US monitor maker ViewSonic Corp has taken the lead by selling the first tablet PC in Taiwan, aiming to sell as many as 4,000 units per month locally.
Pre-ordering began last week with the product expected to hit retail stores next week, Alan Chang (張仲英), a managing director at the company, said at a product launch yesterday.
“Tablets are set to replace netbooks, especially those that are bundled with telecoms operators’ subscription plans,” he said.
The company estimated the global market size for tablets to be in the range of 40 million to 45 million units next year, with Apple Inc’s iPad accounting for as many as 25 million units.
ViewSonic aims to sell 2 million ViewPad tablets next year, said Chang, who added that another 10-inch model that runs on dual operating systems — Android and Windows — was in the pipeline.
Running Android 2.2, the 7-inch ViewPad 7 comes with a retail price tag of NT$14,900. Consumers could also get a subsidized model when the company introduces its bundled package with Far EasTone Telecommunications Co (遠傳電信) next week.
The ViewPad 7 has a VGA screen upfront and a 3-megapixel back-facing camera. It doubles as a phone with built-in 3G capabilities for phone and data transmissions and has a full-sized SIM slot. It runs on a 600MHz Qualcomm CPU and offers 800x480 panel resolution.
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