Bits Blog: Samsung Electronics Goes Big on Tablets

PC Industry Fights to Adapt as Tablets Muscle In

Like the mainframe, which was said to be dead decades ago but has remained a meaningful business, the PC will almost certainly cheat death. True, mobile devices like the iPad will continue to gore PC sales. Those mobile devices, though, will most likely never satisfy spreadsheet masters, film editors and other workers who depend on multiple screens and the precision of a keyboard and mouse.

Still, there is a strong view among many longtime tech executives that the PC’s relevance will steadily diminish.

“In my humble opinion, the PC as we have known it is in a continuous decline and being relegated to a utility device for businesses,” said Hector Ruiz, the former chief executive of Advanced Micro Devices, a company that makes chips for PCs and other devices.

The mood around the PC industry has become increasingly glum. The business is effectively in a recession, and there is no upturn in sight. During the second quarter of the year, global PC shipments fell around 11 percent, for their fifth consecutive quarter of declines, the worst downturn since the advent of the PC more than 30 years ago.

Intel, supplier of the chips in most PCs, and Microsoft, which makes the Windows operating system on the vast majority of those machines, have delivered disappointing financial results. An overhaul of Microsoft’s software, Windows 8, did not lift sales and may have made them worse.

The once-mighty Dell, deeply weakened by the PC slump, is mired in a struggle with shareholders over a plan to go private, seeking relief from investor pressure. In their bid to take the company private, Michael S. Dell, the founder, and the investment firm Silver Lake have argued that they would turn the company into a corporate software services provider. A vote on Dell’s future is expected this week.

While sales of PCs to businesses remain steady, demand among consumers has plunged, largely because people are instead buying iPads, Kindle Fires and other tablets.

Still, a reality check: more than 300 million PCs are expected to be shipped this year globally. That is a lot of widgets for a business that has caught a cold.

Tablet sales are growing explosively. This year, there are expected to be more than 200 million shipments of the devices, which will for the first time exceed shipments of notebooks, the largest category of PCs, estimates Gartner, the research firm.

Steven P. Jobs, the Apple chief executive who died in 2011, predicted several years ago that PCs would become something like trucks, workhorses used by many people but outnumbered by tablets, the cars of the technology business. (The analogy is somewhat undercut by stats: the most popular vehicle in the United States for several years has been a truck, the Ford F-150.)

One theory is that tablets are leading PC shoppers to postpone purchases of new computers, perhaps by a year or two, but that eventually people will be ready for a fresh machine. “Replacement cycles are being pushed out,” said Toni Sacconaghi, an analyst at Bernstein Research.

A more pessimistic view is that a lot of the consumer demand for PCs will never return. Daniel Huttenlocher, the dean and vice provost of Cornell University’s new New York City technology campus, said consumers began buying PCs in big numbers beginning in the 1990s largely because no better device existed for getting on the Internet.

But the PC, he said, was always better suited as an office machine for the production of documents, presentations and other work. In his view, tablets are better for the consumption of content, whether that is watching Netflix or surfing the Web.

“There are way more consumers than producers, period, even in a world with lots of user-generated content,” Dr. Huttenlocher said.

In the first quarter, 53 percent of computer shipments were to the consumer market while 47 percent were to the commercial market, estimates the research firm IDC.

Embracing Tablets, Comic Book Publishers Cash In on a Digital Revolution

At Comic-Con International, the annual comic book convention here last week, publishers embraced tablets and e-readers to show off their wares, and companies like comiXology demonstrated technological innovations to better distribute those offerings.

ComiXology, which has become one of the biggest distributors of digital comic books, hit a milestone in June when it reached 180 million unique comic book downloads since it started business in 2009, said David Steinberger, the company’s chief executive, and a co-founder. Of those downloads, 80 million were in the last six months.

The company’s success mirrors a surge in digital sales, which reached $70 million last year, up from $25 million in 2011, according to a report released July 15 by ICv2, an online trade publication that covers pop culture. Digital sales made up 19 percent of the total North American market, which rose 13 percent to $750 million in 2012, up from $665 million the year before.

At the comiXology booth at Comic-Con, fans swiped their fingers across a variety of tablets to view the offerings as comiXology employees explained how the system worked.

“Amazing!” said Chris W. Palmenberg, a visitor from Tucson, Ariz., as he gave the comiXology team a thumbs-up. “When I first saw the iPad, I knew this would be great for comics,” he said. A longtime reader of print comic books, Mr. Palmenberg made the switch to comiXology’s platform two years ago for the ease of portability.

“I think that we contributed to the revolution in digital comics,” Mr. Steinberger said. Supported by in-app purchases, comiXology was No. 3 on Apple’s list of top 10 apps in 2012. Its business model helped persuade DC and Marvel to sign deals to distribute their comic books digitally through comiXology the same day they are released in print.

Working with partners like comiXology on distribution allows DC to better focus on producing good stories, said Jim Lee, the co-publisher of DC Entertainment, adding, “The Holy Grail was the distribution issue.”

For years, comic book publishers faced a problem of poor distribution. In the 1960s and ’70s, comic books were sold at newsstands and bookstores. As they migrated to specialty shops, publishers broadened their offerings and aimed at a niche audience, fueling a speculation boom among collectors in the 1980s. After an eventual bust a decade later, the number of specialty shops shrank. By this time, distribution had become too focused on existing readers and had failed to attract new ones.

