Motorola hypes its tablet by calling Apple's iPad a 'giant iPhone'
Motorola on Monday released a teaser video to hype its own tablet, set to be unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show, and also put down Apple's iPad, calling it a "giant iPhone."
The animated video is a tour of a virtual museum of tablets, starting jokingly with objects like the Ten Commandments and the Rosetta Stone. It then showed the GRiDPad launched in 1989 with a 20MB hard drive.
The promotional video, dubbed "Tablet Evolution," then show's Apple's iPad. "It's like a giant iPhone," the video reads. "But... it's like a giant iPhone."
The video also puts down Samsung's Galaxy Tab, regarded as the first legitimate competitor to the iPad. Motorola's video puts down the Galaxy tab for running "Android OS... for a phone."
The final object in the "museum" is concealed, sitting atop a stand with a Motorola logo. A bee flies on to the screen, hinting at the codename for the next version of the Android mobile operating system, before teasing that the product will be unveiled at CES 2011.
"From ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic tablets to the modern tablet, we're buzzing with excitement to be the next chapter in tablet evolution," the video's official description reads.
The device is likely based on the Motorola tablet demoed by Google's Andy Rubin at a conference earlier this month. That prototype device was running Android 3.0 "Honeycomb," and had a dual-core 3D processor, Nvidia graphics, and video chat functionality.
Rubin said that Honeycomb will be built to support tablets as well as phones. Samsung's Galaxy Tab runs a previous version of the Android operating system, which is not designed for larger screens.
Motorola's history of tablet computing omits any mention of Apple's 1994 Newton MessagePad and the wireless Motorola Marco that licensed Apple's Newton OS in 1995.
It also omits Motorola's acquisition of Symbol Technologies in 2007, which gave the company a wide variety of devices running the now obsolete Palm OS and Windows Mobile.
Until recently, Apple used Motorola's Symbol PDA devices in its retail stores, before it switched to using its own iOS-based EasyPay mobile terminals based on the iPod touch, something a number of retailers are also investigating.
The animated video is a tour of a virtual museum of tablets, starting jokingly with objects like the Ten Commandments and the Rosetta Stone. It then showed the GRiDPad launched in 1989 with a 20MB hard drive.
The promotional video, dubbed "Tablet Evolution," then show's Apple's iPad. "It's like a giant iPhone," the video reads. "But... it's like a giant iPhone."
The video also puts down Samsung's Galaxy Tab, regarded as the first legitimate competitor to the iPad. Motorola's video puts down the Galaxy tab for running "Android OS... for a phone."
The final object in the "museum" is concealed, sitting atop a stand with a Motorola logo. A bee flies on to the screen, hinting at the codename for the next version of the Android mobile operating system, before teasing that the product will be unveiled at CES 2011.
"From ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic tablets to the modern tablet, we're buzzing with excitement to be the next chapter in tablet evolution," the video's official description reads.
The device is likely based on the Motorola tablet demoed by Google's Andy Rubin at a conference earlier this month. That prototype device was running Android 3.0 "Honeycomb," and had a dual-core 3D processor, Nvidia graphics, and video chat functionality.
Rubin said that Honeycomb will be built to support tablets as well as phones. Samsung's Galaxy Tab runs a previous version of the Android operating system, which is not designed for larger screens.
Motorola's history of tablet computing omits any mention of Apple's 1994 Newton MessagePad and the wireless Motorola Marco that licensed Apple's Newton OS in 1995.
It also omits Motorola's acquisition of Symbol Technologies in 2007, which gave the company a wide variety of devices running the now obsolete Palm OS and Windows Mobile.
Until recently, Apple used Motorola's Symbol PDA devices in its retail stores, before it switched to using its own iOS-based EasyPay mobile terminals based on the iPod touch, something a number of retailers are also investigating.
Comments
Calling something a giant iPhone... not really an insult.
