Tablet PC have been selling for years, but only recently have media slates established, more or less, their own niche.
HP was the first to show off a tablet project, the HP Slate, but ended up scrapping it and starting over once it acquired Palm's webOS.
Now, ASUS has also apparently decided to renounce Windows Embedded Compact 7 in favor of the Google Android OS, at least on the lower-end tablets.
In fact, the company reportedly intends to bring out an entire collection of slates by March, 2011, priced at between $300 and as high as $1,000.
One of the lower-end ones, the Eee Tablet that is actually an e-reader, was reportedly priced at below $599 but is not coupled with a tag of $300.
Not all slates will drop Windows 7 Compact, however. A 10-inch model loaded with it will supposedly come out in January and will bear a price of $499 or lower.
What's more, ASUS is planning on releasing, around December or January 2011, a 12-inch slate loaded with Windows 7 Home Premium and equipped with a docking station that allows it to turn into a laptop.
This 12-inch Eee Pad EP121 is based on an Intel Core 2 Duo ULV, will offer full PC functionality and will cost around $1,000.
Finally, the last piece in this series will be the Android 3.0-running Eee Pad EP101TC and will cost less than $399 and will start shipping in March.
All in all, one can expect a whole slew of slates to flood the market over the coming months.
Source: Softpedia
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