Asus Joins Tablet PC Race

WrongSizeGlass writes "Reuters is reporting that netbook pioneer Asustek Computer Inc. has become the latest technology company to jump on the tablet PC bandwagon. The device will be called the Eee Pad, will run on Intel or ARM chips, and use Microsoft's Windows operating system. 'The Eee Pad can display Adobe Flash for the full web experience, has a USB port and a camera,' Asus Chairman Jonney Shih said. Asus did not release pricing details or a potential release date, and did not provide further details on the format or a launch date for the new app store."

Comments

And they thought "iPad" was bad

[Quiet_Desperation]

I'm sure no one will stoop to the level of calling it a Pee Pad. Nope.

"Flash"

[nemasu]

Is it just me or does it seem ridiculous that "our device X supports flash" is becoming a major selling point??

Android

[TBoon]

So, Intel or ARM is still not decided, but that it will run Windows is? Guess that must be WinCE? But why not put Android on it? To make a real alternative to those cheap/underpowered chinese android pads floating around, and give the WePad a run for it's money?

Re:Android

[0123456]

Hence "its better with Windows" being plastered on the promo sites for certain eee models last year.

The funny part is that my EeePC works so much better with Linux than it does with Windows... I don't even remember the last time I booted it into the Windows partition.

Day Late...

[0100010001010011]

Neither model is expected to hit the market until Q1 2011, with prices tipped at between $399 and $499.

At which point the iPad will have been out for an entire year. Every one else that can will have jumped on the bandwagon. If I *wanted* a *Pad, I'd go and get an iPad. I'm not waiting until Q1 of next year for something.

Reminds me of what PCWorld said about the Windows 7 Phone:
"If this were two years ago, Windows Phone 7 might even be a cutting edge innovation that could set the smartphone world on fire."

Re:Day Late...

[pandrijeczko]

What about those of us who *might* want a tablet if it had a maximum price of $500 and could run what we want to on it? If it's made by Asus and has Windows installed by default, then there's a good chance it can be made to run Linux also.

Asus have missed an opportunity here...

[pandrijeczko]

Asus should remarket themselves as "Snapple", call the device the "iPud" and appoint a new CEO with glasses called "Steve Jibs".

I'm sure if Steve Jibs of Snapple Inc. post some viral videos of the iPud showing its Adobe support, multi-tasking and USB ports, thousands of rabid fanbois would queue up outside Snapple Stores to buy one and part with their hard-earned cash before they had calmed down enough to realise they had been duped, albeit with a device of better capabilities than their iPads.

The browser is Opera

[hkmwbz]

I was about to say "surprisingly", but then realized that it isn't really that surprising after all: The Eee Pad seems to use Opera as its browser.

Joins?

[nurb432]

By announce a simi-vapor product with no concrete release date or price..

Re:The fanboys will scream

[man_of_mr_e]

I'm not a fanboy, but that's not exactly true. Yes, most of their devices do have a lot of stock components, however apple does do a lot of custom ASIC's in their products and supposed the new CPU is an apple modified version of teh ARM Cortex... so they do do their own hardware as well.

Re:Half baked

[znu]

All these companies seem to be saying to themselves "Wow, Apple sold 2M units and their product doesn't even have a camera or a USB port, and can't play Flash. If we make sure our product has those, we'll be rich!"

Meanwhile, these vendors seem totally oblivious to the all the things Apple got exactly right with the iPad (form factor, battery life, consistent touch-optimized UI, integration with the existing iTunes ecosystem, revenue generation features for third-party developers built into the system, ability to draw on existing iPhone/Mac developer pool obsessed with user experience, etc.). The companies doing this are going to end up with buggy, slow, awkward devices that consumers won't touch, and they'll be scratching their head saying "But we have more features! It makes no sense!"

HP is pretty much the only company that seems to have a coherent response to the iPad. It's rather obvious what happened to their Windows 7 based Slate device. They were planning to ship that as their response to Apple, but then someone at HP actually used an iPad, and said, basically "Holy $h!t, we're not going to match this by taking a Windows 7 netbook and ripping the keyboard off". And fortunately for them, WebOS -- which has the potential to be a very credible tablet platform with a bit of reworking -- happened to be for sale.

Disregard any tablet running a desktop OS; they've been on the market for years and nobody wants them. And disregard attempts by companies that know nothing about platform-building to adapt current smartphone versions of Android (or desktop Linux distros) to tablet use. They'll do it badly, and hardly anyone will write apps with such monstrosities in mind.

Watch HP with WebOS. Watch Google, when they get around to doing a real tablet version of Android. Watch Apple (obviously). And watch Microsoft, when it eventually occurs to them that they need to do a tablet version of Windows Phone 7 rather than pushing desktop Windows 7 on tablets.

Everything else will prove to be an irrelevant sideshow.

Agreed

[Weezul]

WebOS beats the pants off Windows Mobile. I'll hold out for Intel shipping a MeeGo tablet however. N900s are fucking awesome.