ASUS CEO Jerry Shen sure is
making the rounds this week talking up the company's upcoming entry into the tablet arena, but before giving up some more
Eee Pad details he clarified that he doesn't anticipate tablet sales surpassing that of netbooks. The latter category is for personal computing while tablets are based on consuming content and Cloud computing. Shen said something similar when
we spoke with him at CeBIT, but this time he also added that without Apple the tablet category would have been slower to ramp up. We'd say he's on the money with that one, but still he plans to launch an Eee tablet in early June at Computex. And though he mentioned there being a few versions, he revealed the "first phase will use
Microsoft software." We don't know if that means the tablet will be Intel powered and run Windows 7, or pack a Tegra 2 processor and boot some version of Windows CE
like we saw at CES. Regardless of what happens, we'd say Microsoft's happy to hear this all after
this week's news.
posted April 30th 2010 4:05PM
As soon as they release that Eee 1218, they will.
hmm..cloud..and consumption..sounds alot like WP7..my bet is eventually MS and partners see it as the OS to go with on tablets.
@jackburton
The P standing for Phone now kind of kills that, might just be generic Windows CE though
@jackburton If they're talking about the chrome netbook or the new asus netbook, then perhaps, there's some light with this statement. http://j.mp/chrome-netbook
@jackburton
CourierOS then? maybe the actual tablet wont come to be, but a variant of WP7 (WinCE) for tablets is what MS really working on.
@Eternity That combo works just fine
He needs to do better than just ripping the keyboard off this thing:
http://www.engadget.com/2010/04/27/asus-eee-pc-t101mt-review/
@Snowdog Or get By-Tor to help with product design ;-)
@snowdog @aubreyq
+1 one for the each of you.
I'm looking forward to the Time Machine tour!
@erik1080 I'm SO there, man!
Jerry Shen is a cool dude, but I don't know how manufacturers can make money putting Windows on their netbooks.
@j4g3rb0mb3d
Hardly.
with the price of netbook, no contest..
but it's apple and orange anyway
Hurray!
Come on Asus. The future of the Win 7 Slate depends upon you.
Just get it launched though or the market is Apples.
@weststander I honestly don't care if the market is Apples. Apple can have the market. I just want a device that I can finally make use of. I want a Windows 7 slate. I don't care what the rest of tablet users buy so long as I get the device that I need for my purposes. So long as PC manufacturers make me good Windows 7 Slates with multitouch screens and accelerometers and all the ports and connections of a PC I will be very happy.
@cool8man
Agreed. But if someone doesn't actually get to market with a 7 Slate soon the market won't even be there. It will be taken by the Ipad and the Android devices. And I do want/need a 7 Slate.
@weststander
When he said Microsoft software, he meant Android which they have to pay Microsoft for anyway
"he plans to launch an Eee tablet in early June"
I'll believe it when I see it.
Translation: "We will continue upselling netbooks to be larger and more expensive. Stay tune for our 17" netbook announcement."
Let's face it, netbooks are losing their values fast as they are becoming more expensive than ever (and larger too). Please return to your roots, cheap and small.
Well, if the CE is something like WP7, it'll be good.
Please make me a Windows 7 Slate. Please. I do not want a computer with a cellphone operating system, especially one as pathetically limited as WP7. I want a nice TINY LITTLE 9"-10" Atom powered Windows 7 multitouch and accelerometer powered tablet device. If anyone ever makes one of those and includes a nice little docking station with USB ports and video outputs I will buy it the instant it is available.
@cool8man I second that. Also please don't worry about trying to match the battery life of the iPad. So feel free to bump up the ram and CPU. I'll even forgive you if it's a little thicker and heaver then the iPad.
@cool8man
You forgot to say you'll only pay $200 for it
@cool8man No I would probably pay up to $599-$699 for the device.
@rwalrond
i used the ipad a while ago (went to gadget show live, i think it was the ipads first visit to the UK :P) and, its weird, its just... not really right, if anything id like it a little bit heavier... or bigger
it not really how i thought it would be, so id agree with you on the 'stick some more CPU/RAM and dont worry about the weight so much'
just give me the ipad, but put all the stuff the ipad is ridiculously missing :P
@7egend Would work for me.
Stupid.
If HP couldn't do it (see HP Slate), what makes them think they'll have better success?
Asus Android tablet, go!
