14 DAY TRIAL // The fact that Apple's iPad sold more than 2 million copies already is enough to show that, if anything, there is consumer interest for media slates. As such, virtually all PC suppliers, even those that were weary of this new device type, have come up with prototypes of their own. All of them aim to provide a better feature set at the same price point as the iPad, in order to offset the issues of content availability that most companies still haven't circumvented.
On the other hand, there is another strategy that may draw attention. VIA chose to focus on a smaller form factor in order to reach much lower price points. To be more specific, instead of demanding roughly $500, its slates have price points of $100 to $200. This is possible thanks to the company's own ARM CPUs and a feature set than does without some of the more advanced capabilities of the iPad and its future competitors.
It is still not completely clear what one can expect the upcoming slates to do, but the ones on display at VIA's booth at Computex at least gave a general idea. All models reportedly measure 7 inches, have resistive touchscreen display and run the Android 1.6 version of Google's well-known mobile operating system. The CPU at the heart of each of them was a WonderMedia WM8505, based on the ARM 9.
Advanced multimedia playback is, thus, probably out of the question, but the electronics shouldn't have much of a problem when it comes to playing music files or browsing through pictures. Web browsing should also be supported, though online streaming may not go as smoothly as one may wish.
In addition to the tablet, VIA showcased a pair of WM8605-enabled smartbooks. Unfortunately, these came with the same lack of actual pricing and availability details as the tablets themselves.