HTC is making a big bet that customers will endorse the company's Flyer tablet even though one of its input selling points is a stylus. Analysts are skeptical.
HTC's Flyer Android tablet
stood out from the pack of tablet launched
at Mobile World Congress last week for a few reasons, not the least of which
was the fact that the device is accessible though touch gestures and a capacitive
stylus pen.
That's right; the stylus, a salient feature in Microsoft tablets
that failed in the past, is back for another go-round.
HTP Chief Innovation Officer Horace Luke, who was
responsible for the stylus, told the
New York Times the inclusion of the digital
pen is no novelty, noting that it was geared to effort to differentiate from
other Android tablets.
Indeed, the Flyer, which will
run a hybrid Android 2.4 build on a
7-inch screen powered by a 1.5GHz processor, will contend with the
Android 3.0-based Motorola Xoom, the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 and other tablets
this year.
Stylus activity on the Flyer will be supported by HTC's new
Scribe technology. For example, a user can write notes in the margin of Websites or a
caption on a taken photo and tap the screen to send the page and notes to
contacts or social networks such as Facebook.
"There are certain things that are natural about the
way we write and collect information," Luke said. "Not everyone knows
how to type, but the second you pick up a pencil, you start scribbling."
Really? Can anyone really imagine anyone who
would buy a tablet with such high-tech software, applications and other
doo-dads and perks and not know how to type?
It seems almost unfathomable in today's tech-savvy world,
where first adopters leapt to grab Apple's iPads without the benefit of
thorough testing the recycled form factor.
Analysts are decidedly none-too-bullish on tablets with
styluses living in a touch-gesture world.
"I give HTC credit for trying something different,
but I am skeptical that consumers will buy into it," Gartner analyst
Carolina Milanesi told eWEEK. "There are many iPad users that use apps
like Penultimate with capacitive pens so there is certainly a market for it
but I would not necessarily make it the selling point."
Forrester Research analyst Sarah Rotman Epps has some
empirical data to support Milanesi's sentiment.
Epps said that in a survey of 4,500 U.S. consumers taken online
in January 2011 only 10 percent of respondents said they considered a stylus/pen
as part of their consideration for shopping for a tablet.
HTC may have a bigger problem than the pen: brand
recognition in the United States. While HTC has enjoyed significant growth selling
Android smarpthones, this is the company's first stab at tablets.
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