While the vast majority of PC makers appear to have decided that the best way to compete with Apple’s iPad is to produce a portable tablet with the word “Pad” somewhere in the name, a few are taking a different approach by using “Tab” to indicate that the tablet is, well, a tablet. There’s the Neofonie WeTab, Samsung Galaxy Tab, and now we can add the KT Identity TAB to that list.
Akihabara News reports that the Korean wireless carrier has introduced a 7 inch tablet called the KT Identity TAB. It actually looks an awful lot like the upcoming Samsung Galaxy Tab which will likely be introduced in a few days.
The Identity TAB features a 7 inch multitouch display, a 1GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processor, 8GB of internal memory, a DMB TV tuner, gyro-sensor, 3MP camera, and SD card reader. The base model apparently features WiFi connectivity, but it’s also available with an optional WiBro 4G data card. Customers can pick one up in Korea for about $252, or for free with a 2 year WiBro contract.
How quickly we forget: PepperPad 1-3, Mintpass Mintpad, Psion Netpad, Siemens SL4. These were all “tablets” that all built on embedded systems just like the iPad. Most were ARM-based. Most were black. All were slates. All had touchscreens. It makes one wonder how Apple was able to “innovate” the name iPad.
I’ve always wondered why HP never got around to suing Apple for trademark infringement. Apple clearly is leveraging the mind-share of one of HP’s core brands. HP basically ushered us all into this modern era of mobile computing with a series of devices that were slate form factor, had touchscreens, ran on ARM-based hardware, and used embedded operating systems also found in smartphones: iPAQ.
The first iMac hit the streets in 1998, while the first Compaq iPaq wasn’t released until 2000.
I know. I had one. I wasn’t talking about the “i” prefix. In fact, I’m one who’ll say that Apple deserves the “i”-centric branding because their first product was called the “Apple I” (I had one of those too). You can’t get much more “i” than that. While my first paragraph was about the prior art of “pad” as a suffix, my second comment was more about the general similarity between iPad and iPAQ. I mean, didn’t we all think that the WePad, the originally name of the WeTab, was a little too close to iPad? Even the makers of the WeTab thought it was, at least enough to change the name in order to “differentiate its product in the marketplace”. iPad is even closer to iPAQ than WePad was to iPad, even close than iPAQ was to iMac. Like I said, I’m just surprised that HP didn’t try to… Read more »
[…] View the original article here […]
[…] hit before they appeared in European and US markets. One of the biggest mobile operators there, KT, has announced they’re gonna launch a 7 inch Android tablet, the KT Identity TAB, to promote their 4G WiBro […]