Orange UK has just announced that they’ll be offering an Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablet called the “Tahiti” to their customers starting today for just £70 with with a 2 year contract. What’s interesting about this device is that it’s nothing more than a Huawei MediaPad that’s been rebranded. The few operators that offer tablets with a subsidy typically just resell something from Motorola or Pantech. The Tahiti is the first time we can think of that an operator has decided to slap their name on a tablet. Specification wise, you’re looking at a 7 inch screen that pushes 1280 x 800 pixels, a dual core 1.2 GHz processor, 5 megapixel camera, WiFi, 3G connectivity, and GPS. Will the Tahiti get upgraded to Ice Cream Sandwich? We certainly hope so, but Orange UK hasn’t officially said anything. If you’re thinking of signing a 2 year contract for this thing, you should demand that you’ll get software updates for at least the first year of the product’s lifespan.
The bigger question here is why on earth would you buy a tablet from an operator? Tablets were invented to be the poster child for the “post PC era”, right? Think back to when you bought your last PC, did you get it from an operator? No. Is that going to change in a world of iPads? There’s something to be said about 3G tablets that obviously require a data plan, operators don’t want to see themselves becoming a dumb pipe, but that’s a problem that Apple solved by essentially forcing operators to essentially offer non-contract data packages. That and you’re more likely to use a tablet while it’s connected to WiFi than to 3G.
Anyway, we want to know what you think. Would you ever buy a tablet at a discount if it required that you sign a contract for X number of months or years? If so, then what’s the difference compared just putting a $499 product on your credit card and paying it off like that?
[Via: Unwired View]
Update: Huawei says that the MediaPad will get Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich by the end of Q1 2012, but that still doesn’t give us any clues as to when/if Orange will update the Tahiti.