HONEYCOMB HONEYCOMB ME WANT HONEYCOMB! </cheesy 1980s kids tv ad referance>
I am excited to see such competition, this is what drives innovation and forces leaders like apple to innovate because they want to stay ahead....lest they repeat the mistakes opf the mac 1985-1999, letting it fall from the gold standard to a laughing stock when OS 8 was compared to NT4
Let's see them try to sell *that*.
Bees sting once and die.
thats what she said
Calling something a giant iPhone... not really an insult.
Seriously. That "insult" flies out the window the second you touch an iPad and realize how awesome a giant iPhone is.
So, iPad is a "giant iPhone." Well, Motorola's tablet is a "giant Turd."
Let's see them try to sell *that*.
hey, this is a family blog, call the moto tablet what it is, a giant "Rokr"
Also what should the iPad look like physically, if not like an iPhone?
Should it perhaps have a mouse and keyboard? Hang on that's a laptop.
Anyway to be associated with the iPhone is the ultimate compliment.
Pretty amusing. They conveniently ignore that iOS is optimized fort he iPad to provide a unique but familiar tablet experience but embrace that Google is attempting to do the exact same thing (not that Google will do it anywhere near as well right out the gate). How many people eat this stuff up?
It is pretty ironic and/or pathetic.
Calling something a giant iPhone... not really an insult.
This was my first thought. I really like my iPhone and frankly it is what has me interested in an iPad. I still get a bit frustrated at the lack of support for some media files on the net but that is slowly being addressed by things like VLC.
HONEYCOMB HONEYCOMB ME WANT HONEYCOMB! </cheesy 1980s kids tv ad referance>
I am excited to see such competition, this is what drives innovation and forces leaders like apple to innovate because they want to stay ahead....lest they repeat the mistakes opf the mac 1985-1999, letting it fall from the gold standard to a laughing stock when OS 8 was compared to NT4
This could be a very real problem as Apple does have a history here of stagnating at just the wrong time. Besides I don't see real competition coming from Android as the platform is a mess. What Apple has to look out for is RIM and Playbook as I see that platform as having great potential if they can mature it fast enough.
In any event I've made the decision to not purchase a tablet until iPad 2 and some of the competition hits the market place. At that point it will be the unit offering the best feature set at the lowest price. IPad 2 will most likely lead the pack but as noted above Apple does have a history of doing the wrong thing at the wrong time in such a way that it drives off customers.
Calling something a giant iPhone... not really an insult.
Especially since their version is likely to be an exact knock off of an iPad.
This was my first thought. I really like my iPhone and frankly it is what has me interested in an iPad. I still get a bit frustrated at the lack of support for some media files on the net but that is slowly being addressed by things like VLC.
In any event I've made the decision to not purchase a tablet until iPad 2 and some of the competition hits the market place. At that point it will be the unit offering the best feature set at the lowest price. IPad 2 will most likely lead the pack but as noted above Apple does have a history of doing the wrong thing at the wrong time in such a way that it drives off customers.
They didn't have Steve Jobs at the helm when they did OS 8. They had Gil Amelio. And anyway, the Apple in 1995 was way different than the Apple in 2010. I doubt that they'll mess up at all. Just try not to buy it when the herds of customers come up and start having waiting lists for the iPad 2
HONEYCOMB HONEYCOMB ME WANT HONEYCOMB! </cheesy 1980s kids tv ad referance>
I am excited to see such competition, this is what drives innovation and forces leaders like apple to innovate because they want to stay ahead....lest they repeat the mistakes opf the mac 1985-1999, letting it fall from the gold standard to a laughing stock when OS 8 was compared to NT4
I've heard that tired narration before. ZZZZZZ!
Apple has sold something like 10 million ipads.
Moto is about to drop a tablet into the market where literally scores of competitors will put out a honeycomb powered tablet. AND CHEAP!!!!!!!!
Moto's tablet will get marginalized so bad by all the sh** coming from Asian suppliers they will haul a** out the tablet market real quick and count their lucky stars that they still make money selling ink for their shi**y printers.