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Category: Performance testing on tablets

Tablets everywhere

Everyone wants in on the tablet market. This month, two software vendors have announced hardware tablets—Microsoft’s Surface and Google’s Nexus 7. Both vendors in the past relied on OEMs to create tablets using their software (Windows and Android). Both have met with limited success doing so.

Now, both are trying Apple’s strategy of controlling the hardware as well the software. Unlike Apple, however, Microsoft and Google still need to work with their OEM partners. I’m looking forward to watching that delicate dance!

I’m looking forward more, however, to being able to actually play with both of those products. I’m also looking forward to using TouchXPRT on such products. We have not given you an update in a while on TouchXPRT, but rest assured that we are hard at work on it. Once we have HDXPRT 2012 ready to go, we will give you more details on where we are with TouchXPRT and its current schedule. The touch and tablet market are heating up and we plan to be there for it. As we have indicated before, we will support Windows 8 Metro in the first version, but we see a real need for TouchXPRT to work on multiple platforms. So much to do!

Please note that today is the end of the beta test period. We appreciate the results, bugs, and suggestions you have sent so far. Feel free, however, to continue to send us any feedback or issues you find even after the official beta period is complete. After today, we can’t guarantee to be able to address them, but we will try.

Bill

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Home sweet home

After a long set of flights back from Computex in Taipei, I’m finally home in North Carolina. Unfortunately, I’m still not quite sure what time zone I’m in!

While awake in the middle of the night, I’ve been thinking about some of the things I saw at Computex.  While I was there, it seemed like a jumble of notebooks, power supplies, gaming rigs, motherboards, cases, Hello Kitty accessories, and some things that I still don’t quite know what they were.   Many of the things I saw were not brand new, but it was my first chance to see them up close.  Some of them were of technologies still on the horizon like Intel’s Ultrabook concept and Microsoft’s Windows 8.  I also saw all sorts of combinations of phones, 4G, and other devices.

One thing that stood out to me were the number and variety of tablets.  They were in a variety of sizes (and screen resolutions).  There were quite a few vendors and some were ones I would not have suspected but was pleasantly surprised to encounter, like Viewsonic and Shuttle.  The OS choices included Android, WebOS, and MeeGo.   ASUS had a couple of interesting hybrid approaches such as the Eee Pad Transformer and the Padfone.  The former is a 10.1-inch tablet that plugs into a keyboard.  The Padfone is a smartphone that can plug into the back of a larger (10.1-inch) touch screen to act as a tablet.

All of these tablet choices, as well as the iPad that they all must be compete against, left me wondering how to choose between them.  Some part of the choice comes down to the size and features.  As always, however, performance plays a key role.  My tolerance for waiting on a tablet device is even lower than it is for waiting on my PC.  The problem is how to make valid comparisons across such a wide range of platforms.  I’d love to hear from you what you think about performance testing on tablets.  Is it useful?  What are the best ways to accomplish it?

Finally, thanks to all the folks who came by and visited our suite at Computex.  I enjoyed getting the chance to meet some of the members of the HDXPRT Development Community.  And, hopefully, I convinced more folks to join.

Bill

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