What is different is the nomenclature. Before, Asian hardware manufacturers showed reference designs for "mobile Internet devices," a kludgy term used to describe products such as Nokia's Symbian-based Internet Tablet several years ago (the term never caught on). Going even further back, "tablet PC" once specifically meant a slate-shaped Windows-based PC; that definition dates back to the Tablet PC initiative that Microsoft discussed at CES in 2001.
So much of what I saw this year consisted of just reference designs and prototypes; manufacturers put these on display at the show to gauge what customer (read: retailer) interest is in their product concept, or to find a U.S. distributor interested in selling the product in retail channels. Of course, having a reference design or prototype alone does not equate to a company's actually bringing a product to market--let alone to the U.S.-based mass market (as opposed to a regional Japan-, Asia-, or Europe-only release).
NEC demonstrated this tablet at a preshow media event as well as on the show floor, but the company clearly noted that what we saw was a reference design, not a shipping product in the way that, for instance, a Blu-ray player or HDTV is a shipping product (even if it won't ship for several months). NEC was vague on release plans and details, and the company didn't enumerate plans to bring the tablet to market at all in the United States, just that it would come out in Europe and Asia. I wouldn't be surprised if this tablet never sees the light of day.
Oftentimes, the products shown at CES are hand-built preproduction or prototype models that may not even carry the components--or software--planned for them.
MSI's Android tablet, the WindPad 100A, didn't have a specific release timeframe attached (though a similar Android pad appeared as a prototype last year, too). The company did say that this unit will ship with Android 3.0 (Honeycomb), and that it's aiming for spring or summer. The tablet will run Nvidia's Tegra 2, but other internal specs, such as storage, will depend on component pricing at the time. And the display shown at the show? A 1280-by-600-pixel prototype. The shipping display will be 1280 by 800.
Chatter among CES attendees and analysts estimates that anywhere from 75 to 125 "tablets" were presented at the show. Assuming that such wild estimates are correct, the truth of the matter is that we'll be lucky if a third of those tablets actually come to the mass market under branded names (be they known companies such as Creative and Motorola, or lesser-known companies now in the game like Efun and StreamTV).
Many more tablets will come to market as low-cost offerings. And of those, some should never really find their way into consumers' hands: Their cost-cutting components--including less-powerful chipsets, a lack of Google mobile services and Android Market, unresponsive resistive touchscreens, and low-resolution displays--are bound to make for a mediocre user experience. But there will also be some gems in the rough, tablets that won't be from marquee names or even have top-notch specs but will deliver what they promise and provide a surprisingly smooth user experience.
It's those tablets--together with the Apple iPad juggernaut and the crème de la crème of Android 3.0-based tablets--that are leading the revolution now under way. And tablets will truly go big when the low-cost generic offerings can further close the gap with the premium products.