Taiwanese PC maker Micro-Star International (MSI) said Thursday that would target corporate users with the release of three new 10.1-inch touchscreen tablet PC on 1 June, of which two with Windows 7 and a Honeycomb with Google Android OS.
The WindPad tablet running on Android Honeycomb uses an Nvidia Tegra 2 processor. The second Tablet has Brazos AMD plus a chipset enhanced viewing and the third is equipped with an Intel Atom processor for handhelds.
The Android device will go on sale for US $ 399, while the Windows 7 WindPad with Intel will start at $ 549, says MSI marketing manager Luc Liao. A price has not yet been set for the model of Windows 7 with the AMD, but said it will likely be among the prices of other WindPads the two.
The WindPad is the Android tablets first honeycomb to cost less than an iPad, which starts at $ 499. Motorola Xoom, carries a price tag of $ 800.
MSI, a manufacturer of 25 years that makes also notebook computer, announced performances for WindPads of 10.1 inches at the Computex Taipei electronics show last year.
MSI claims battery life for six hours to Windows tablets and eight on the Android system. All models are fitted with accelerometers to detect the orientation of the device and rotate images on the screen depending on how it is being held, as well as an automatic light sensor to adjust the brightness of the screen to better match the user's lighting situation and Wi-Fi, according to the MSI.
The Android Tablet weighs 800 grams and just 13 mm at its thinnest point.
When all three tablets are released, MSI expects to attract business users who prefer Windows on an Apple, said Liao.
"If you like Mac OS, you will choose iPad, but if you prefer Windows 7 or Android, you will choose our own," said Liao. "Business people who use Windows already will find that these tablets work with what you did before."
Helen Chiang, research manager at IDC in Taipei said that the new MSI WindPads prices were in line with other tablets not Apple. And MSI will meet resistance if it distributes tablets as a replacement for laptops, because the three models are too small for easy use of the software, such as spreadsheets, she said.
"Consumers would see it more as a secondary device," said Chiang.
Other companies like Sony, Acer and Asustek computer, are preparing this year to take on iPad, which was the dominant tablet PC maker last year with approximately 90 percent of the global market 17 million units, according to IDC.
Market research firm DisplaySearch estimates that 56 million tablets will be produced in 2011, more than 200 percent in 2010 shipments.
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