But with the digital revolution, publishers seem to have overcome their distribution woes. Through computers and mobile devices, they can now reach readers anywhere in the world.

DC said it had been able to take advantage of the new distribution model to reach new readers. Thirty percent of readers of Injustice, a book based on a video game, were new to comic books, Mr. Lee said.

Not only does technology promote innovation, it lowers barriers to the market, allowing new publishers to enter.

After taking two years to develop its technology to create motion books, Madefire, based in Berkeley, Calif., opened for business last year. Its initial strategy was to focus on original content with features like animation, sound and music and deliver it through its own app. Madefire also has a Web distribution deal with DeviantArt.

“We’ve optimized for a digital-first reading experience,” said Ben Wolstenholme, a co-founder and the chief executive of Madefire.

To broaden its audience, Madefire started working with small publishers like Top Cow and Boom Studios. It recently announced a deal with IDW to create motion books for Star Trek, My Little Pony and Transformers. Now, Madefire has to balance its original content with licensed properties, but Mr. Wolstenholme said the strategy was to reach a more mainstream audience.

Lion Forge Comics, a start-up based in St. Louis, is also taking a similar approach. This was its first year at Comic-Con, but it has already announced a deal to publish comic books based on old NBC shows like “Knight Rider” and “Punky Brewster.”

“I think it’s a good time for new companies,” said David Steward II, managing partner and creative director at Lion Forge. “You can do new things in different ways, versus changing direction, which the more established companies can’t.”

Microsoft Profit Misses as Surface Tablets Languish; Shares Drop

The stock fell 5 percent after hours from 5-year highs.

The massive charge underlines the struggles of the world's largest software company, which last week announced a deep reorganization to transform itself into a "devices and services" leader, but is struggling to make mobile computing as attractive as Apple Inc or Google Inc.

"That's the biggest miss we've ever seen from Microsoft, the biggest that I could remember," said Brendan Barnicle, an analyst at Pacific Crest Securities. "It looks like everything was weak."

Before the sell-off late Thursday, Microsoft shares had risen 32 percent this year, beating a 19 percent rise in the Standard & Poor's 500 index.

Microsoft said the $900 million charge was related to its Surface RT tablet, the version of its tablet running on ARM Holdings-designed chips. The Surface was meant to challenge Apple's iPad when it was launched alongside Windows 8 in October, but has not sold well.

Earlier this week, Microsoft said it was drastically cutting prices and expanding distribution of the model to entice buyers, reducing the value of Surface devices in its inventory.

"We do know we have to do better, particular in mobile devices," Amy Hood, Microsoft's new chief financial officer, said in a telephone interview. "That's a big reason we made the strategic organizational changes last week."

Microsoft's biggest shake-up in five years, unveiled by Chief Executive Steve Ballmer last week, creates a single devices unit for the first time at the company, suggesting that it will double down on its so-far unsuccessful move into hardware.

Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft reported fiscal fourth-quarter profit of 59 cents per share, compared with a 6 cents per share loss in the year-ago quarter when it wrote off the cost of a failed acquisition.

Wall Street had estimated earnings of 75 cents per share, on average, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S. Excluding the Surface charge, Microsoft reported 66 cents per share profit, a less drastic miss.

Revenue rose 10 percent to $19.9 billion, helped by sales of Microsoft's Office suite of applications, but fell short of analysts' average estimate of $20.7 billion.

Sales of Windows rose slightly, but only because of the inclusion of some deferred revenue, weighed down by an estimated 11 percent dip in PC sales in the quarter.

Microsoft's Windows 8 has sold more than 100 million licenses since launching in October, but is struggling to win over many consumers confused by the new design which is more suited to tablets than traditional PCs. Acknowledging this, Microsoft is releasing a revamped version of the system called Windows 8.1 later this year, which brings back the iconic 'start' button.

(Additional reporting by Liana Baker in New York; Editing by Richard Chang)

France Urged to Impose Tax on Smartphones and Tablets

PARIS — France’s “cultural exception” — the policy that creative works like books, music and movies deserve protection beyond what is accorded ordinary goods — is in line for a digital update.

A government adviser has suggested that manufacturers pay a 1 percent levy on the price of smartphones and tablet computers to help keep funding for such works alive, as more and more end up online and beyond the reach of existing taxes.

The tax, “painless for the consumer,” could also be used to ensure that artists are remunerated at a time when so much is downloaded free, said the report, which was presented Monday to President François Hollande and his culture minister, Aurélie Filippetti.

“Considering the weight of cultural content in connected devices, it is legitimate that those who make and distribute the equipment contribute to the financing of its creation,” according to the report, produced under the guidance of a former television executive and journalist, Pierre Lescure.

“L’exception culturelle” is no trifling matter: Nicole Bricq, the French trade minister, warned in March that it was “a red line” that could not be crossed in talks with the United States on a proposed free-trade area. France and 13 other European Union member nations insisted in a letter this week that the audiovisual sector must be left out of those talks, setting up a possible confrontation with the British prime minister, David Cameron, who has said that everything should be on the table.

In practice, the cultural exception means broadcasters must meet quotas for French music and television programming, for example, and prices for books are set by regulators. The effort stretches throughout the economy, requiring a system of taxes and subsidies for its upkeep, perhaps most visibly in the country’s film industry, which gets hundreds of million euros each year in subsidies — raised from taxes on movie tickets, television stations and Internet service providers — to defend itself from the Hollywood juggernaut.

