While 10 inch and smaller tablets are in the process of taking the consumer electronics industry by storm, some companies have their eyes on a different prize: Tablets for niche categories such as business or education. Kno falls into the latter category with two products that are squarely focused on students.

Kno currently offers a single screen 14 inch tablet and a dual screen 14 inch tablet. They’re ridiculously large and heavy when compared with a consumer tablet like the Apple iPad, but that’s because Kno isn’t trying to compete with the iPad. Instead the company is trying to compete with a backpack filled to the brim with heavy textbooks. The idea is that you can use a Kno to download digital textbooks for a lower price than physical books. As an added bonus you can surf the web, make calculations, take notes, or perform other tasks on the same device you’re using to read up for your next class.

But I’m not entirely certain that you need an enormous tablet with twin 14 inch displays to do those things, so while Kno’s vision has always made sense to me, I’ve been less sold on the company’s hardware. Now it looks like Kno might be getting ready to shed the hardware portion of its business.

All Things D reports that Kno is talking two a couple of consumer electronics manufacturers about selling the hardware business. This would allow Kno to develop software for third party devices such as the Apple iPad or Google Android tablets.

Kno has reportedly only shipped a few hundred tablet so far, but it’s possible that parting ways with the hardware business could be a good way to raise some cash, while developing software for tablets students may already have such as the iPad may be a better way to get students and educators using Kno’s services.

Right now this is all just an unconfirmed rumor, but the move would certainly make a lot of sense.

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