Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 07 July 2009 11:48
Opinion and Analysis
Page 1 of 2
Presumably still months before any Apple “MacBook iTablet” will appear,
TechCrunch founder Michael Arrington’s “CrunchPad” will go on sale,
booting through Linux into a Webkit based browser for what could be the
best low-cost cloud computing touch-tablet experience thus far – and
it’s sure to be very quickly hacked!
Touch screen tablet computers have actually been with us for many years, but have never taken off with the public in the way that notebooks, netbooks, mobile phones and iPhones have over the past decade.
Although Arrington’s CrunchPad and future Apple iTablet devices seem certain to change this, just as the iPhone has popularised touch screens far more than Microsoft’s “Pocket PCs” and smartphones ever did, touch computing has had several missteps.
Microsoft’s “Mira” wireless screen/tablet concept which was around a few years ago tried to popularise tablets, but cost far too much for what was really only a wireless touch-screen screen remote control to your main desktop computer.
It’s also despite early “Windows 3.1 for Pen Computers” and the much more advanced follow up in Windows XP and then Vista Tablet PCs in convertible and slate models.
Although they’ve been on sale for years, and today are more popular than ever (relatively speaking), Tablet PCs widely used at some schools, in vertical business and health markets and for some working in more office environments, but the imminent arrival of Windows 7 and its multi-touch capabilities could rapidly boost their popularity into the stratosphere.
Devices such as the CrunchPad and ever lighter Win 7, Mac OS X and Linux single touch and increasingly multi-touch slate and convertible tablets will finally rapidly change this mix, with the CrunchPad’s US $300 price set to break barriers as did the original Asus Eee PC 701, with 7-inch screen, 4GB SSD and Xandros Linux, which is still on sale in Australia (but now with 8GB of RAM) for AUD $294.
Indeed, given the success of netbooks, why a touch-screen tablet hasn’t been properly tried by Asian computer manufacturer is puzzling, especially when everyone is expecting Apple to release its own iTablet / iPhone Pro / MacBook either later this year or sometime in 2010.
The simple answers are the expense and thickness of capacitive multi-touch panels that can also accept stylus input, and the lack of a proper touch-based OS that worked as well as the iPhone.
As noted, Windows 7 should finally do a lot to bring multi-touch and pen-enabled Tablet PCs into the mainstream, as will multi-touch versions of Linux and OS X, but until then, the CrunchPad at its low US $300 price could be the device that everyone truly associates with Tablet PCs – once it launches.
There’s also great hackability potential with the CrunchPad…
please read on to page 2!
