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Among the many other tidbits Sanjay Jha dropped during today’s talk with Stanley Morgan investors was the revelation that Motorola is already working on a 7-inch Android tablet for release by the end of the year. The company just released their first tablet, the Motorola XOOM, during the final week of February, but Jha sees exploring various size options as beneficial.
That seems to be thinking on most manufacturers’ minds, with the likes of Samsung, Acer, and Viewsonic all offering tablets ranging in size. In the end, it is merely a matter of inches. Something tells me the time spent developing a product with the only selling point being its size could be better used elsewhere.
[via PCMag]
$300 range and I’ll take it. Anything more than that, my laptop will do just fine, thanks!
Hell YES! Cheaper and smaller. Awesome. If I want to watch a movie or something with any tab I will hook it up to my TV anyhow. On the go, I want portability. Hope the only thing scaled down is the size and not the specs though. If anything I hope those get tweaked at the very least.
Everyone should restrain from buying the Xoom and force Motorola to slash the price!
Good. 10 inches is just way too big for me. I liked the Galaxy tab size, but not the price. So mebes we’ll get lucky?
When are manufacturers going to realize that tablets are not selling and if you’ve already got a high end cell phone, their a waste of money too! Unless you travel 3 weeks a month and need something to watch movies on, there’s nothing I want in a tablet that I don’t already have on my cell phone. And it’s not like you can just stuff them in your pocket, even at 7 inches it’s too large to fit comfortably. But for some reason manufacturers think these tablets are the new laptops. You’re never going to replace peoples laptops with these things.
Don’t flame me, just calling it as I see it. or THINK it. :)
Have the XOOM and love it. A seven inch option us nice and it should be offered. As long as it has the same performance specs. Just dont let people start offering all sorts of wackadoddle sizes. Lay down some restrictions google, I know it goes against everything I like about android, but it would draw in app devs and apps are what a tablet needs.
@Toast,
Errr, what? On what grounds are you making the statement that tablets don’t sell? I’d say they sell VERY well. It’s just that everyone wants a slice of that iPad sales pie and the market is getting saturated. Give consumers what they want at an affordable price and I think sales will do very well. With honeycomb custom made for tablets I am willing to bet we will see a lot more manufacturers enter the game with varies tiers of product.
“Stanley Morgan”?????
Bela, 300 dollars is a bit unrealistic. You can not expect a 7″ tablet to be cheaper then a 3-4″ phone. (look up un subsidized devices)
I would expect we could save maybe $100.00 on a 7 inch tablet, but that still puts the wifi at $500.00. Respectable, but not cheap. And I dont want people to set themselves up for dissappointment.
$300.00 though is a great tablet price, check out the Archos 70 and 101. Its a good tablet for the price, always sold out. That is what to expect for the $300.00 price point.
At an affordable price and they will really sell!!!!
Cheaper isn’t really whats on my mind, 7″ is what I’ve been asking for for a while. First company to drop a Honeycomb+ 7″ gets my money.
I’d go for a tablet but only if it had a stylus. If I can’t DO anything on a tablet that I can’t on a laptop, I’d just get a laptop.
@ AGx-07_162. You can have a 7 inch Honeycomb tablet. It’s a rooted Nook Color, I love mine. And it is 250.00
@ari-free: HTC said they will have a tablet that comes with stylus. called the Flyer. Looks good imo.
I think the 10 inch form factor is perfect for me.
Too small, and it blends into a phone a little too much in my opinion. Seven inches is only three inches larger than the display on the atrix.
Although those three inches can be greatly beneficial for gaming, and catching the news on the go, I think having a 10 inch differentiates itself a little better.
Hopefully it will only cost $700 and will require a minimum of one month data plan to activate wifi, have a locked bootloader, motoblur, and won’t have flash support on launch. If that’s the case, I’M IN!!!
I think a smaller version of the Xoom would be AWESOME! The appealing part of a smart phone us it’s ultra portability and a smaller Xoom with super specs would get me off the bench and into the game quick, fast and in a hurry!
I don’t want/need another device to maintain or carry around with me. What I want is a 8″ or 9″ device that I can dock my Bionic into. Luckily, Moto announced just that in a recent conversation with investors. Now hurry up and release the Bionic already!
I agree with J Dizzel… A Nook Color that has been rooted makes a great Android tablet with about 15 minutes worth of effort.
Shouldn’t it be “Motorola Working on 7-inch Tablet to ComplEment XOOM”? As long as Motorola does something to make it different from all of the other 7-inch tablets out there…. We don’t need just more of the same.
I’m not sure what I think about the 7inch factor, I owned a galaxy tab for a little while and just didn’t see alot of difference, now with honeycomb on board it will be different, I played with a xoom yesterday and loved it. Honeycomb ran great on it. It still needs a little bit of polish but it’s nice. I dunno, we will see how the 7incher does.
my bird says she’d love a 10″er but 7″ will do just fine
Awesome, I am so glad to hear this. As a daily commuter (90 mins in and 90 mins out of London), I wouldn’t dream of carrying around something as big as a Xoom. My Galaxy Tab is just the right size….
Of course, in the long run I’ll be wanting all the good stuff built into Honeycomb. I suppose if Samsung put out a Honeycomb update for the Galaxy Tab, that would be fine. But I doubt that’ll come any time soon and I suspect that Motorola probably builds better stuff anyhow…
Whatever the case, three cheers for 7″ Honeycomb Tablets! :)
“Complement”, with an “e”. When you spell it with an “i”, it’s like the 7″ is telling the 10″ how great it is. Not that it would be lying…
A 7″ tablet makes more cow sense than a herd of bumbling 10″ bisons. At the very least I can fit a 7″ into my safari pants pockets.
So, if the 10″ is the Xoom, will the 7″ be the VIIoom? :)
Saying that a ten inch machine distinguishes itself better from smartphones is, I believe, not the point!
The 9/10 inch ipad sized tablets are too small to be a proper computer and too big to be truely portable. I recently got an htc desire which I love and it’s great having the web there whenever and wherever I need it. But it’s still a phone. I also have a laptop which is great if I want to write some lyrics or edit some music at home or do some recording. However, it’s annoying and cumbersome if I want to browse the web, whilst slouched on the sofa with a fat tabby using my legs as a mattress!
So this is where the tablet comes in. But these things are not just about poncing around with, they need to have a practical purpose. A 7 inch can fit in my jacket or jeans pocket. It’s truely portable. I dont even need to declare it as carry on luggage at the airport. I can take it out with me on holiday and use the gps if i get lost without squinting at a phone. I can use it at work to update our web pages in between serving customers. It’s versatile. A ten inch is just… sat in my drawer at home because it’s gimmick value has worn off and i’ve discovered it has no practical use!
Smart phone too small, 10″ tablet too big, 7″ Juuuuust right!