But technology threatens to render such measures irrelevant, the report noted. The nature of Internet commerce means foreigners can have access to the French market without having to pay the levies that support French culture. And as more content is streamed online or stored in the cloud, a tax on recording media like blank compact discs and memory sticks will raise less money — and that is where the smartphone tax comes in.

Gilles Vercken, an intellectual property lawyer, acknowledged that streaming and the cloud would bring down those levies, which he estimated currently raise about €200 million, or $260 million, a year to support French authors, composers, actors, musicians and the like. But he expressed skepticism that the smartphone tax would see the light of day.

“I wonder what could be the legal grounds for such taxes,” he said, noting that the connection between hardware manufacturers and end users might prove a difficult one to defend in court. “I really don’t see it.”

Monica Horten, a visiting fellow at the London School of Economics who studies the politics of intellectual property rights, said that, in principle, such levies were possible under E.U. law, but that “the problem is in the implementation.”

The first issue would be drafting a law acceptable to the European Court of Justice, while another would be in actually getting device makers on board to pay the tax. “I think you can expect them to filibuster,” she said.

The report seeks to address a problem that is as old as the Internet, which has shifted the balance of power away from content creators in favor of newer actors like Google, Amazon and peer-to-peer downloading services, even as it gives creators previously unimagined opportunities to be seen or heard.

In addressing such matters, France has sometimes chosen to fight battles that other governments have shied away from. For instance, Google agreed in February to set up a €60 million fund to help French newspaper and magazine publishers develop their digital business, though it managed to fend off demands that it pay for the right to link to their content.

And the Lescure report comes less than two weeks after Arnaud Montebourg, the minister for industrial renewal, put the kibosh on a sale to Yahoo of a majority stake in Dailymotion, a French rival to YouTube, because the government had singled out the company as a national champion and did not want control falling into foreign hands.

The Lescure report also suggests that France throw out a “three-strikes” anti-piracy law that Nicolas Sarkozy, Mr. Hollande’s predecessor, had held up as one of his signature achievements and one that had been hailed by the global entertainment industry. Under the Hadopi Law, as it is known, illegal downloaders were to have their Internet access cut off if they failed to heed three warnings; violators were also to be subject to criminal sanctions and large fines. In practice, there has been little enforcement action, though proponents credit the law with helping to reduce Internet piracy.

If Mr. Lescure’s recommendations are followed, law enforcement will focus on the worst violators, and most people would face minimal fines. A proposed “Hadopi authority” would be eliminated, and responsibility for enforcement would revert to the national media regulator, the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel.

After Weak Holiday Sales, Nook Tablets Will Add Google’s App and Media Store

Barnes & Noble, the nation’s largest bookstore chain, is seeking a lift in the highly competitive tablet market after a disappointing holiday season for the Nook.

“It opens up a whole world of content and really gives HD and HD Plus a unique position,” William J. Lynch Jr., the chief executive of Barnes & Noble, said in an interview, referring to the company’s two color tablets. “There’s no question this is going to accelerate sales.”

Company executives said Nook owners would be able to choose from 700,000 apps, including Facebook, Twitter and Netflix — even Amazon’s Kindle app.

The bookseller has recently vowed to focus more on digital content, including books, movies and popular apps, while beginning to moderate its investment in its digital hardware division.

In the quarter that ended Jan. 26, Nook revenue declined to $316 million, from $427 million over the same period the year ago.

“Of all the things that Barnes & Noble could do to expand its potential audience, running the features of Android that consumers like is a great step,” said Sarah Rotman Epps, a senior analyst with Forrester Research. “You can’t change the fundamentals of Barnes & Noble’s brand and their customer footprint and the economics of their business, but adding more Android features makes this product more appealing to more customers.”

After the holiday season, Mr. Lynch said on Thursday, Barnes & Noble learned that “the No. 1 reason for nonbuyers in the tablet market, as it related to Nook, was the lack of breadth and apps.” That was, he said, “the one area where we were deficient.”

Michael Norris, senior analyst for Simba Information, said the deal with Google would help Barnes & Noble do what Amazon has done well: create a comprehensive online shopping center of nonbook media.

“I think Barnes & Noble is learning a few lessons from Amazon,” Mr. Norris said. “And that has to do with sweetening the deal and adding value for the consumer. Amazon has always had a greater variety of movie and video content, and I think Barnes & Noble is hoping to erase part of their entertainment deficit.”

Barnes & Noble’s seven-inch Nook HD sells for $199, and the nine-inch Nook HD Plus for $269.

Mr. Lynch said that Barnes & Noble executives had considered a deal with Google for two years, but stepped up those discussions in the last four months.

To date, Barnes & Noble has sold more than 10 million Nooks in the United States; it introduced the product in 2009 as e-book sales took off.

App Smart: Dictionary Apps for Smartphones and Tablets

But before your fingers close on that printed book and flick through its alphabetically indexed pages, consider this: There are many dictionary apps that could help you do the job more speedily. They may also have features that will teach you new words. And they might even be fun.

Dictionary.com Dictionary and Thesaurus is a free iOS and Android app that comes from one of the best-known dictionary Web sites. Unlike the Web site, the app has the advantage that many of its features work offline. This app’s home page is colorful with icons and is topped by a search bar where you enter words you want to look up. As soon as you begin to type in this bar, the app begins to suggest words that may match, so you don’t always have to type in the whole word. If you’re unsure of a word’s spelling, you can tap on the microphone icon and speak your word instead.

