The list of would-be competitors to Apple’s iPad is growing rapidly. Asustek – maker of the top-selling Eee line of netbooks – says it will introduce a tablet version, the Eee Pad, at the Computex show to be held in Taipei from June 1 to 5.
The list of would-be competitors to Apple’s iPad is growing rapidly. Asustek – maker of the top-selling Eee line of netbooks – says it will introduce a tablet version, the Eee Pad, at the Computex show to be held in Taipei from June 1 to 5.
At the same time pictures of what are claimed to be two new Android-powered Dell tablets – dubbed the Streak and the Looking Glass – have been leaked on the Internet (see following story).
Asustek’s Android-powered tablet will be aimed squarely at Apple’s iPad, and should be in retail stores during the third quarter of 2010, said Asus chairman Jonney Shih.
(Industry sources quoted by Taiwan news service DigiTimes reckon the new tablet will be in stores in July).
According to Shih, in order to compete with the iPad, Asus has strengthened the Eee Pad’s industrial design and has been working with Google to adopt the Android platform. It will have a Tegra processor from Nvidia.
He claimed the Eee Pad will have features that iPad currently does not support, such as USB, an integrated webcam and Adobe Flash animation support.
DigiTimes’ sources estimate it will sell in Taiwan at the equivalent of A$515-550 after bundling with telecom services. Total shipments are tipped to reach 300,000 in 2010 – or about what the iPad shipped on its first weekend.
Another Taiwan maker, Micro-Star International (MSI) is believed to be planning to launch a tablet, dubbed the M Pad, in Q3.
