ViewSonic unveils 7-inch ViewPad, preps 10-inches

Upcoming ViewPad runs either older Android 1.6 or Windows 7.

ViewSonic entered the Android space on Monday, with its new seven-inch ViewPad 7 tablet running Android OS 2.2.

For those who still want to be able to load Windows 7 enterprise applications, ViewSonic next year will release the ViewPad 10, a 10-inch tablet that will boot Android 1.6 and Windows.

The ViewPad 7 is for mobile business users, its 10-hour battery and Google Mobile services advantages for professionals on the road, said Adam Hanin, vice president of marketing at ViewSonic.

"We're very excited about our ViewPad line because we see it as a rapidly growing market, one that our reseller partners can take advantage of," Hanin said. "We think we have the products to help them do that."

It has front and rear-facing cameras, 3G networking, a 1-Ghz Snapdragon processor and 512MB of storage, expandable to 32GB with microSD cards.

ViewPad 10

The ViewPad 10 has a 1.66-Ghz Intel Atom processor, 16-GB solid-state drive, 1 GB of RAM and Windows 7 Home Premium. It was "for people who like to take the desktop experience with them but don't like the bulkiness of notebooks or netbooks", Hanin said.

Both ViewPads have wi-fi and Bluetooth but ViewSonic' no carrier ties.

"You can essentially use your tablet on any carrier you want, though it's not necessarily certified on those platforms," Hanin said.

"The main focus of this product is to maintain connection to the Internet and open-source applications wherever you might be."

The ViewPad 7 Android tablet will be available this month for $US479 ($A485) and the ViewPad 10 will come at the start of next year.

Channel Strategy

Asked what distinguishes ViewSonic from the barrage of OEMs preparing tablets running Windows 7 and Android, Hanin said, "I would question if Dell or HP will be making these products available through the channel."

Hanin cited ViewSonic's 25-year channel-centric strategy and said partners would benefit from its offers of SKUs that resellers can set and additional market opportunities from warranties.

"Everything we do revolves around our channel partners," Hanin said.

"I urge resellers to consider: will other vendors allow them to offer tablets? Will they support them in the long-term? Particularly in this tablet space, with so many vendors in the market, that becomes very important."

This article originally appeared at crn.com