14 DAY TRIAL // Olivetti is a long-forgotten Italian brand specialized in typewriter manufacturing. However, the company is mostly known for building Italy’s first electronic computer back in 1959.
Unfortunately, due to its inability to attune its products to the market demands, the company was forced to sell its PC business in 1997.
Today, Olivetti is part of a merger with the number one Italian carrier Telecom Italia, which is the main reason the former was able to re-launch its business in the information technology department.
If you didn’t know, Olivetti launched its first computer tablet in March 2011, which was called OliPad 100. The slate was pretty high-end even though it was powered by Android 2.2 Froyo operating system
The OliPad 100 is equipped with an Nvidia Tegra 2 chipset with dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 CPU and sports a 10-inch capacitive display that supports 1024 x 600 pixels resolution. The company launched a sequel, the OliPad 110, a few months later.
It appears that both Olivetti tablets have been popular among Android fans as the company plans to launch two new slates within the next few months.
According to the folks over at NotebookItalia, Olivetti is expected to release the OliPad Graphos and OliPad Tegra 3 tablets in the second quarter of 2012. Both slates are targeted at business consumers, but they might be available outside Italy as well.
Olivetti OliPad Graphos is said to feature an 8-inch capacitive multi-touch display with support for 1024 x 768 pixels resolution. The selling point of the tablet will be the Wacom digitizer, which can be used as an input device.
Users will be able to draw, take notes or select folders with this special stylus. On the inside, the OliPad Graphos will be equipped with an Nvidia Tegra SoC 2.
The second tablet that is rumored to arrive in Italy in June is called OliPad Tegra 3. The slate is said to feature a 10-inch IPS capacitive touchscreen display that supports 1280 x 800 pixels resolution. Aside from the Nvidia Tegra 3 chipset, the tablet will be equipped with NFC support.
Two OliPad Tegra 3 models will be available on the market, a Wi-Fi only variant and a Wi-Fi + 3G version. Both tablets will be powered by Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich operating system.