Livestand, announced last week, isn't exactly new, and nor is the iPad -- but amid the frenzied launches of a half-dozen Android tablets (and the Android village, pictured), it stood out like a visitor from Mars. No doubt some in the audience wondered if they were seeing the next-generation tablet OS that Google CEO Eric Schmidt hinted at yesterday. (After all, that too starts with an "i.")
Bartz was sharing the stage with Intel CEO Paul Otellini, who was likewise short on new product announcements. Instead, Otellini offered a coy hint -- that there would be smartphones based on Intel chips for the first time launching sometime this year. From whom, he wouldn't say. "I don't want to preannounce our partners," he said. "I think it's going to be pretty exciting."
Following Bartz and Otellini to the stage were Stephen Elop, CEO of Nokia, and Jim Balsille, co-CEO of Research in Motion. Technically, these guys own the top two mobile operating systems in the world, Symbian and BlackBerry. But nobody expects them to maintain that position for long, given the inexorable rise of Android and iOS. Elop and Balsille chose different ways to deflect that kind of questioning -- Elop by pointing out all the good things Nokia does in the developing world, and Balsille by drawing attention to his recently-launched BlackBerry tablet, the 4G PlayBook. Instead of using it, though, he merely held it screen-forward throughout his keynote and Q&A, like a totem.
For the rest of the day, there was a palpable sense that the show is getting ready to wind down. Announcements were thin on the ground, although Motorola CEO Sanjay Jha did confirm long-standing rumors that his Xoom tablet would cost $799 on Verizon Wireless when it launches later this month. A Wifi-only version will cost $600 -- the same entry price point as that mysterious Martian object, the iPad.
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