When you see the word you’re looking for in the search list, a single tap takes you to its main dictionary entry. Here you’ll find the usual definitions you’d get in a paper dictionary, including a guide to pronunciation, word origin description, various meanings and related word forms. You can hear the word spoken aloud by tapping on the loudspeaker icon, or add the word to a favorites list. The app also has a built-in thesaurus, which you can get to via a tab in the search bar. On the iPhone, the app can translate a word into several languages.

It’s functional as a dictionary, but the app also has entertaining extras. It can show you which words people are searching for most right now, for example, and even what people near you are searching for.

The app is visually cluttered, though, and some features, like voice recognition and pronunciation guides, work only online. I got the feeling I was being nagged to buy add-ons, like the ability to see example sentences. Also, the free version’s on-screen ads can get annoying if you don’t make a $2.99 in-app purchase to banish them.

The Android version has a slightly different interface of a simpler design than the iOS version. There is also an attractively designed free edition for Windows Phone, though it seems trickier to switch between the dictionary and the thesaurus in that one.

Merriam-Webster has released several dictionary apps with different functions to cater to certain users or devices. For example, some apps incorporate a thesaurus function alongside the main dictionary; others don’t. The basic Merriam-Webster app is free for iOS and Android devices and is supported by on-screen ads. Its design is simpler than the Dictionary.com app’s. The home page consists of a logo, a control bar at the bottom that provides access to the app’s various functions and a prominent search bar at the top.

Like the Dictionary.com app, Merriam-Webster’s version suggests word matches as you type in the search bar. It can also take voice input instead of typed text. When you tap on a word in the list of suggestions, the app shows the relevant dictionary entry, which is easy to read, with a clear layout and large text. The entry also uses the word in an example and offers a list of synonyms and antonyms. Tap on the red speaker icons to hear the word pronounced.

But the basic app’s database is limited and it knows only two of my favorite three words. It’s possible that the Collegiate edition would know all three: it costs a little less than $25 on iOS and Android to get more definitions as well as the ability to modify menus and a “pen reader” system for recognizing handwriting in many languages. A $3.99 Windows Phone edition of the Merriam-Webster app says it includes “all” the definitions from the Collegiate dictionary.

English Dictionary — Offline, free on Android, is the simplest of the apps mentioned here but is still powerful. Its interface is basic: a search box at the top and space below for word definitions to appear. Tap icons to share words to other apps, flag words as favorites or perform other actions like viewing your search history. Dictionary entries are based on the Wiktionary database, which the makers say includes about 159,000 words. You can click on individual words on an entry page to navigate to that word, and the app will speak the word aloud for you. It’s free and handy for looking up definitions. But it falls short if you’re curious about how a word came into use.

As for “philtrum,” it’s that little vertical groove in your upper lip beneath your nose.

Quick Call

Microsoft has updated its Outlook.com e-mail app for Android, bringing the new design of the desktop Outlook software to the app and adding services like threaded conversations and the ability to mark messages as junk.

Gadgetwise: An Invisible Wetsuit for Phones and Tablets

Liquipel The nano coating is applied in a vacuum chamber to make electronics water resistant

It’s a little heart-stopping to watch someone purposely dunk a cellphone or tablet in a water tank. Seeing it continue to work underwater is astonishing.

It does because the components inside have been nano-coated. Such coatings are best applied to a phone’s components before assembly. You can have nano coating done afterward through Liquipel, but it will cost you.

A cellphone case can seal against most water, but it adds bulk and weight to a sleek device. Nano coatings render the parts themselves impervious to water damage, so the protection comes without added bulk.

Liquipel’s process will not make the device waterproof, but will make it water-resistant enough to survive short accidental dunkings and ordinary splashes.

You ship Liquipel your phone, which is then put into a vacuum chamber and treated with the coating in vapor form. The process takes about 30 minutes. If you can go to its facility in Santa Ana, Calif., the company will treat your phone while you wait.

The cost varies, starting at $60 to give a mobile phone a basic treatment. It goes up to $130 for a tablet with an added protective film covering and an expedited four-hour turnaround.

The cost is not outlandish compared with the price of a waterproof case, which typically run $40 to $130. It’s almost certainly less expensive than replacing your smartphone.

Tool Kit: A Trove of Tablets for Young Hands

Children take their tablets, a term defined loosely, as seriously as they do their bikes. So if you are going to buy one that is for them — not you — you had better involve them in the process. They understand that this single device is a million-channel TV, music collection, game machine, camera and e-book library, and a way to socialize with friends. They may not understand — but you will — that in addition to the first $200 or so you lay out for a tablet, you will be paying for music, books, movies and apps far into the future.

So, what to get? The 21 tablets I reviewed for this article each have strengths and weaknesses. Here’s a crash course.

ANDROID TABLETS Android-based tablets for children are the newest versions on the block. Each is on a mission to distract children from the iPad and other mainstream tablets, and choices abound. For about $150, you can get the Kurio 7, MEEP or Tabeo.

The Nabi 2 costs a bit more ($200) but has a noticeably better screen. The Nabi Jr. ($100) is smaller and can double as a baby monitor. Though tricky to turn on, these tablets have colorful silicon bumpers for child-proofing. They also are slower, which I discovered when loading the same app on each one. This is a great test. Angry Birds starts in 10 seconds on the iPad Mini, vs. 33 seconds on the Tabeo.

