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John Morris & Sean Portnoy

LG exec says its Optimus tablet "will be better than the iPad." How will it do that?

By | August 21, 2010, 4:55pm PDT

You gotta give LG’s vice president of marketing Chang Ma points for hubris. Not only did he tell the Wall Street Journal that “The race hasn’t started yet” in regards to smartphones (um, you’re sure about that?), but he also touted LG’s forthcoming Optimus tablet thusly: “Our tablet will be better than the iPad.”

Having owned an iPad since launch, I can definitely say that the device isn’t perfect, and could be made better. But is LG the company to make the so-called “iPad killer”? As you might expect, it’s relying on Google’s Android OS, as most competitors outside of HP will be. In addition, Ma says the Optimus tablet will be focusing on productivity — from document creation to video editing. We should expect “high-end features and new benefits,” though none of those have been disclosed.

Does that mean we should be expecting a stylus to be included with LG’s slate? Some kind of alternative (slide-out?) keyboard that’s superior to the touchscreen? We already can guess that it will come with some of the features the iPad lacks — support for Adobe Flash, front and rear-facing cameras, maybe a memory-card slot. But what else will LG’s “secret sauce” for tablet superiority include?

There’s no doubt that you can build a better tablet spec list than the iPad possesses, yet that doesn’t necessarily make it a more attractive buy. (Just think of all of the features the competition lumped into its portable MP3 players, only to succumb to the iPod’s dominance.) Will those high-end features and new benefits include a processor that is as responsive as the Apple tablet’s and battery life better than what’s expected from Android devices using other CPUs (roughly half that of the iPad)? LG will be using Nvidia’s Tegra 2 processor for its Optimus phones, so maybe it’s basing its tablet around a Tegra core that could outdo an Atom or ARM-based CPU.

Still, it seems like Ma set the bar way too high considering LG’s fighting companies (like HP and Samsung) that have a lot more experience with the American market, which is ultimately where the Optimus has to compete if it’s as superior as promised. A little bravado can get you some headlines, but if it cannot deliver on the great expectations, then LG is setting itself up to come up short — once again — in North America.

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Sean Portnoy is a freelance technology journalist.

Disclosure

Sean Portnoy

Sean Portnoy is a freelance technology journalist; currently, all work that Sean does is on a contractural basis. Sean has also written corporate communications documents for CA.

Sean does not accept gifts from companies he covers. All hardware products he writes about are purchased with his own funds or are review units covered under formal loan agreements and are returned after the review is complete.

Biography

Sean Portnoy

Sean Portnoy started his tech writing career at ZDNet nearly a decade ago. He then spent several years as an editor at Computer Shopper magazine, most recently serving as online executive editor. He received a B.A. from Brown University and an M.A. from the University of Southern California.

Talkback Most Recent of 40 Talkback(s)

  • Another content-free post from ZDNet.
    Mr. Portnoy, I wasn't sure at first that you were the same person who wrote the "netbooks are no longer trendy" stuff but checking back, it seems that you are. I'd put this post of yours in the same category. In this case, a manufacturer is hyping their product...and you're surprised by that? What would you expect Chang Ma to say? Maybe "Apple rules. We can't hope to compete so we're gonna turn out crap."?

    I get it. You have an iPad. You're "trendy" and it doesn't sit well with you when other manufacturers dare to say that they are gonna do something better than Apple.

    My personal opinion is that when you find yourself with nothing worthwhile to say, you'd be well served by saying nothing. I read your post because it showed up in my RSS feed (a situation I can fix), but reading it was a waste. I have no idea what you expected your readers to take away from your words...other than to be made aware (again) of your membership in the iPad club.

    Now off to fix that RSS feed...
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Romberry
    21st Aug 2010
  • Yeah, another one
    @Romberry

    This is becoming a habit here on zdnet.

    zdnet employs some of the worst 'writers' available (not sure you can call them 'writers', if you can then you should call call them 'lazy writers' and to one or two calling them just plain idiots would describe them better.)

    I wonder why zdnet employs these people. A cost cutting measure, I guess.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    OS Reload
    22nd Aug 2010
  • Then there are the articles that are nothing more than
    @OS Reload
    A link to an article on another site. They get ranked by the click so it's a way to get a double click for doing nothing. Remember the 90's when zdnet was actually technical? Now it's a bunch of prosumers. Sigh.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    happyharry_z
    22nd Aug 2010
  • RE: LG exec says its Optimus tablet
    @Romberry Well said. I respect the high bar that Apple has set. Still, it's good to see other companies trying to raise that bar. I don't think this industry would be nearly as interesting if everyone just called it a day because they didn't want to risk losing to Apple. For those about to take on Apple, a bit of hubris is not a bad thing...
    ZDNet Gravatar
    kenhong
    22nd Aug 2010
  • RE: LG exec says its Optimus tablet
    @Romberry @OS Reload ZDNet is just doing what every other publication does: find stuff to write about, no matter how trivial. They need to have content and if there is none then you make it up by blowing nothingness into "news". That's how this medium works: you need eyeballs and ad clicks. You get them by always pushing something out.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    xxm
    23rd Aug 2010
  • Not hubris
    Hubris = excessive pride or self-confidence; arrogance.
    Chutzpah = audacity; nerve.

    I wish them luck as someone needs to compete with Apple.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    davebarnes
    21st Aug 2010
  • RE: LG exec says its Optimus tablet
    @davebarnes Seeing as they are Lucky Goldstar they need all the luck they can get to compete with iPad. wink But you are right. Competition is good.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    statuskwo5
    21st Aug 2010
  • We are talking about LG here
    Doubt they can build anything that is no more than a cheap clone.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    wackoae
    21st Aug 2010
  • Stop the presses!
    The head marketeer says that their product will be better than the competition's product. Gee, what a surprise!
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Userama
    22nd Aug 2010
  • Zero calories of information, courtesy of zdnet.
    Another great content-light piece. Kudos to zdnet for serving content that's so light that the obesity epidemic will soon be nothing but a bad memory. Provided all other content producers follow zdnet's lead, of course.

    Thanks zdnet for allowing me to read, read, read and read and in the end no info has been absorbed. Zero calories of information and you can do it all day long as much as you wish.

    Now that's light.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    OS Reload
    22nd Aug 2010
  • RE: LG exec says its Optimus tablet
    And if you talk to HP they say that their next release will be so much better. And guess that's so with Nokia, Sony etc.!
    Where's the beef?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    Agnostic_OS
    22nd Aug 2010
  • It's probably not that hard to blow the iPad away.
    Having the iPad based on the iPhone's OS puts a lot of limitations on it in the software department. Ditch the closed garden, and you've got a much more usable computer. I own a Palm Pre, but I'm not thrilled with HP's intention to put it on a tablet, for that very reason. (And with WebOS, it's a considerably larger problem, because there are far fewer apps for WebOS.)
    ZDNet Gravatar
    bhartman36
    22nd Aug 2010
  • Are they going to be given away with a 2 year contract?
    Because Android is doing well only because it is being given away with a 2 year contract and 2 for 1 deal.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    wackoae
    22nd Aug 2010
  • So?
    @wackoae
    What's your point? That Android tablets are better bang for buck than iPads?
    ZDNet Gravatar
    NonZealot
    22nd Aug 2010
  • Yep. It's never a good sign when
    you have to cut prices to move product. Basic law of economics. It means demand is weak.
    ZDNet Gravatar
    frgough
    23rd Aug 2010

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