14 DAY TRIAL // ViewSonic is, apparently, getting ready to grace some parts of Europe with a tablet that, though not as 'up to date' as the other Android models, does have a much lower price than them.
Amazon's Kindle Fire and its very low price (which was quick in attracting patent trolls) may have had a stronger effect than some think, if rumors about another, cheap tablet are true.
Then again, if ViewSonic really is getting ready to launch such a thing, it must have been working on it for quite some time even before the appearance of that item.
More to the point, the Internet has seen the emergence of reports and rumors regarding a certain ViewPad 10e.
Essentially, this is a slate with a display size of 9.7 inches, like the iPad 2 and HP TouchPad.
What it doesn't have in common with those two, however, is the Android operating system (at least if you look past the implied sabotage that resulted in shipments of Android-loaded HP TouchPads).
ViewSonic chose the Gingerbread operating system (Android 2.3) instead of Honeycomb (Android 3.0-3.2).
This might raise a few eyebrows, but people should keep in mind that this is, or will be, in the end, a €250 device (about $340, based on exchange rates).
It is unknown when sales start, but ViewSonic supposedly said it would be “soon,” whatever that means. The Netherlands and the United Kingdom is where shipments will be carried out, at least at first.
For those who want to know more about what to expect, the tablet is about 9 mm-thick (0.35 inches) and has an IPS display with a resolution of 1,024 x 768 pixels.
The company also threw in a 1.3 megapixel webcam and whatever else it deemed necessary (the full spec sheet, like storage, memory, processor, etc., was not disclosed).