Look at how much storage the devices have. It can be limited to just four gigabytes. This is important because apps and movies take space. One full-length HD video — about two gigabytes — can use half the storage space on the Tabeo, which means you’ll need to invest more in a micro-SD card.

The best overall option was the four-inch, $150 MG. Pocket-size and powerful — it loaded Angry Birds in 15 seconds — the MG is built around the Google Play app store. The MG comes with a preapproved digital allowance system, so children can do their own shopping. You supply the USB cable and Wi-Fi.

Beware that some of these devices — the Tabeo, MEEP and Kurio — are intended to sell you apps, music, e-books and movies purchased in their special stores. By the time you add in a micro-SD card to increase memory, you may be better off investing in the MG with easy access to mainstream app stores, or the Nexus 7 or Kindle Fire HD.

MAINSTREAM TABLETS My young testers, ages 3 to 12, kept reaching for the iPad first for good reason. They could find the apps they wanted, and the entire experience was familiar. But who wants to pay $300 for the iPod Touch 5, $329 for an iPad Mini or $400 for the lowest-priced iPad 2?

The good news is that the Android options are improving, in terms of app selection and overall quality. Android tablets cost far less, too.

Both the Kindle Fire HD, from Amazon, and Google’s Nexus 7 offer power, apps and parental control features at a price near those for children’s tablets.

The testers were also attracted by the detachable keyboard on the Microsoft Surface ($500 plus $100 for the keyboard). They saw it as a replacement for a laptop they use for homework. But the best non-Apple option I could find was the Kindle Fire HD, a choice made easier thanks to Kindle FreeTime Unlimited, a fixed-price subscription-based service ($5 per child) that lets children shop on their own for books, apps, games and movies, without surprise bills.

If price is your sole determining factor, consider turning your iPhone 3s, 4 or 4s into an iPod Touch. With an Internet connection but no cellphone service, they serve as great mini iPad Minis. If you have a dead iPod Touch 4, you can get new batteries for $80 from Apple. Make sure to fully explore the built-in parental controls on both Apple and Android operating systems.

TOY OPTIONS These educational game tablets provide the lowest point of entry, at least in terms of initial cost. VTech’s MobiGo 2 ($50) and the LeapsterGS ($70) are both solid options, considering they come with a suite of onboard activities. VTech’s InnoTab 2 ($80) and Leapfrog’s LeapPad 2 (about $100) take a step closer to the tablet format. You might take this option if (a) your child has never used a multitouch screen, which they will prefer once they’ve used one; (b) you’re just not ready to part with $150 to $200; or (c) you want to ensure your child stays offline.

Downloading new content is difficult, and plug-in game cartridges cost $20 to $25. Once you consider the initial purchase, plus four AA batteries, plus games, you’ve already spent enough more than the cost of a mainstream Android tablet, with a limitless supply of apps.

VIDEO GAME CONSOLES Major contenders this holiday include the clunky, expensive PlayStation Vita ($250) and three better designed options from the company that pioneered the hand-held computing category — Nintendo. These include the Nintendo DSi ($100), the Nintendo 3DS ($170) and its new big-screen edition, the Nintendo 3DS XL ($200). Most software cartridges for those are games like Mario Tennis Open. But look at it another way: there is content you’ll never find in iTunes or Google Play, like highly coveted Pokémon White Version 2 ($35). You can find more educational titles like brain teasers and Art Academy, where your child can learn to draw in step-by-step tutorials.

If you happen to share a home with two or more children, it’s hard to beat the Nintendo DS local play feature, where multiple players can share the same game, as long as they’re in the same room. Based on price, power and app availability, the Nintendo options make more sense, and the DS clamshell design negates the need for a protective silicone bumper.

Explore the robust parental controls that are built into the Nintendo DS system. This includes the ability to lock the 3-D options behind a PIN, as well as the ability to control purchases. You will find Angry Birds but not Cut the Rope, and you generally cannot use the DS players to get access to the Web, but you can download arcade classics like Donkey King Jr. for $4. There’s a modified version of Hulu for TV viewing, provided there is Wi-Fi access.

When it comes to children’s tablets, hardware is only as good as the software it can run. Your child wants the same thing in a tablet that you do — easy use and access to lots of apps so it always contains a fresh experience. All things considered, the iPad or iPad Mini is still the best children’s tablet, but Android options are closing the gap.

This article has been revised to reflect the following correction:

Correction: December 15, 2012

An article on the Personal Tech pages on Thursday about tablet computers for children included outdated information on the availability of Angry Birds on the Nintendo DS and 3DS XL. The game was released for those Nintendo devices on Sept. 25; it is not the case that it is still not available.

Mobile Video Calling Spreads as Smartphones and Tablets Improve

PALO ALTO, Calif. — The next competition in technology is your face — anywhere, anytime.

As the cameras and screens of smartphones and tablets improve, and as wireless networks offer higher bandwidth, more companies are getting into the business of enabling mobile video calls.

The details vary from one service to the next, but the experiences are similar: from anywhere in the world with a modern wireless network, a smartphone’s screen fills with the face of a friend or relative. The quality is about the same jerky-but-functional level as most desktop video. Sound is not always perfectly synced with the image, but it is very close. The calls start and end the same way, by pressing a button on the screen.

Mobile video calling has risen so quickly that industry analysts have not yet compiled exact numbers. But along the way, it is creating new business models, new stresses on mobile networks and even new rules of etiquette.

