint in the world of smartphones with its apps based eco-system falling second in position to Apple’s. With this tablet as its centre stage to showcase its content from Google Play in the tablet market, Google now has the ability to capture a significant share in the tablet market just like it has in the smartphone market.

Strengths – Low Competitive Pricing, CPU and GPU powerhouse, Google Play Store, Wide presence in smartphone market.

All of the above tablets offered by the respective manufacturers have their own unique way of delivering the desired user experience through their own well established eco-system. Whether these new products will be able to expand their respective company’s eco-system or will their eco-system sustain them in this iPad dominated tablet market, is to be seen.

Why Ubisoft Won E3 2012

June 16, 2012 by Raj Agrawal 1 Comment

E3 for gamers is like the ultimate game exhibition. It is the place where we get to know a little bit more about that one game that we’re going crazy about. And it usually lives up to the hype even if developers show but a little bit of a game’s new features. From the developers point of view, it’s a totally different playing field. For them, it’s a chance to show the investors and other members of the company that their interests are well placed. By garnering hype and attention for their games, they can prove to their investors that there is scope for profit in the future of a particular product. On the other hand, for console manufacturers, it’s an opportunity to get more people to buy their products. In such an aggressive environment, you have to really do something special to come out on top. And that is exactly what Ubisoft have managed to achieve this year, which is why for me they’ve won the event, and the hearts of many.

It was just yesterday that Ubisoft were the next EA. Take an old franchise, and grind it beyond death – that was the formula. Well, it still is. Assassins Creed, Splinter Cell, Far Cry are all receiving new additions this year. The difference is, unlike EA, they’re not just there for the heck of meeting the annual sales targets. All of these games look fantastic, and all of them might eventually end up becoming Triple-A-multi-million sellers. But most importantly, all of these seem like they will make great games.

Assassins Creed 3, takes a break from Ezio and Altair, and put us in the shoes of an all new protagonist, who is right in the middle of the events of the American revolution. Everything, from the locales, to the type of enemies, to the weapons and fighting style has been rethought very carefully in order to give that perfect balance between familiarity with the rest of the series, and making something unique.

Far Cry 3, while expected to simply eradicate the shortcomings of its predecessors, does much more, and looks to redefine the way we look at characters in a video-game. Vaas already is a popular name among the E3 attendees, and if the other characters can match the tenacity of the main antagonist, then the experience might be unparalleled.

Splinter Cell Blacklist, although not looking anything out of the ordinary, attempts to incorporate the stealth elements of previous games, and the action elements of its predecessor. Although Chaos theory might always remain to be the best Splinter Cell game of all time, it doesn’t hurt to have a good addition to the series.

Which brings us to quite possibly the most exciting showing at E3; one which motivated me to write this article – Watch Dogs. Nobody expected it. Nobody believed that Ubisoft would be showing anything beyond the normal iterative fare. But they shocked us, and how!! Having powers is one thing, but being able to control an entire city is another, and the trailer on show does perfect justice to what the game might be. The potential is there, in spades, just the execution needs to be good, and we have a classic in the making!

Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo all had decent showings at this years E3. As always, the focus was mainly on them, since they have all the motivation to beat each other by showing off the best of the best. But Ubisoft clearly won this years event. The effort on display is commendable; they’re trying to reinvent themselves, and if companies like EA and Activision can take notice and try and do things differently, then the future of gaming might still be bright.

Microsoft’s Upcoming Operating System. It’s Not A Windows.

May 2, 2012 by Raj Agrawal Leave a Comment

No matter to what level consumer technologies and appliances be new to a market, they have always been accepted for good reasons. By definition and intention, consumer technologies are constantly augmented to simplify our routine habits and requirements. Pointing specifically at the household appliances, you may introduce new devices and setups to your current home eco-system to make it smarter than ever. But there has always been a much wider room to enhance your abode. Much of the menial tasks at home can be automated.

Microsoft’s Home Operating System research is about pushing the home eco-system management to a broader level. Of course, refrigerators, television sets, washing machines, air conditioners, etceteras, are the most common home applications that automate a good deal of manual work. But consider a time when you are not home and you have a set of activities to perform, which can only be achieved in your presence. Or may be a point where you need to perform a step-by-step list of activities that require physical presence just to tip-tap buttons and get the machines working (television, set-top boxes, lamps and so on). This is where HomeOS steps in to organize the menial tasks into one place and conveniently control, like as easily from a smart phone.

A student demonstrating how to turn on and off lights via gestures with a Kinect (an excerpt from the white paper)

With HomeOS, you can add remote surveillance for security and monitor the energy consumption at your home. All and more of these capabilities will be available and setup through the HomeStore gateway installed on the user’s computer. The user can accordingly add more functionalities to the home system from the HomeStore. According a video shared by one of the contributors of this research, the add-on like functionalities in HomeOS are coded in C# language.

In the following video, Ratul Mahajan (one of the contributors to this project) demonstrates how the HomeOS system would work on a very basic scale.

Microsoft Research: [White Paper, HomePage]