Holiday Tech Options from the Industry Giants: Microsoft, Apple, and Google

While roaming around V-Mall earlier I chanced upon a store who carried not one, not two, but three of the major names of mobile computing and their tablet offerings up to provide more than enough options as possible gift items to the unsuspecting graduate or enrollee.

Displayed above at the left is the 16GB Nexus at 12,000Php and the 64GB iPad Mini at 26,800Php at the right…while this display isnt equal at all, I think its a very good strategy showing the cheapest Nexus and the most expensive iPad Mini; if the purchaser’s got a budget beyond the top price then all the more options are opened up to the individual.

Now this piece of equipment is something I didn’t think I would see this early on shelf. It is a 32GB Microsoft Surface RT with the Touch Cover priced at 30,000Php. I asked the sales personnel if it was available for card purchases and while it is (they said) swiping straight automatically adds a 5% interest over the listed price and deferring it further than a month would merit an incremental 1% per month you’d want the payment period extended. This is the only proper answer to the age old consumer question – “Is this tablet compatible with Microsoft Office?” which could be one of its greatest selling points.

The Surface (WindowsRT) clearly costs way more than the more application library robust Nexus (Android) and iPad Mini (iOS) but you’ll be getting a keyboard attachment so the price might just be forgivable. Even before this was released, expectations to the pricing of the Surface tablets were more on the upper end of the tablet spectrum.

This is not the final list a shopper looking to gift a tablet should be looking at (unless they’re decided on the Apple offering which pretty much will not change until 2013). There’s the Nexus 4 and the Nexus 10 each to be possibly offered by local mobile networks on their postpaid plans and soon to be available in the Greenhills shelves (hopefully). It’s just the third week of November and already plenty of possibilities are around as possible gifts. Make sure to read and research before making the commitment to what would possibly stay with you for a good year or two (again with hope as these manufacturers just wont let up, making more and more wonderful tools).