Panasonic Launches Two BizPad Rugged Tablets

Panasonic is not about to fall behind in the tablet race, although its newest pair of such things is most assuredly not of the 'common' media slate variety, despite them sticking to the same 'standard' sizes.

Panasonic issued a press release through which it reveals the existence of the 7-inch and 10.1-inch BizPad tablets.

Set to be launched in December, 2011 (this year) or January 2012, they are intended for enterprise, businesses and industries with less than friendly environments.

Their full specifications were not disclosed, though one might say Panasonic came close (it didn't mention the processing platform but did list something of everything else).

One of the BizPad models, for that is their name, has a 7-inch LCD, while the other one measures 10.1 inches.

In that order, they are dubbed JT-580VT Series and JT-581VT and will be brought to market according to the aforementioned roadmap.

The announcement mentions interoperability, high-definition display (probably implies that the 10.1-incher has a 1,366 x 768 pixels resolution), robustness and everything else needed by field operators.

The tablets also run Android 3.2 (Honeycomb), though Panasonic might update it to Ice Cream Sandwich eventually.

As for what actually makes this pair fit for their intended target base, they have rugged enclosures that provide dust and water resistance, plus the ability to survive mild drops.

They also, naturally, boast security features beyond what regular, consumer slates do, as well as the expected range of connectivity and I/O (WiFi, Bluetooth, optional 3G).

Panasonic also threw in an interchangeable battery pack, an NFC-approved IC card reader and unspecified memory/storage capacities.

Prospective buyers will have to wait until the allotted launch dates of the BizPads to get the full rundown of specifications.

At that point, some clarity will also be cast upon the issue of data protection (Panasonic is bound to throw in some security software and the like).