iPad 3 vs. Android Tablets at Mobile World Congress

NEWS ANALYSIS: When looking at the 2012 Mobile World Congress show, it seems that tablet makers, realizing that they can’t beat the iPad 3, are trying to play different games instead. Will it work?

After the 2012 Mobile World Congress wraps up in Barcelona, Spain, this week, the mobile world€™s attention will turn to San Francisco, where Apple is likely to announce the iPad 3 March 7. While the iPad 3 isn€™t really a product yet, at least in theory, it€™s clear that the rest of the tablet industry is already trying to scramble out of the way so that their devices don€™t get crushed in the onslaught.

Although Apple isn€™t even at MWC, it€™s still the 1,000-pound gorilla in the room.

This means that tablet manufacturers have been looking desperately for some way to appear to be different from the iPad.

Asus is an excellent example.

Instead of slugging it out with Apple in an ill-conceived struggle that it€™ll never win, Asus has come up with the Padfone. This is a tablet with an embedded smartphone. The 4.3-inch phone acts as the tablet€™s brains, while the tablet is really just a docking station and display for the phone. Both devices run Android 4.0€”or Ice Cream Sandwich€”and there€™s a Bluetooth accessory that lets you answer the phone while it€™s inside the tablet.

But that€™s not all that€™s happening at Asus. The company has also launched new models of its Transformer Pad, which lets you convert a tablet into a laptop. This is similar to what Hewlett-Packard started doing a decade ago with a series of Microsoft Windows-based tablet computers that in various configurations had either a foldaway keyboard or a removable keyboard that allowed the tablet to operate independently. The biggest difference between then and now is that the new Asus tablets use Android rather than Windows, and it reflects current practice in tablet design.

HP, meanwhile, still makes those tablets, along with a similar Slate Tablet.

Adding to the mix is something called the €œsuper phone,€ or €œphablet.€

Appearing at first to be a mild-mannered Samsung Galaxy, the illusion vanishes as you approach it. This phone has a 5.3-inch screen, and recognizing its size takes away from its usefulness as a phone, Samsung has decided to call it the Galaxy Note. The big screen lends itself to note taking (thus, the name) and in a back-to-the-future change, the Galaxy Note includes an active stylus, something that other tablet makers, such as HTC, are also starting to use with their smaller tablets.