Aaeon will produce a rugged tablet PC

TAIWANESE INDUSTRIAL PC MAKER Aaeon Technology will start production soon on a series of rugged tablet PCs

Yingzhen Lee, Aaeon's president told Digitimes that his company is planning to build the reinforced tablet PC for extreme environments.

We're not sure if this means it will cope with the extreme queuing environments outside Apple's London store for Ipad buyers. But the tablet will be designed to be serviceable over a range of weather conditions.

There were no further details available so we can't tell you about cost or potential release date. As Aaeon Technology builds top grade industrial PCs for medical use, we expect this tablet will cost at least as much as a Panasonic Toughbook.

We also expect that it won't be coming to a retail store near you any time soon. µ