HTC plans a tablet and sees women as a major market

SOCIAL NOTWORKING women who want to surf while watching the telly in their living room are a prime market for tablets according to HTC.

Market research conducted by the smartphone manufacturer found that likely users of the expensive drink trays were women who wanted to communicate with friends with a tablet on their lap while watching their favourite television programmes.

HTC vice president Europe, Dr Florian Seiche, speaking at the Open Mobile Summit held in London, said "Our study found women social networking while watching television was a likely use for tablets".

Giving no more details about HTC's tablet plans, Seiche did talk about Google's Android OS as having a big future in the business market.

Meanwhile over in Scandinavia, 4G networks might enable women to watch telly and social network all on their tablet. Describing webtv as an application that will drive a lot of 4G network traffic, Nordic telecommunications company Teliasonera's president for mobility, Håkan Dahlström told the summit that around half of its subscribers are Iphone owners. µ