The email of the species is more macho than the femail (Inq Bad Language)
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MSI will launch a Tablet of its own
ON THE OFF CHANCE someone wants a tablet that isn't an Ipad, MSI has announced that it will be joining the fray by launching its own Tablet PC in the second half of 2010.
According to Digitimes, MSI's Tablet will be based on Nvidia's Tegra platform and is expected to cost under $500 (£307) when it comes to retail.
The company's sales director Sambora Chen said the Tablet is aimed at the thin and mobile market, with a 10-inch colour touchscreen and wireless support.
Chen also claims that the Tablet will be as fully featured as a standard notebook and will launch with a wide selection of models for different notebook markets.
While MSI hasn't specified an operating system yet, it did run a demo at CES this year of a prototype Tablet running Android so we're putting two and two together and probably coming up with five. µ
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I hope that MSI exercises some caution in choosing the name for their device (hopefully no more feminine-hygiene naming schemes!). And some actual computer-like functions would also be a great selling feature as well.
I think what happened to Apple could be due to the autocratic way Jobs "rules" the company. No one dares to disagree with him, and groupthink probably reigns supreme. No checks and balances, and so a feature-poor, laughably-named device ill-suited for even reading e-books went from design to production. "Someone" at Apple seems to think that they can sell "anything" to the masses, but I think that someone may be wrong.
A few people seem to be missing the point. Yes, a feint, to throw other companies on the wrong track.
@Mike: No kidding the newton wasn't the first touch-screen handheld. The name "Newton 2.0" is to imply another Apple touch-screen handheld *failure*.
Do I not think this is a real product? Sure. A feint doesn't need to false, it merely needs to mislead, be a decoy. It's a pretty useless product, even among many long-time Apple users. But we'll see a bunch of hokey trend-following companies like MSI eat this up faster than the most indoctrinated Macolyte. That iPad doesn't even have to sell well, even being something as bad as the Apple TV, but now you've got others wasting time on making their own while a real money maker is in development.
@Stormy: Apple wasn't the first to have a portable mp3 player either, but it is remembered as the company that brought the product type to the forefront. Yes, copycats. They're copying Apple because they think there'll be some potential in a consumer device that has never had great reception. Apple doesn't need to make something new and fresh, and they haven't. They only need to put something out and other companies will try and follow suit, trying to emulate the interface and the apps, and the basic feature set. Those sad followers will then try to undercut the prices, making their margins ever more pathetic, despite the amount of investment--all for a product that really has no potential anyway. It's like killing the Soviet economy with arms escalation: a great tactic for those who can fund it.
I agree with every thing you say fully. There is not really any innovation in their product, except that you won't be able to do anything without Big Steve's say so and having a direct wireless link to your credit card.
I agree, up until the last line. What on earth would you need a thermometer in a computer for??
@BB, what copycats? Last time I checked Apple DID NOT invent the tablets. Nor even for their precious iPhone, they did not invent any of the technologies they've used.
And frankly I don't get this media hype around iPad. We had so many tablet announcements at the fall of the 2009 that it doesn't even stand in the crowd. Probably people expect them to be the next iPhone, but all I see is a 9" of the same old. They just moved to new dimensions, but not ideas. This is not USA - we use more than one brand here.
I just hope MSI tablet gets a multi-touch display too (and a GPS, and a thermometer wouldn't hurt either :)
One key weakness of the iPad (in addition to its many other shortcomings) is its backlit LCD display -- reading e-books on one of these is a recipe for eye strain or worse, and it eats battery power for the backlight. So it's not even a good e-book reader, and cannot be used in direct sunlight. The other weakness is having to carry a stupid external keyboard around to do any serious text entry (and have to buy this separately).
If MSI (or Asus, or Acer) can come up with a convertible netbook with a reflective-mode screen (such as a Pixel-Qi) -- a capacitive touchscreen that can be used in tablet mode for e-books and so forth, or as a standard netbook -- I think they would take over both the netbook and the "tablet" markets.
Netbooks are a proven seller, and I think it is asking too much of people to have to give up a keyboard just to get touchscreen/e-reader functions. To help keep the costs down, just dump the Microsoft tax and install Android, Maemo, or some other version of Linux. Remember, this will be competing with a glorified phone-less iPhone. Make one for around $500 (maybe $600 for GSM-enabled version with standard SIM card), and I'll be your first customer.
(1) Newton wasn't the first handheld with a touch screen.
(2) If you think this is a 'feint by Apple, so they can come out with the "real" product' then you must believe this is not a 'real product'. lol.
With these copycat companies always mimicking Apple in every product, maybe this Newton 2.0 is just a feint by Apple, so they can come out with the "real" product that will really wow people.