[LESS INFO] 2 VIEWS | ADDED 05:20:32 05/22/10
We sat down with two guys from MSI at DCC. Green Lin, Marketing supervisor MEA channel marketing, and Alan Chu, Regional sales director MEA market, showed us a tablet looking similar to Apple's iPad, which they said would launch at Computex in June. It's going to run Windows 7 on an Intel Atom processor, but apparently specs are not yet finalized. The other device, which was a non-functional prototype, looked kind of like a netbook but instead of where the keyboard usually is, there was a second display. They said it could be used as a regular notebook in which case the lower display would work as a virtual keyboard. You will also be able to use it in vertical mode and read a book on one screen and do something else on the other or even span Windows across the two screens, as far as I could tell. This device will roll out sometime next year, if it even makes it that far through development. It's a bit unfair to judge the device just yet as it's not finalized but personally I think it's exciting that more companies are coming out with tablets. This particular one is not as good looking as the iPad but if it has more functionality, quick performance like iPad, comparable battery life and a competitive price, it would be an interesting alternative. There's certainly something appealing about running a full desktop OS on a touch tablet, something many have commented on in terms of iPad.
