NTT DoCoMo said carrying LG's Optimus Pad to counter iPad
updated 12:20 pm EST, Sat January 1, 2011
NTT DoCoMo tipped for LG Android tablet
Japanese carrier NTT DoCoMo may be one of the first adoptees of the LG Optimus Pad early next year. A claim by the Nikkei business press on Saturday referred to the carrier getting a mystery tablet with a screen under nine inches and a Google platform, matching the description of the already known device. Its only definite detail was a launch before the end of March.
The Optimus Pad is so far known to have an 8.9-inch display and should be one of the showcase devices for Honeycomb, or Android 2.4. It would appropriately use NVIDIA's dual-core Tegra 2, the reference chip for the platform, and could have both front and back cameras like most tablets being released in 2011.
DoCoMo's move would follow a pattern it has taken of using Korean Android devices to fight Apple. While it was relatively quick to adopt the Samsung Galaxy S and temporarily fend off the iPhone, it has so far had no direct answer to the iPad. Apple recently stepped up its competitive pressure by letting SoftBank give iPads for free on contract where NTT DoCoMo isn't as aggressive with the Galaxy Tab.
Fresh-Faced Recruit
Joined: Nov 2008
The weird thing is, these companies don't
seem to be doing this for consumers. It's like they're just doing it to challenge Apple which makes little sense for a long-term strategy. They didn't even have tablets before, so it's not as if the iPad invaded their space or anything. Consumers weren't even using tablets, so why all of a sudden would all these companies try to compete with Apple. It's hard to believe that all those dozens and dozens of companies are going to rely on Google's Android to wrestle tablet market share from Apple. They'll all be running the same hardware and hopefully the same OS. What's going to set any one company apart from all the rest.