Android tablets

Toshiba plans to expand its tablet offerings in the U.S. later this year as it explores more screen sizes and price points.

Hewlett-Packard in the next few days will ship the $169 Slate 7, the company's first product for the consumer tablet market since the spectacular failure of the WebOS-based TouchPad in 2011.

Those in the market for a cheap Android tablet will have to wait a few months longer for HP's Slate 7.

Improving Windows 8 is Microsoft's best bet for grabbing a larger share of tablet sales over the next four years, but there doesn't seem much it can do to accelerate the projected slow growth of Windows RT over the same time period, IDC says.

Web traffic on Android tablets from various vendors grew substantially after the Christmas holiday, cutting the iPad's share by more than 7%.

Despite the fact that the Android handset market is a cruel and unforgiving place, most of the major players haven't been overly aggressive toward each other, at least in public. The rare direct swipe at a competitor tends to be reserved for That Other Smartphone.

The latest predictions from researcher IDC show a continuing increase in tablet sales from the end of 2012 all the way through 2016, according to the company's latest Worldwide Quarterly Tablet Tracker.

Nagging questions shadow the impending launch of Windows 8, threatening to scuttle Microsoft's plans to reinvent itself for the age of mobility. Will desktop users graciously accept the redesigned Modern interface? Will the Windows Store have enough apps to entice would-be Surface RT buyers? Can Windows 8 breathe life into sagging PC sales?

While developer interest in Apple's mobile devices remains high, interest in Android has stalled among programmers disappointed with tablet prices and pressed by Android fragmentation, a survey published today showed.

Android tablets grabbed a 22% share of the world's tablet market last quarter, denting for the first time the iPad's dominance, a research firm said today.