“All the communications — social messages, calls, texts and video — are merging fast,” said Eric Setton, co-founder and chief technology officer of Tango Mobile, whose free video calling service has 80 million active users. An additional 200,000 join daily, Mr. Setton said.

Once an interesting endeavor for a few start-ups like Tango, mobile video has caught the attention of big companies. Apple created FaceTime and made it a selling point for the iPad.

In September, the company made FaceTime available on cellular networks instead of limiting it to Wi-Fi systems, almost certainly in response to increasing consumer demand.

Last week, Yahoo purchased a video chat company called OnTheAir. And in 2011, Microsoft paid $8.5 billion for Skype, a service for both video and audio-only calls. Though most people use Skype on desktop and laptop computers, the software for the service has been downloaded more than 100 million times just by owners of phones running Google’s Android mobile operating system. Microsoft built a service for its Windows 8 mobile phone that lets people receive calls even when Skype is not on.

Google, which has more than 100 million people a month using its Google Plus social networking service, now offers more than 200 apps for its video calling feature. It says it is interested not in making money on the applications, but in learning more about them so it can sell more ads by getting people to use its free video service, called Hangouts. Hangouts can be used for two-person or group calls, or for a video conference with up to 10 people.

“On a high level, Google works better when we know who you are and what your interests are,” said Nikhyl Singhal, director of product management for Google’s real-time communications group. “Video calling is becoming a basic service across different fronts.” While Mr. Singhal is an occasional user, he said, his 4-year-old daughter “is on it every day.”

Don’t expect video calling to improve productivity. Tango uses the same technology that enables video calls to sell games that people can play simultaneously. It sells virtual decorations like balloons to drop around someone’s image during a birthday call (both parties see the festive pixels). Google says some jokey applications on Hangouts, like a feature that can put a mustache over each caller, seem to encourage people to talk longer.

Currently, popular two-way games like Words With Friends on Facebook work by one player making a move and then passing the game over to the other player, not watching moves as they are made. Another promising area is avatars, like cartoon dogs and cats, that mouth speech when a user wants to have a video call but does not want to be seen.

The prospect of having to appear on-screen at any given moment might sound like a nonstarter for people who worry about bad hair days. But in fact, using mobile devices for video calls may be less bother than it seems.

“There may be natural inhibitions to being seen, but when I’m on a mobile device I’m out and about, so I’m more likely to be presentable,” said Michael Gartenberg, a consumer technology analyst at Gartner. “How people use this remains to be seen, but they are starting to expect it.”

Yet a new etiquette for mobile video calls is already emerging. People often text each other first to see if it’s O.K. to appear on camera. Video messages sent in the text box of a phone, like snippets of a party or a child’s first steps, are also useful precursors to video conversations. Mr. Singhal said making avatars for users of Hangout would be “an extraordinarily important area” as well.

The greatest challenge for the business may not be getting more consumers to use the service, but making sure the service works. Most phones have slight variations in things like camera placement and video formatting from one model to the next. “A camera can show you upside down if you load the wrong software on it,” said Mr. Setton of Tango.

As a result, the 80 engineers among Tango’s 110 employees have adjusted their software to work on more than 1,000 types of phones worldwide. The top 20 models have more than a million customers each, but the complexity of building software for a wider range of phones has made it hard for new mobile video companies to enter the field, Mr. Setton said.

Tango’s average video call used to last six minutes, Mr. Setton said, but when the company started adding other applications to go with the videos, like games and designs that float over people, the average call length rose to 12 minutes.

Brian X. Chen contributed reporting.

Browser Wars Flare Again, This Time for Phones and Tablets

But even if consumers are not so sure what Web browsers are (programs like Internet Explorer and Firefox), they have become a crucial business for tech companies like Google and Microsoft. That is because they are now the entry point not just to the Web but to everything stored online, like Web apps, documents and photos.

And as the cloud grows more integral, both for businesses and people, the browser companies are engaged in a new battle to win our allegiance that will affect how we use the Internet.

It’s an echo of the so-called browser wars of the 1990s, when Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator fought for dominance on the personal computer. This time, though, the struggle is shaping up to be over which company will control the mobile world — with browsers on smartphones and tablets. Entrenched businesses are at stake. Google’s browser-based business apps, for instance, threaten Microsoft’s desktop software, and mobile Web apps threaten Apple’s App Store.

“Twenty years ago, we didn’t know how the Internet was going to get used by people, and we for sure didn’t know about mobile or tablets,” said Marc Andreessen, co-founder of the first major browser, Netscape Navigator, and an investor in Rockmelt, a browser start-up. “Mobile is a whole new level of reinvention, so it feels like we’re in the most fertile time of invention since the early ’90s.”

Browsers give Web companies more control over how people use their products, and data about how people use the Web, which they can use to improve their products and inform advertisers. Faster browsing leads to more Web activity, which in turn leads to more revenue for Web companies — whether searching on Google or shopping on Amazon.com, which built a Kindle browser, Silk.

As Mr. Andreessen put it, “Why let something be between us and our users? Let’s have as much control of the user experience as we can have; make sure our services are wired in.”

Google’s Chrome browser, for example, makes Google searches faster and simpler because people can enter search queries directly into the address bar. And its apps — like Gmail, Drive for file storage and Docs for word processing — are all accessible through any browser.

