While LG is reportedly looking to scale back its netbook ambitions, Electronic Pulp dug up a patent filing from November that seems to indicate that just a few months ago the company was thinking big. According to the patent documents, LG was working on a “convertible computer” that would be “equipped with a notebook computer function and a tablet computer function.”
In other words, the patent describes a convertible touchscreen tablet like the Asus Eee PC T91 or the Intel Classmate 3. What’s interesting about the LG concept is that the computer would run two different operating systems. It would automatically detect whether the machine was configured in tablet or notebook mode and select the appropriate OS.
It’s not entirely clear whether the patent describes a netbook or a full sized laptop, but given LG’s recent launch of the X110 and X120 mini-laptops, my guess is that the idea would have been to launch a small convertible tablet to compete with low cost netbook tablets from Asus and other manufacturers.
But given LG’s decision to cool its netbook jets and focus on mobile phones, I’m guessing we won’t see a tablet from LG until 2010 at the earliest. Or at least not a new one. As Electronic Pulp points out, LG did launch a convertible tablet in 2007 with a 10.6 inch display, a 1.2GHz Intel Core duo CPU, and NVIDIA GeForce 7300 graphics. It may have looked like a netbook, but it had the specs and price of a full fledged laptop.
via Eee PC.net
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