Pittsburgh Ventures

I have been watching some of the activity out at CES (Consumer Electronics Show) and I finally saw a tablet computer that I must have, one that will get me a base camp in the tablet revolution.  It’s called the XOOM and it is made by Motorola.

I have written about tablets before, but have been on the sidelines of the tablet revolution as the iPad and the Galaxy tab have hit the market.  For me, it is important to have a large enough piece of screen to do all the things I want to do but can’t really do with my mobile phone.

The keys for me are:

1) Hardware – I think Motorola has found their mojo by focusing on what they are good at – HARDWARE – listening to  what the  market wants, listening to what developers want to  build on, and understanding the reach and the limitations of the software platform that runs  on top.

2) Operating System – Android is clearly killing it these days, and Google can seem to do no wrong. The Google dev team is making updates to the Android platform at a blistering pace, including features that match and surpass what Apple can do.  Now that same team has released their first tablet-specific version of Android, the 3.0 version codenamed “Honeycomb”, and it looks very compelling.

3) Software – you have to have happy developers who believe in the future of a technology platform so they are willing to build on top of  it.  That is certainly true with Android developers – it didn’t take them long to ramp  up coming off the iOS platform, and now as a collective group, they are really crushing it.  The Google Market is more compelling that the Apple App Store in my opinion.

4) Carrier – I would like to be on the Verizon network, because that is my carrier of choice today, and they seem to have pretty good coverage and a management team that, while slow to make new tech decisions, is certainly investing in making sure their network supports the growth of mobile platforms.

I saw a note yesterday that Google’s Android is officially signing up more new phones than Apple’s iOS:

This is a testament to the extremely compelling combo mentioned above of hardware, operating system, developers, and carriers.  There is magic in the combination, and together this foursome can do more as a team than separately in their own silos. The key to getting this team together in the  first place is openness – anyone can be on this team or join this team, but there can’t really be a dictator calling all the  shots for everyone.

Related articles

• There Are No iPad Killers, Only iPad Alternatives (cash-bandit.com)
• A closer look at Morotola’s Xoom tablet – Washington Post (news.google.com)
• Here Come the Tablets; Which to Watch, How Digital Musicians Will Use Them (createdigitalmusic.com)
• Fractured Android leaves orphans behind (malexj.wordpress.com)