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Another product is joining the tablet wars. It’s WePad, which comes from the German company Neofonie. Specs wise, we’re talking about the device that’s more powerful than the Apple iPad, but as you know, it’s not the specs that win the consumers’ hearts, minds and ultimately wallets.
While the iPad relies on Apple’s 1Ghz ARM-based A4 processor, WePad uses 1.66GHz Intel Atom N450 Pineview-M CPU. Instead of a 9.7-inch (1024×768 pixels) screen found in Apple’s product, WePad sports an 11.6-inch (1366×768 pixels) display. Then there’s a built-in 1.3-megapixel (front-facing?) camera, 2 USB ports, SIM card slot, Flash and Adobe AIR support, multitasking, Bluetooth, WiFi and optional 3G connectivity. Android is running on top of Linux core (which makes it sound like Linux on top of Linux), allowing users to run both Android apps and some “specially designed for WePad” apps.
In addition to powerful specs, the good thing is that Neofonie has its own publishing platform called WeMagazine, which they use to make newspapers and magazines readable on computers and smartphones. The plan is to use this technology on WePad in a move that will make them compete not only with the iPad, but with the Amazon Kindle as well. In that sense, they are reportedly in talks with Germany’s biggest publisher – Springer, though we don’t have that confirmed.
Availability wise, the WePad should be available in April, and will most likely hit the German market prior to iPad. We’ve no idea when it will be available outside Germany — I’m presuming that in addition to finalizing the hardware production, Neofonie also wants to have some publishers on board prior to launching the device elsewhere. We’ll see where that goes, and in the meantime – you can get additional details from WePad’s official website.
[Via: TechCrunch]
About The Author
Dusan Belic
Dusan has been using smartphones since their introduction and is now following the latest trends in the industry. The "convergence" is what he's most excited about, and writing about it is the next logical thing to do. He thinks that using a smartphone is what everyone who cares about their time should do. In addition to his interests in mobile phones, Dusan also loves to experiment with the latest web and mobile 2.0 services. The idea of accessing and managing your information from any device no matter where you are simply amazes him. Whether it's an online to-do list, note taking service or a video sharing social network, he's there to try it out. He admits though, he's still searching for the ultimate web-based organizational tool, which "sings" perfectly with the mobile PIM application. Dusan used to run SymbianWatch.com which later became part of IntoMobile. He lives in Serbia, South-East Europe, from where he edits the site on a daily basis.
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Dusan Belic