“Chrome makes it much easier for you to search, browse the Web and use Drive, Docs and apps, and we are fortunate to be in a position where when people do those things, we do better,” said Sundar Pichai, senior vice president of Chrome at Google. “Chrome is a platform, the underlying layer on which all our cloud operations run.”

Most people use either Chrome, Microsoft’s Internet Explorer, Mozilla’s Firefox or Apple’s Safari. In the biggest disruption to the market in 15 years, Chrome last spring toppled Internet Explorer as the most popular browser in the world, despite the fact that it does not come loaded on computers as Explorer and Safari do. It now has 36 percent of the global market, while Internet Explorer’s share has dived to 31 percent, according to StatCounter, which tracks browser market share.

A host of smaller companies, like Rockmelt and Opera, are also trying to grab market share, largely by focusing on mobile devices.

Browsers themselves are not lucrative businesses. Some, like Firefox, earn money from search engines like Google and Microsoft’s Bing that pay when people use the search bar built into the browser.

“No one is doing a browser to make money,” said David B. Yoffie, a professor at Harvard Business School who was co-author of a book about the first browser wars.

“Suddenly now, the browser has become the interface for the cloud more broadly, not just for traditional Web sites.”

In their search for dollars, browser companies are redesigning their products to follow consumers to mobile devices, social networks and cloud-based apps.

For example, new mobile browsers let people swipe through tabs with their fingers, automatically resize or zoom in on Web pages so they fit a phone’s screen and load pages faster than older mobile browsers. Some also sync with other devices, so things like most-visited Web sites, passwords and credit card numbers are available everywhere.

Nonetheless, browsing the Web on a mobile device is still inferior to using the desktop Web or smartphone apps. Apps, like those downloaded from Apple’s App Store and Google Play for Android devices, have more exciting features, are faster to load and are better optimized to small screens.

Gadgetwise: Devices for Children: Tablets, Toys or Both?

The boundary between toy tablets and real tablets keeps getting thinner. Cases in point: the LeapPad 2 from LeapFrog and the $100 Wi-Fi-enabled Innotab 2S.

The InnoTab 2S from Vtech

As the price and processing power of these types of toys begin to approach those of real tablets, more parents are finding themselves with a tricky choice. Is it better to invest in a toy that acts like a tablet, or a tablet that has been configured to impersonate a toy?

To help you plan your child’s digital path, consider recent history. Over the last 12 months, a variety of Android tablets for children have been released. They are often more similar than they are different; with a girl-or-boy themed silicone frame for protection, slots for adding more storage, 7-inch multitouch screens and a handful of preloaded $1 apps like Angry Birds. There’s also a key selling point: parental control features to keep a child from drifting into, say, YouTube.

Examples include LexiBook ($150), Kurio ($200), Nabi 2 ($200), Meep ($170) and Tabeo ($150). Each is trying to distract your child from Apple’s iPad and its new little brother, the iPad Mini ($330).

Throw into the mix three additional $200 tablets, each made for adults but also easy to configure for children. There is the Amazon Kindle Fire, Google’s Nexus 7 and Barnes & Noble’s Nook HD ($200).

This fall, toy rivals VTech and LeapFrog have updated their portable platforms, succeeding in offering the lowest price of entry to the world of apps and touch screens.

The cheapest option is VTech’s MobiGo 2 ($50), followed by the updated LeapsterGS ($70). Both are solid choices, despite having smaller screens that can process only one finger on the screen at a time. These editions come with faster processors and separate log-in accounts so multiple children can share the same device while saving their progress. Both also now have accelerometers, letting you tilt or lean in some of the games. MobiGo’s microphone and fold-out keyboard are noteworthy, and the back-facing camera on the LeapsterGS is the best yet, especially because of the improved photo and movie editor.

Designed to fool a child into thinking he or she has a real tablet, VTech’s InnoTab 2 ($80) comes with a new rotating camera. A second model, the InnoTab 2S ($100) has built in Wi-Fi that does nothing more than let your child browse apps, while generating e-mails telling you which ones you should buy. The InnoTab devices have less storage capacity than the LeapPad, but the storage can be expanded by way of an SD card. The LeapPad2 Explorer ($100) starts faster and comes with two better-quality cameras, in front and in back.

All four devices let you purchase new software the old-fashioned way: by driving to a store and paying $20 to $25 for a cartridge. Each also has an online option that involves downloading and installing an app store on your Mac or Windows computer and plugging in with a USB cable. If you forget to unplug, you can drain the AA batteries — just one of the many clunky steps to this process.

All of the devices share one consistent attribute. They are not shy about pestering a child to find a grown-up to help them download more apps.

The bottom line is that the differences between this year’s Leapster, InnoTab and LeapPad models are slim. Whichever you choose, remember that each is a platform that can lead to a significant investment in software. After you add up the $100 for, say, a LeapPad or an InnoTab, and then buy four $20 cartridges, you’ve already spent more than the price of the latest iPod Touch ($175), a device with a high-resolution display, parental controls and an app store with thousands of $1 treasures. Not to mention no need for AA batteries.

If you’ve somehow managed to raise children who have not yet touched an iPad or a Nexus 7, you might be able to sell them on the idea of one of these lesser tablets. But be warned: once they’ve sampled a good app on a glossy, responsive multitouch screen, it’s hard to go back.

Gadgetwise Blog: App Smart Extra: More Apps for Android Tablets

This week’s App Smart was about apps you may like to try out on your new Android tablet — a class of device that is really making a splash in the mobile computing market to rival the iPad.

