Hybrid Tablets Take Center Stage At Computex

When Dell launched its Streak device last year - falling halfway between a tablet and a smartphone - it seemed like a niche form factor. But now Asustek is introducing a similar 5-inch tablet/handset hybrid and predicts there will be a wave of such products. Also due at next week's Computex show in Taiwan is a hybrid of a different kind from Acer - an Android tablet running on Intel Atom rather than the more common ARM-based processor, and the first results of the recent port of Honeycomb to the x86 architecture.

Focal Points:

• Asustek is turning the 'between two stools' nature of its product into a virtue, issuing a Facebook teaser asking "pad or phone"? Spokesperson David Chang added: "I'm guessing it will be something of the order of a tablet merged with a phone" but did not reveal further details. Asustek already has a full-sized tablet, the Eee Pad Transformer, as part of a quartet of slates unveiled in January.
• Although some of the hyped-up hopes for the tablet form factor have been dimmed in recent months, slates are still expected to be a major theme of Computex, which always sees an ocean of consumer electronics and wireless gadgets launched, and is a good indicator of device trends for the coming holiday seasons.
• Though some observers remain skeptical about the 5-inch screen size, Asustek says it expects other rivals to follow its lead, and Helen Chiang, an analyst at IDC Taiwan, believes all the main PC makers are designing such hybrids.

Meanwhile, fellow Taiwanese vendor Acer is expected to show off an Android tablet, running the Honeycomb OS release with Intel's latest Atom processor - and the first one really targeted at mobile devices - Oak Trail. This is already in production, according to ZDnet, and will hit the shelves in July. A real world Atom/Android tablet will at last give users a chance to test Intel's claims that its battery life can match that of an ARM chip nowadays.