TECH/GADGET SPECIAL..TWO-IN-ONE...LAPTOP AND TABLET

ONE DEVICE WITH TWO SCREENS THAT SERVES BOTH AS LAPTOP AND TABLET 

Hybrid Devices Set to Storm Domestic Shores 

Well-heeled Indian consumers can look forward to the next big tech rage in 2013

What do you get when a laptop meets a tablet? Answer: a convertible, which is a single device with two screens that share the same software and hardware-—chip, memory, hard disk et al – and that you can doodle on either at the beachside or at the office.
In a month, the Indian high-end consumer will witness an array of convertible or hybrid devices that will blur the lines of differentiation between a tablet and a laptop.
Analysts and industry experts say that come 2013, 100-odd models from the likes of Asus, Acer, Lenovo and HP are expected to hit the domestic market.
Take, for instance, the Asus Taichi that was unveiled last week. It has not one but two 13.3 inch full high definition (HD) screens back-to-back and a keyboard; this makes it useful as a tablet when folded up and a laptop when opened. The two-in-one machine is powered by an i7 Intel core processor and gives the user the feel of the latest Windows 8 PC and tablet in one go.
The idea of having convertible computers is not new; Lenovo and HP have experimented with them in the past. But they never caught on as the computers were too bulky to be meaningful convertibles – until Apple introduced the iPad tablet in 2010.
Today’s there’s both hardware (tablets) and software (Microsoft’s Windows 8) that are helping re-imagine computers. Windows 8 is designed to work on both personal computers (PCs) and tablets and hence the latest attempt to make the twain of tablets and laptops meet. Most hybrids run run on Intel’s third generation i7 processors that have the capacity to power a tablet and laptop together and separately.
Lenovo’s Ideapad Yoga can be folded a full 360 degrees, transforming it from a laptop to tablet. Panasonic’s Toughbook, which can be used as tablet and laptop, has a water-resistant keyboard and touchscreen. And HP’s Envy laptop, which has a removable tablet section, is another hybrid product that industry watchers expect to be launched in 2013. Dell launched the XPS 12 Convertible in India last month for . 90,490, which has a flip hinge touch-screen display that enables easy transition from laptop to tablet and back to laptop. “Till about two weeks back, we had seen dozens of convertible designs from the likes of Lenovo, Dell and HP. Expect at least 40 designs and 100-odd models by Christmas, ready for launch,” said Sandeep Aurora, sales and marketing director for South Asia at Intel Technology India.
Devices these days are launched simultaneously across countries, so most these convertible tablets would be available in India and other global markets almost at the same time.
The new range of convertible tablets will spread the ecosystem for Windows 8, the operating system on which the convertible tablets are being launched. Microsoft launched Windows 8 in India in October and has said that PCs and tablets with the OS will be available in India from 14 OEM partners – Acer, Asus, Dell, Fujitsu, HCL, Hewlett Packard, Lenovo, RP Infosystems, Sai Info System, Samsung, Sony, Toshiba, Wipro and Zenith Computers.
    India’s tablet market has been growing exponentially. According to Cybermedia Research, 0.55 million tablets were sold in the second quarter ended June 30, about 60% more than in the first quarter and 673% higher than the previous year’s corresponding period.
Manufacturers’ Association of Information Technology (MAIT), the body for IT hardware, estimates that the market will grow to 7.3 million units by 2015-16. However, about half the market comprises tablets under . 15,000, whilst convertibles come for six times that price. Whether consumers will be willing to shell out more than . 90,000 for convertible computers is still an unanswered question. Says Vishal Tripathi, research analyst, Gartner India: “The convertibles are being targeted at the rich—the dual functionality makes them ideal to be used anywhere, anytime.” HCL Infosystems is one player that may not be strategically interested in this segment since the high-end notebooks priced above . 90,000 are only 0.4% of the total Indian market.

GULVEEN AULAKH & SHELLEY SINGH NEW DELHI ET121113