But of course there are thousands upon thousands of apps, and only limited space in the column, so here are a few more suggestions.

I suggested the News360 app, and by all means try it out free. But if it does not appeal to you, then you may have more luck with the Flipboard app, also free. This is another highly popular news aggregator that has a graphics-centric interface controlled by gestures. The app is now optimized for the bigger screen real estate that tablets offer compared with Android phones.

If gaming is your thing, then you may be pleased to hear that there is a free, tablet-friendly version of an EA Games classic, The Sims, in the Google Play store. The Sims FreePlay has all the charm of the original game, with tap controls that worked very well on my Nexus 7’s screen. It also has very impressive visuals including detailed character animations, which make the most of the graphical power of an Android tablet.

For live wallpaper, check out Exodus Live Wallpaper, which is free (or $1 for a Pro edition) and will display a rain of cubes gently tumbling and rolling across a tablet’s desktop background. You can adjust many of the parameters and it adds a suitably high-tech flavor to your tablet’s screen. If high tech isn’t your thing, I’ve found Sakura Live Wallpaper to be very eye-catching (free or $1.29 for a Pro version with more controls). Leaves gently tumble from the trees in its Japanese-esque images and they even react to your screen taps.

Of course Android tablets are also great for productivity, and Google’s own stable of apps serve many useful work-related purposes. But if your workplace is resolutely Microsoft-oriented, you may find the free CloudOn app handy. It lets you get to your Excel, Word and PowerPoint documents on your tablet; you can even edit them and share them with colleagues over Dropbox. The app has been freshly updated this month, which means its developers are keeping it current.

Also for productivity, the free Pocket app is highly regarded as a way to store text, images and video from Web sites you like so you can read them later, perhaps at a moment when you have no Internet connection.

Extra Quick Call

Activision’s new free Skylanders Lost Islands app has just hit iOS devices. It’s more like playing The Sims than the role-playing console version of the game, but it does let players of the original import their own personal characters.

Advertisers Refine Mobile Pitches for Phones and Tablets

And just like that, Google made money. That icon was a so-called click-to-call ad, and the hotel paid Google for it when you called.

As more of us have access to the Internet and apps through our cellphones and tablets, advertisers are looking for new ways to reach us there.

Some mobile ads remain just miniature versions of ads on Web sites, an echo of the early days of the Internet, when advertisers essentially slapped print ads online. But increasingly, advertisers are tailoring ads to phones by taking advantage of elements like their ability to track location, make a call, show maps with directions and add calendar alerts.

The stakes are significant for an industry that is still finding its way in the mobile world. Advertisers will spend a relatively small amount of money on ads on phones and tablets this year — $2.6 billion, according to eMarketer, less than 2 percent of the amount they will spend over all. Yet that is more than triple what they spent in 2010.

“An ever-growing percentage of our ad buy is mobile because that’s where the consumer is,” said Chris McCann, president of 1-800-Flowers.com, which has run mobile ads urging people to call or walk into a nearby store. “It’s the future for us.”

Coming up with ads that exploit the smaller mobile screen requires inventiveness from many parties — advertisers; digital publishers like Google, Apple and Facebook that sell ad space; and mobile ad networks like Millennial Media.

“What we’re trying to do is think about the on-the-go user,” said Jason Spero, leader of global mobile sales and strategy at Google, which dominates advertising online and is far and away the leader in mobile advertising. “What does that user want when she’s sitting in a cafe or walking down the street?”

A big challenge for the tech companies is that advertisers pay less for mobile ads than for those online, largely because consumers are less likely to make a purchase on their phones. Though people click on mobile ads more than on desktop ads, advertisers wonder whether that is because of what they call the “fat finger effect” — accidental clicks on tiny touch screens.

And while users’ actions can be tracked across Web sites online, it is hard to know whether someone sees a cellphone ad for an offline business and then walks in — so it is difficult for advertisers to judge how effectively they are spending their money.

As Google sells more mobile ads, the average amount it earns from each ad has dived. Facebook’s value on Wall Street was halved on fears that it was not making enough money on its mobile users. Apple’s mobile ad network, iAd, has been slow to gain traction.

Despite the problems, though, there is evidence that mobile advertising is becoming a meaningful business, and in some cases a bigger business than online advertising.

Facebook executives said last week that in the third quarter, the company earned $150 million from mobile ads, 14 percent of its total revenue. Pandora reported that in the second quarter that ended in July 58 percent of its revenue, or $59 million, came from mobile ads. Twitter executives have said that on certain days, the social network earns a majority of its daily revenue from mobile ads.

Mobile ad networks, which show ads across mobile apps and Web sites, have created new and thriving businesses. The biggest are Millennial Media, Google’s AdMob and Apple’s iAd.

Google earns 56 percent of all mobile ad dollars and 96 percent of mobile search ad dollars, according to eMarketer. The company said it is on track to earn $8 billion in the coming year from mobile sales, which includes ads as well as apps, music and movies it sells in its Google Play store. But the vast majority of that money comes from ads, it said.

“Whoever does mobile best, they’re going to be the next Google, so people are asking, ‘Is Google going to be the next Google?’ ” said Chris Winfield, co-founder of BlueGlass Interactive, a digital advertising agency. “It still is Google’s to lose.”

TECHNOLOGY: Apple Takes On Smaller Tablets