![\"Tablets\"](\"\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/tablets_428583102.jpg\" "\\"Tablets\\"")
<\/p>\nThe question I have been asking myself over the past month is a very simple one, and one which I would guess is being asked by many of the companies making the growing range of of tablet PC devices and the operating systems that drive them: which factors will decide which companies come out on top in the long run and can we learn anything from the history of the PC?<\/p>\n
In the PC world it was the relentless pursuit of global domination by Microsoft that ensured that Windows ended up as the de-facto desktop operating system for almost the entire globe. There were a couple of other factors in play and of those, the ability of Windows to run on hardware built by multiple manufacturers was probably the most important of the lot.<\/p>\n
While Microsoft might have published minimum and recommended specifications to run its operating systems, there were always plenty of hardware vendors who were happy to slap Windows onto a minimum spec machine and let the consumer wonder why the thing ran slower than a chicken through molasses.<\/p>\n
In the tablet PC operating system game we currently have four players: HP (Web OS); Apple (iOS); Google (Android); and RIM (QNX Playbook OS). Microsoft is expected to soon enter the fray with a Tablet PC version of Windows.<\/p>\n
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Of the five mentioned above, only two – Google and Microsoft – have an open approach to hardware platforms, and of those two, only Google has an operating system that can take on the low-end of the market.<\/p>\n
Microsoft has yet to produce a tablet PC version of Windows, but we can expect that they may take a similar approach to their vendor requirements for using Windows Phone 7 (WP7).<\/p>\n
In an effort to ensure that WP7 runs well on mobile devices, Microsoft has set a minimum hardware specification that manufacturers have to meet before they can put WP7 on their products. Microsoft may take a similar approach to the tablet PC market, thereby restricting a Windows tablet PC OS to the high end of that market.<\/p>\n
Today there aren’t a lot of cheap tablet computers knocking around, in fact you can still buy a PC for less than a tablet, but this is unlikely to last forever. Sooner or later there will be a plethora of tablets with many of them targeting the lower end of the market. The question is: which operating system will the majority of these tablets be running?<\/p>\n
I can tell you what they won’t be running; it won’t be iOS, WebOS or QNX. These are all bonded to hardware manufacturers that might play for the low-end but still have to maintain brand standards. Microsoft might be a player, but so far it is behind the game. They would probably have to release a ‘Windows Tablet Lite OS’ to cater for the low-end of the market.<\/p>\n
If I were a betting man, I would be putting my money on Android. With broader platform compatibility, an open architecture, and the deep pockets of Google to fund continued development, Android is clearly the front-runner to deliver an operating system for the next generation of tablet devices.<\/p>\n
This ‘next-gen’ tablet device won’t simply be a toy for geeks and hipsters, but something that will be as affordable as mobile phones are today.<\/p>\n