@Johnny Rockets Who says HP COULDN'T do it? More like they are going back to the drawing board to build a slate around WebOS....sucks, as I wanted the HP Slate this year.....but I'd rather have it one right and run smoothly than just thrown out there and left to die
@Johnny Rockets
Because ASUS makes much better stuff compared to the shit HP makes.
@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
"COULDN'T" not meaning inability, but meaning they didn't think it was worth their time. Or in other words, it was so unprofitable (since profit is the name of the game here), that instead of releasing a nearly-finished device, it was more worthwhile to completely pull the ENTIRE device..
@Peytral Actually just in case you don't notice, most HP desktops have an Asus motherboard in them.
Watch it end up being a crappy full-blown Windows tablet, then completely fail to make any sort of meaningful impact on anything, then the guys will say "the public is obviously not interested in tablet computers" conveniently ignoring the 2 or 3 Million+ sales the iPad will have by then.
@winbsodos
They Need to wake up to the Fact that You just cant take a desktop O/S and slap it on a tablet.. The O/S has to be Developed FOR the Mobile platform..
@winbsodos
Why does everything have to "make an impact?" When I buy a PC do I ever think about whether the computer I'm buying is going to "make an impact?" I've purchased several computers in my life and I never once considered for even a second if the computer was going to make an impact. Why is a Windows 7 slate any different?
@ThinkpaxX200s
Actually you can take a desktop OS as versatile as Windows 7 and put it on a netbook tablet. Windows 7 was designed with netbooks and multitouch tablets in mind. Wasn't it? Or am I just crazy, cause I remember that being part of the bullet points of why Windows 7 was better than Vista.
@winbsodos 2 or 3 million iPad sold? Has it broke a million yet? I've been waiting to hear some numbers on how the 3G version has done in pre-orders but haven't seen anything yet
@Chris DPSN AggieCEO XBLThe Aggi
I think his point is it'll be 2-3 million before anybody actually gets to market. Joojoo excepted.
@cool8man
Just because W7 "supports" touch doesn't mean it does a good job at it. HP tried to use it, and they ended up adding their own UI interface layer that bypassed W7 because W7 was too damned slow. After seeing and using the iPad interface, nobody is going to be happy using standard W7 on a tablet.
@Ed T
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WBtEhQqS1dw
Windows 7 tablet PC's like the TM2 work perfect with nothing but touch screen controls. Windows 7 does more than just support touch, it is a great experience, in many ways even better than an iPhone because you can resize virtual keyboards, fonts, menus, and icons to absolute perfection. Apple is a one-size fits all touch experience, Windows 7 is customizable to perfection.
@Ed T
Windows Media Center on an HP TM2 Tablet:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZuU1j9ZawIw
So beautiful. This has to come out for a slate-sized computer!!!!! Ahhh.
@cool8man Again cool8man we're on the same page. After seeing these videos, I think Native Win7 would work just fine on a tablet, no need for the HP skin. Like I said HP, gives us the Win7 slate, then you can go make the "Tech Journalist" happy and release a webos tablet.
Dam, this guy is showing the media center interface which I knew would work like a charm on a multi-touch tablet.
@cool8man
If W7 worked so well, why did HP waste all that time and money trying to fix the interface on the Slate? Are you THAT much smarter than the HP engineers? You know the reason -- W7 starts to slow down as soon as the machine gets used in the real world and is loaded with software. Sure, it flies through a controlled demo and everything looks fine, but after using it for a week, the touch UI starts to get laggy and annoying.
HP is not a stupid company, and they made the changes for a reason. Last I heard they completely dropped W7 completely and plan to reboot the Slate project based on WebOS.
imma HPre on that....
@j4g3rb0mb3d
2003 called, they want their tablet back.
http://www.techpinas.com/2009/05/benchmarks-intel-atom-vs-celeron-m-vs.html
http://www.cpubenchmark.net/low_end_cpus.html
ARM+Mobile OS > X86+Windows
@Eternity x86 cpu+mobileOS > armcpu+mobileos
@stabbytheicepic
What about battery life? If you aren't going to be running Crysis on it and it does everything at a faster or the same speed, is lighter, draws much less power and plays back HD video smoothly... then why would you go X86?
@Eternity
Since those tablets aren't going to be more than three hours from a charging outlet is that an issue?
@MarkAnderson The fact of the matter is that extra battery life is never bad thing to have.
Yes, Jerry, netbooks will outsell tablets. But you'll have to sell 10 netbooks to every Ipad to match Apple's profit levels
@suicidebob - what's your point? It works for them, obviously, and it works for the customers.