So I was trawling the FCC for leads, as us bloggers are wont to do, and seem to have stumbled upon an upcoming 7″ ViewSonic Android tablet:
ViewBook 730 is a portable entertainment center with: Internet access, a game station, an e-book reader, and much more. This versatile touch screen tablet runs the Android™ operating system, enabling you to easily install thousands of cool applications from the Web
It’s probably safe to assume the ViewBook runs Android 2.1 or 2.2, versus Honeycomb. And, interestingly, ViewSonic seems to be pushing this as a “E-Book Display” via the bundled ZiiAcademy software. Yet at this size and potential price ($318) the soon-to-be-updated $250 Barnes & Noble Nook may be a better proposition. Then again, the VB730 looks to offer more of a full fledged tablet experience, akin to the Samsung Galaxy Tab or Dell Streak, including a front-facing camera and HDMI output.
Click to enlarge:
Here’s a more glamorous photo — http://www.qk123.com/archives/40674/vb730
It does look a lot like Nook Color though :)
And here’s another:
http://news.sina.com.hk/news/23/1/1/2061364/1.html?l=708211
Based on the article date stamp, it looks like the overseas launch event was 3/30. Running Android 2.2 with a 1GHz processor and 512MB of memory. I’d probably just get a Nook.
I wonder if some of these companies are prepared for the hardware ‘race to the bottom’ this whole Android business is going to be. If there’s not going to be any differentiation based on value add from the phone/tablet vendor, the pricing will eventually go through the floor. Do you think B&N are prepared for the near-zero margin business this is going to be? Course, at least they sell ebooks so can look forward to profits somewhere at least…