Korean firm Mintpass is planning a dual-touchscreen tablet for release in the first half of 2011, which would dual-boot between Android and Windows 7. The tablet, so far unnamed, will use a homegrown touchscreen technology that Mintpass is calling “Space Touch”, and allow for book-orientation and notebook-orientation use (with one of the screens displaying a virtual keyboard).
“The Tablet Wars”: Sounds pretty exciting doesn’t it? Well it might have had it not been preceded by years of the smart phone wars. But it’s more than that. The smart phone wars were predicated on fundamental differences in philosophy as to what kind of functionality should be emphasized in a smart phone. Should it be the power business features of a BlackBerry, the ultra hip user experience of an iPhone or the universality and integration of an Android device?
The answer to these questions ultimately led to truly unique and original directional designs by each respective company, both in terms of hardware and software. BlackBerry is staunch about having a full physical keypad, even on their new touch model Torch. iPhone is notorious for the closed and controlling nature with which Apple governs the extent people can customize them. Even Apple’s app store is under constant criticism for the draconian way they run things there. And Google of course, designs everything they do with browsing and search integration in mind.
The end result of all this is an extremely diverse ecosystem of hardware and software from which the greater market can pick and choose what best speaks to their individual needs and wants. In short, a good war is healthy… and quite frankly, far more fun to write and read about too.
On the other hand, the tablet market and the war brewing there, in-spite of its incredible potential to make the US State Department’s list of places too dangerous for developers to visit – is getting off to a pretty boring start. This is due in large part to the initial attempts by the iPad’s competition. I lamented the lack of design originality of the post Apple newcomers to the tablet market. Jon Evans expressed similar misgivings; specifically with regard to RIM’s PlayBook and how they may have dropped the ball before they even got started.
When expressing my sentiments about the lack of tablet ingenuity to some friends and colleagues, I was dismayed to find them take a conciliatory approach by defensively asking what kind of original designs could Samsung and RIM have brought to the table anyway?
What original designs!?
To my knowledge, Samsung and RIM are not strapped for cash startups; it’s their job to be original. Hire top notch designers (you can afford it) and start to throw around some ideas!
Well thank the nerd angels for Mintpass. According to an Endgadget article, the Korean company will be releasing a dual touch screen, dual operating system tablet sometime in 2011. It will run both Windows 7 as well as Android and will feature something they call “Space Touch”. I have no idea what that is but it sounds pretty Fancy Schmancy.
The dual display can either function as two separate units running individual apps simultaneously, or it can be folded laptop style with a touch keyboard on the bottom controlling your apps on top.
MintPass wasn’t the first one to come up with such an innovative idea –Toshiba’s Libretto W100 has a similar design.
Now, have you ever heard of Mintpass before this announcement? Me neither. And that’s just the point. Why are the undiscovered coming up with the original ideas? Past success is not a free pass to sit on your laurels, Samsung and RIM. Next time I will be expecting more.
So far there’s no word on what version of Android the Mintpass tablet might use, what processor(s) it will adopt, or any of the other specifications.
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