News - 10-inch tablets heading for extinction according to Intel exec

[HEXUS]

Smaller tablets and convertible Ultrabook hybrids will rule the digital landscape.

Read more.

[crossy]

Poised to squeeze the 10-inch tablet market from the other direction are a slew of hybrid laptops with detachable displays or other tablet conversion facilities according to Skaugen. All Haswell Ultrabooks will be required to have touch screen functionality. Skaugen predicted that many smaller 11-inch region variants would have detachable screens while 13-inch or larger varieties would prefer “flip” designs.

Problem I've got with this is that the 10 inch tablets will have better battery life than the ultrabooks - in addition to being lighter. And how many Intel-powered tablets have you seen around? Yep, not many - so being very uncharitable perhaps there's a bit of NIH hope in these pronouncements?

Where I will agree is that we'll see a good few sizes going away - personally, I don't really see the point of the 7" size - it's heavier than the 5" (Galaxy Note et al) but not as usable as the 8". Oh, and I suspect that the relative popularity of the iPad Mini v's the "full fat" version has a great deal to do with the price differential - £280 is affordable, £400 less so.

I remember reading reviews of the Toshiba 13" tablet, and the consensus was that the thing was unwieldy and heavy - so surely the same criticisms will apply to these "wonderful" (Intel-powered of course) convertible Ultrabooks.

What I want is my current <5" smartphone, a 10" tablet and a 15" laptop/ultrabook - which seems like a good spread of sizes to me. Heck, maybe Asus/Motorola has it right and what we actually need is (Intel powered?) phones that dock to make a tablet, then dock again to make an ultrabook?

[wombat]

Well I hope some larger tablets hang around as I could do with with one. He may be right who knows, at the end of the day Intel don't currently have much to offer chip wise on the tablet front so they can only push the Ultrabook line for now. An Intel pad with i3 performance would be nice, running Android with a decent battery life (7 -8 hours would do)...oh and priced to compete!

[heXuser]

Am waiting for AMD hybrid Tamesh/Kabini Tablet, the one with the Turbo Dock.

[Bluecube]

I hope that's not the case. I prefer my full fat iPad to my wife's iPad Mini any day. The larger screen is easier to read and type on plus there's the longer battery life.

[aidanjt]

In other news, the Catholic Church declares secular atheism's days are numbered.

[zap117]

Well it's Intel who said it, so it must be true... /sarcasm

[azza1991]

I think my 10" samsung galaxy tab2 is the perfect size! If it were smaller there's no point as mobile screens are huge so might aswell get that, and any bigger it would be a pain to type on (i dont want a full keyboard, defeats the point of a tablet!) The SwiftKey layout is perfect for my fingers.

No i dea what this guys on about...

[deejayburnout]

My 7inch PlayBook is the perfect size.

My wives galaxy tab is huge. Great for movies but too big to comfortably hold for long periods of time.

Sometimes less is more....

[Saracen]

My 7inch PlayBook is the perfect size.

My wives galaxy tab is huge. Great for movies but too big to comfortably hold for long periods of time.

Sometimes less is more....

Depends what you want. Personally, I far prefer the 10" tablets over the 7", which is why I bought 10" not 7". So it's different strokes for different folks.

[ET3D]

personally, I don't really see the point of the 7" size - it's heavier than the 5" (Galaxy Note et al) but not as usable as the 8".

To each his own. I find 5" to be too big for a phone and too small for a tablet. 7" is a much better form factor IMO.

I think that Intel is right in that we'll see more tablet/keyboard hybrids going forward, but I think that 10" tablets will remain in the budget market, for people who want a tablet bigger than 10".

I think that this market is still in a flux. It started with netbooks and people are still looking for the perfect solution for their needs. A convertible full Windows tablet does have a lot going for it. Still, personally I'd go for a 7"-8" Windows tablet over a 10" one.

[bobharvey]

Tosh.

Let me translate.

"We don't want you to pay £200 for a tablet with an ARM processor. We want you to spend £1000 on an ultrabook with an intel processor. You don't seem to want to do that, so let us frighten/strongarm the manufacturers to stop them selling what you want".

It seems to have worked with the netbook.

[crossy]

Tosh. Let me translate. "We don't want you to pay £200 for a tablet with an ARM processor. We want you to spend £1000 on an ultrabook with an intel processor. You don't seem to want to do that, so let us frighten/strongarm the manufacturers to stop them selling what you want".
It seems to have worked with the netbook.

You've got a point there - current netbooks are pretty hopeless. Also got to say that I can't see really what Intel can bring to the tablet party apart from Windows8 compatibility. Then again, I'd be wary of the increases in weight and cost that would bring - would much prefer to have a "proper" tablet OS.

Ultrabook seems like a good idea, although at present they're still a little "premium" priced for my liking.

And there's the small point - a £200 tablet you probably will be content to take out and about, whereas a £1000 convertible ultrabook isn't.

[Bill@W]

I suspect Intel has an agenda here, and I think there's still a lot of mileage in the 10" tablet.I use a Nexus 4, a Nexus 7, and an Asus TF 300 (10"). The Nexus 4 is as big as a phone can comfortably be, the Nexus 7 is perfect for portability, but (if you're no longer a twenty-something) you can't beat a 10" screen for clarity--even if it has a lower pixel density. So I'm now thinking of a Nexus 10, so I can leave the Transformer's keyboard at home.

[ET3D]

"We don't want you to pay £200 for a tablet with an ARM processor. We want you to spend £1000 on an ultrabook with an intel processor. You don't seem to want to do that, so let us frighten/strongarm the manufacturers to stop them selling what you want".

It seems to have worked with the netbook.

The last line has me baffled. Intel proved with the netbook that they can go for the low end market in a major way. This doesn't fit with your previous statement about Intel trying to force people to go high end.

Also got to say that I can't see really what Intel can bring to the tablet party apart from Windows8 compatibility.

Windows 8 compatibility is a good selling point IMO. In the long run Intel can bring its advanced manufacturing process and its design capabilities to create something which might surpass ARM in performance per watt.

[aidanjt]

Windows 8 compatibility is a good selling point IMO.

If the market were buying it, yes.