Taiwan, Computex – Asus has revealed an all new line of portable devices and these are not netbooks. The newest addition to the Eee PC series of devices are tablets; it may seem like a very predictable move, but with Asus steady position in the portable computers industry, the company still took some risks with the launch of these new products.
The EP101TC is a bit of a tablet computer and is mostly a tablet media device. In that aspect, this not-so tablet PC is actually a direct competitor to the Apple iPad. While the EP121 is new generation tablet computer, the EP101TC tries to be a little a little of both, and from the looks of it Asus has hit the balance pretty closely.
Of course, it all boils down to the operating system. While it is hard to explain in detail, the platform running on Asus’ tablet is actually Windows CE –not exactly cutting edge in terms of software choice, but it still works. Hopefully, the system is upgradeable to the upcoming Windows Phone 7 OS, else it would face tough competition from both the Apple iPhone OS and the Google Android.
Apps will also be a major concern. Microsoft’s aging platform is not exactly an exciting OS for developers to bother with; especially with the 2.2 Android, Symbian^4 and iPhone 4.0 OS coming soon, this tablet will be hard pressed to get support from devs.
If Asus does get a Windows Phone 7 update however, it could completely change the playing field and potentially give Asus and Microsoft an edge over Apple’s iPad. Right now, Asus has yet to reveal the full specs on the device –particularly regarding the length of the device’s battery life and of course, how much processing the NVIDIA Tegra can really do before draining the battery.
|
|
|
|
|
|