Otaku Gadgets

This one goes without saying but Computex will see its fair share of tablets and there will be Windows 7 tablets in attendance there. Industry sources have claimed that MSI is preparing to bring a tablet PC to the Computex event that will be held at the beginning of the next month. And it looks like Asus will give them company, doing the same thing.

But when they say tablet PC, they of course mean the category that has finally come to the limelight thanks to Apple’s iPad. According to the sources, MSI is bringing out a tablet device that will be powered by an Intel’s Atom Z-series processor and will be priced under $500. But for that price you will get a 10″ display, as well as 3G and WiFi. Looks like somebody is trying their level best to undercut Apple. Well, since just about every tablet maker is trying to do the same thing, MSI might as well do it too.

The device, which has been dubbed Slatebook for the time being, is all set to be a nice piece of Windows 7 hardware which also doubles up as an eBook reader. Some of you might remember that MSI had announced their own eBook reader last year. Well, it seems like that little project is no longer active and MSI is focussing on this thing instead. This is what happens when you try to play catch up instead of trying to gauge the trend in advance. You end up investing time, money and effort in the wrong project.

MSI had also announced that it will use NVIDIA’s Tegra processor to make a portable device. Well, now it is thinking about making a PC with the NVIDIA Tegra dual-core solution. However, this time they won’t jump in and watch the water carefully before getting their feet wet.

MSI will have company if it does bring out that tablet device of theirs that people are talking about — Asus is supposed to bring out their (very creatively named) Eee Pad tablet at the Computex event as well. There’s is a 7inch tablet device that also runs on Windows 7. Other companies have given up trying to make tablets run on stripped down versions of full fledged OS’ like Windows. Everyone has seen how well the iPhone software does on the iPad, so most of the companies have switched lanes and are now cruising along the Mobile OS side of the tablet freeway.

So now we have multiple big players in the tablet field — Apple, Google (software only, so far) and Microsoft (also software only, so far). After HP’s recent acquisition of Palm, they are expected to make full use of the WebOS platform and make a tablet and also a phone out of it.

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