iPad rivals are cutting down on build plans, says a research note from J.P. Morgan’s analyst Mark Moskowitz. Manufacturers’ production plans for Android and other tablets in the January-March period, have been cut with 10% on average.

While the number might not seem significant, the sheer fact that manufacturers xpect the tablet market to shrink beyond their sales predictions is pretty telling. To put things in perspective, however, we must note that Apple also sold quite a bit less iPads than analysts expected in its latest quarter, but supply issues due to the Japanese earthquake were deemed the culprit. So was the case with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer, though.

The analyst provides the following table with production plans details, from which it becomes clear that only Apple, HTC and Lenovo haven’t reduced their sales estimates from January to March. Of course, most tablets were hardly available at that time, so a snapshot of the same plans taken in the end of June would be more appropriate.

Nevertheless, Mr Moskowitz claims that tablet manufacturers are having an “early dose of reality”, slashing production plans, but at the same time he expects tablets to hijack a significant amount of market from desktop and notebook computers in 2011, enough for a spillover effect, and real shift in the industry.

So the guy is hedging his bets, but it’s actually too early to tell how the tablet market will develop. Seeing how Asus can’t make enough of the Eee Pad Transformer, BlackBerry PlayBook is selling better than expected, while the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 is not even available yet, not to mention the iPad 2, it’s pretty obvious that the tablet game of chess is with a yet-unknown outcome.

source: AppleInsider

As CTIA 2011 is already knocking on the door (the event starts on March 22), we caught ourselves reminiscing about last year’s CTIA, and here’s a little round up of what happened there.

In all honesty, it wasn’t the most memorable mobile event in history, and yet we were given the opportunity to say hello to the HTC EVO 4G – one of the most powerful handsets we have seen at that point, and the Samsung Galaxy S, which proved to be one really, really good phone.

Our first impressions from the HTC EVO 4G were that this handset got it all – a 4.3-inch display, 1GHz processor, two cameras and it was, of course, the first phone to support Sprint’s WiMAX 4G network. The other big announcement during CTIA 2010 – the Samsung Galaxy S – also greeted us with two cameras and a 1GHz processor plus it offered a 4-inch Super AMOLED display, which we really liked a lot. And still do.

Among the other phones that were showed-off during this event were two LG devices – the affordable, typing-optimized, eco-friendly LG Remarq for Sprint and the budget-friendly LG Cosmos for Verizon.

CTIA 2010 also presented us with the Motorola i1, a rugged styled Sprint handset and the Kyocera Zio, which was the company’s first dive in the smartphone business. It was during this event that the Dell Aero was announced, as well as the AT&T versions of the Palm Pre Plus and the Palm Pixi Plus. On the software side, we had the pleasure to get a sneak peek at the Opera Mini browser for the iPhone, and it pleased us with its performance.

This was our journey back in time and how we remember CTIA 2010. If you want to relive the memories of this event in more thorough manner, hit this link for our CTIA 2010 live report. If you want to prepare for this year’s CTIA, read our CTIA 2011: What to expect article. Our traveling party is already in Orlando, Florida, so stay tuned to PhoneArena – we will give you up-to-the-second reports directly from this huge mobile event.

The HTC EVO 4G and the Samsung Galaxy S were CTIA 2010's main attractions, what to expect from CTIA 2011?

Though many have jumped on the tablet bandwagon with devices like the successful Apple iPad, 99.7% of the world’s population still has not seen the need for a tablet and therefore have not purchased one to date.

The research was conducted by RBC Capital Market analyst Mike Abramsky who managed to create an 88-page report on his findings. He also focused on the market for TV subscriptions, newspaper circulation and more but we will just focus on the tablets for now.

The fact that only .3% of the world’s population has purchased a tablet can be attributed to the lack of selection, fairly new technology or the fact that there is no real need to own one. There is a flurry of tablets on the horizon, so these numbers could surely change by this time next year

Abramsky believes that these numbers will skyrocket within the next few years. In fact, he predicts that 185 million tablets will be sold in the year 2014. That is a huge difference from the numbers reported in 2010.

With Android getting ready to hit the tablet world by storm, BlackBerry and HP getting ready to make a plays their own and an already established successful tablet in the form of Apple’s iPad, what do you think of Abramsky’s prediction? Tell us what you think in the comments below.

source: Slash Gear

Former Palm CEO Jon Rubinstein still makes headlines in his current capacity as head of Hewlett Packard’s mobility group. And what the executive said today was that HP has decided to stop working on an Android tablet and an Android smartphone and will focus on webOS. Talking with the Financial Times, Rubinstein said that after acquiring Palm and its’ webOS platform for $1.2 billion, three operating systems were one too many and it was Google’s open source OS that got the pink slip.

HP is expected to roll out a webOS flavored tablet early next year, as we reported. Work on the Slate, a Windows Phone 7 powered tablet, was said to have been stopped but Rubinstein told the paper that a Windows based pad will be launched before the webOS tablet is released. Microsoft said that HP’s decision to concentrate on producing smartphones using webOS was not a big deal for the company as HP was not a big player in the smartphone industry.

Rubinstein was the CEO of Palm when the company launched the Palm Pre, the first phone with webOS under the hood. When introduced in January 2009, the OS received critical praise and the Pre was instantly considered a worthy challenger to the Apple iPhone. But soon after the phone launched, a series of events took place-from poorly focused television commercials to the beginning of Androidmania last November-and the handset never came close to becoming competition for Apple.
source: FT.com

After HP’s purchase of Palm, we weren’t expecting them to follow through with their Android-powered printer plans. But to our surprise, HP has announced their HP Photosmart eStation All-in-One, which integrates a detachable 7 inch Android 2.1 tablet with an all-in-one printer for only $399.

The included Android tablet features a 7 inch screen with 800 X 480 resolution, a 1 GHz Freescale i.MX 51 processor, 512MB of RAM, and 4GB of NAND flash. The tablet runs Android 2.1, and is rumored to be upgraded to 2.2 shortly. The capabilities of the tablet are somewhat limited: (1) It’s not connected to the Android market, (2) the interface is optimized for printing (i.e. a print button on every screen, limited apps), and (3) it is more clunky than other tablets on the market.

The eStation might be newsworthy based on price alone. At $399, it puts the other Android tablets to shame, especially considering it includes a printer valued at $150. ZDNet’s Larry Dignan astutely points out that this unit, like printers in general, is subsidized to move ink cartridges.

While it only connects via Wi-Fi, the off-contract modality might be what many users really want from their tablet, especially considering the volume of Wi-Fi hotspots available.
source: ZDNet and Laptop, via Linux For Devices