Days before iPad 2 assault, Viewsonic delivers ViewPad 10s in HN

Alex Zaharov-Reutt
Tuesday, 22 March 2011 13:21

Your IT - Home IT

To iPad 2 or to ViewPad'¦ is it even a question? Harvey Norman, the store with the owner that wants to GST more is getting ready for incredibly long queues of die-hard fans all waiting to get their hands on Viewsonic's latest Android tablet.

Ok, ok, so long queues for Viewsonic's Android tablet, the ViewPad 10s, are clearly only happening in a Bizzaro-world alternate reality, but what's real in this universe is that the ViewPad 10 has landed at Harvey Norman.

The big question will be, of course, who actually wants one, given that various models of the iPad 1 and 2 will be cheaper than the ViewPad 10s AUD $599 price point, with the ViewPad 10s being a different and third model to the previously released ViewPad 10 and ViewPad 7 models.

Good candidates for ownership are those that aren't interested in Apple's ecosystem of apps or reliance upon iTunes, but Viewsonic's mission would have been much easier had the ViewPad 10s been available with Google's latest Android OS 3.0, instead of the smartphone-optimised Android OS 2.2 that it comes with instead.

Naturally, despite knowing the ViewPad 10s will not generate the same kind of cult-esque consumer excitement that Apple has mastered, Viewsonic's Australian Country Manager, William Tse, said: 'ViewSonic is pleased to have the ViewPad 10s ranged in Harvey Norman stores. Harvey Norman is one of Australia's top electrical retailers and with their support we are excited to be bringing our recent addition to the ViewPad range to consumers.

'The ViewPad 10s is a smart tablet that focuses on entertainment making it the perfect product for technology-savvy Harvey Norman customers looking for a personal multimedia device', added Mr Tse.

While the ViewPad 10s only has Android OS 2.2, it does otherwise come with some of those high-end 'speeds and feeds' that Steve Jobs decried as largely irrelevant during his iPad 2 unveiling, but even so, speeds and feeds do meet geek needs.

Continued on page two, please read on!