SignPost: Ripping the tablet envelope to shreds

People used to talk about "pushing the envelope" when the limits of what had appeared possible were challenged. In the age of e-mail, the concept of the envelope is somewhat archaic. And in the age of accelerating consumer technology advances, merely "pushing" seems to disregard what is actually possible.

This month, Asus, Samsung and Sony ripped apart the envelope of device evolution. Not only new products, but new categories of product suddenly appeared.

Asus was first out of the box with its debut "dual OS" device: a computer that runs two separate operating systems. Asus's Transformer Book Trio is a combination of tablet and ultrabook, with an 11.6-inch multitouch screen for tablet functionality and a docking port that turns the tablet into an ultrabook laptop computer.

This means the device can house two separate processors: an Intel Atom chip designed for tablets, powering the Android operating system, and an Intel Haswell chip for ultrabooks, allowing Windows 8 to perform smoothly on the device. Significantly, the tablet portion has 64GB of storage, whereas the dock hides a 1TB hard drive.

That is serious fire power and it will have a serious price tag when the device is shipped later this year.

Samsung hopes to offer similar functionality without the technical gymnastics in the ATIV Q, unveiled this week. It answers the same questions that led to the manufacture of the Trio, namely: How can a device that meets business needs also meet the recreational needs most commonly associated with tablets? This is not merely a "nice-to-have" question. It goes to the heart of the "bring-your-own-device" trend, which is seeing companies increasingly allowing staff to bring their own consumer-oriented computers to the office so they can be more flexible in when and how they perform work tasks.

The ATIV Q is a laptop with a 13.3-inch screen that folds into a tablet. As a laptop, it runs Windows 8 and as a tablet it relies - like the Asus device - on the latest version of Android: Jelly Bean. The real magic of the device is its ability to transfer files between Windows and Android.

That is, of course, scary for network administrators, who see a massive security threat looming. Samsung has addressed the concern with a security system called Knox, which in effect quarantines office work from play.

In the context of these big bets from Asus and Samsung, the timing of Sony's latest announcements is rather interesting. The company's VAIO range once all but owned the market for ultramobile laptops. And it chose this week for its latest performance.

Along with several cutting-edge smartphones, Sony revealed the VAIO Duo 13, described as a "slider hybrid". Following in the footsteps of Acer, another company that has been experimenting with new shapes and formats recently, it allows the 13-inch screen to be used as a tablet when in "slate" mode, or to slide back and up to become an ultrabook. As a slate, it can be operated by touch or with a stylus and the keyboard mode allows both touch and PC-style usage.

It runs on the new Haswell processor, which means it wakes from sleep mode in one second flat - and has a full day's battery life.

That could well be the most significant feature of the Duo. But it has another advantage: it has already arrived in South Africa, along with its big brother, the VAIO Pro, also running on Haswell, making these the first devices in the country with the new Intel chip.

The envelope lies in tatters.

• Arthur Goldstuck is founder of World Wide Worx and editor-in-chief of Gadget.co.za. Follow him on Twitter on @art2gee