jeudi 18 février 2010

Tech Industry Catches Its Breath

Over the last three years, consumers have been peppered with one form of game-changing product after another. First there were the tiny laptops called netbooks. Then Apple’s iPhone, which set off a wave of touch-screen and application-based smartphones. Amazon.com’s Kindle e-book reader shook up the publishing industry. Google released its Android cellphone software and began developing its Chrome operating system, both of which are emerging as alternatives to Microsoft’s Windows for simple computers.

And last month, Apple unveiled the iPad, which could usher in a new wave of innovation as the industry gauges whether customers really want tablet PCs without keyboards.

For the moment, however, the tech industry’s innovation engine is in idle. The annual Mobile World Congress here — traditionally a place to introduce products that blend computer and phone functions in novel ways — has featured tweaks on existing designs.

“It’s like with evolution, where you have a mutation and then a great explosion of diversity,” said Scott A. McGregor, the chief executive of Broadcom, which makes chips that go into a wide range of consumer electronics. “Then, you have a period where you see which creatures can survive the big change.”

Tablet computers generated plenty of excitement at the gathering, which ends Thursday, although hardware makers promoted modest variations on the concept rather than major breakthroughs that would distinguish their products from Apple’s iPad.

For example, NTT East, a Japanese telecommunications carrier that is part of the NTT Group, has started trials with a tabletlike device called the Hikari iFrame. The company has pitched this touch-screen product, which runs Google’s Android software, as a way for inexperienced computer users to get on the Internet.

The company is considering offering the product free or at a large discount in exchange for a subscription to its Internet services and the willingness to have a couple of ads a day shown on the device, said Mr. McGregor, whose company helped with the design.

In a back room of the booth rented by Marvell, a chip maker, people who asked nicely could catch a glimpse of the iWonder. The white, touch-screen product presents an interface similar to that of Apple’s iPad, with colorful icons and standard computing functions, like a Web browser and office productivity software. The Android-based device was chunkier than the iPad, however, and took a while to start up.

Foxconn, a Taiwanese contract manufacturer whose factories build a wide range of consumer electronics products, including the iPod and iPad, designed the iWonder, which should be available soon in China for about $100.

“The iPad helped set the bar and let everyone know what Apple’s vision of a tablet should be,” said Kyle Fox, a product marketing manager at Marvell. “I do know there are a flood of tablet designs coming out in the next 12 months.”

In the cellphone arena, long the focus of the show, companies showed off some new features aimed at gamers and environmentally conscious consumers. Fujitsu has built a smartphone that splits into two pieces: the display and the keyboard. NTT DoCoMo, another Japanese company that is part of the NTT Group, will sell the device under the Prime Series F-04B name.

DoCoMo pitched the product as the answer for gamers who want to set their display down and hold the keyboard like a controller. But the phone may appeal to businesspeople as well, since users can swap the keyboard for a tiny projector for presentations.

DoCoMo is also aiming at people with an environmental bent by sticking a solar panel onto one of its phones. Ten minutes of sun exposure can keep the phone going for a minute of talk time.

The phone garnering the most attention came from HTC, a Taiwanese manufacturer. HTC recently built the Nexus One smartphone for Google, but in Barcelona, it one-upped that product by releasing the HTC Desire.

The Desire has just as much horsepower as the Nexus One but has an elegant interface designed by HTC. Both phones run Google’s Android software, which can be customized.

Meanwhile, the booth of Powermat, a maker of cellphone accessories, was so crowded that it resembled a dance club. Showgoers lined up outside the entrance and were let in one at a time by Powermat representatives who were trying to keep the space from being overrun.

As the company’s name suggests, Powermat sells a mat that can charge devices like phones and netbooks without cords. To make this magic happen, customers need to buy a new battery, phone back or phone case that includes chip technology from Powermat.

Powermat has been selling stand-alone devices since last fall. This year, it plans to help partners introduce a line of furniture equipped with its technology, said Ran Poliakine, the company’s chief executive.

The technology industry has sucked in a deep breath and paused for a rare moment of reflection.

“You’ll see something like a table that will include a spot to charge your phone,” Mr. Poliakine said. Staples, the office supply chain, should have the furniture on sale by midyear, he said.

Over time, Powermat hopes to get its technology implanted into things like kitchen counters and even walls: a household could power a flat-panel TV straight from the wall without any cables.

While the trade show lacked a true breakthrough device, manufacturers were promising more excitement to come soon.

For example, Nvidia, a graphics chip maker, said it had built a speedy new chip, the Tegra 2, that would soon appear in a range of products, including cars and smartphones. Executives said that by midyear they expected manufacturers to use this chip to create faster tablets and phones that would handle demanding content like high-definition movies as well as standard PCs.

Source : NYT, 17/02/10

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