Sat 17th of April, filed under Mobile Marketing
Technology company Toshiba has revealed plans to release a series of tablet devices, adding another contender to the iPad’s already burgeoning market share. The tablet is expected to run on both Microsoft's Windows 7 and Google's mobile Android operating systems with the Microsoft version being the higher-end model, reports business magazine Fortune.
The new line of tablets is set to be unveiled in late 2010 or early 2011 and, while many of the specifications are as yet unconfirmed, it is expected to have a larger display and a smaller price tag than the iPad. Toshiba’s experience in the market could be responsible for these improvements; they have long produced tablets for the industrial sector and released their own smaller multimedia touchscreen device, the Journe Touch (pictured), in 2009.
Jumping on the bandwagon
Toshiba is not the only company aiming to exploit the new tablet market. A few weeks previous to Apple’s iPad launch, HP unveiled their multimedia touch screen tablet; the Slate. The company refuses to be labelled as ‘jumping on the bandwagon’ however, as Phil McKinney, HP's chief technology officer, states that they have been planning to release such a device for five years.
Toshiba, though, seems less troubled by the idea of following where Apple leads. "It has proved to be a mistake to underestimate these new categories," says Jeff Barney, head of Toshiba's U.S. notebook business. "And besides, we need new category creation to grow our industry.”
The news of yet another tablet competitor comes at a bad time for Apple who have had to push back the international release of the iPad by a month, citing unanticipated demand in the US as the main factor in the delay.
Posted by Carli Harris
