Sharp Galapagos tablets ship in December

Sharp started the week by detailing the launches of its Android tablets and their accompanying e-book store. Both called Galapagos, the combination focuses on a Kindle-style automatic subscription download service that pushes new issues in the background. The tablets are based on full LCDs and support color images as well as complex layouts for books, including XMDF.

The tablets themselves are focused on legibility first and include both a sharp 5.5-inch, 1024x600 model as well as a 10.8-inch, 1366x800 version suitable for magazine spreads. Either supports regular Android tasks, such as the web, and also supports extras such as an Office document reader and a social networking app with reading as a focus. Most versions will only have 802.11g Wi-Fi for networking, but Sharp plans a Verizon edition with 3G.

Both the Galapagos tablets and the readers ship in December with 30,000 books and periodicals attached. Sharp hasn't given pricing but will keep the tablet costs low for the subsidized Verizon model.

Although focusing on e-readers first, the company has readily said it thought it could challenge Apple's iPad by giving devices that can work as general purpose devices and not just reading. [via Impress]

By Electronista Staff

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