Asus Eee Tablet interview

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Posted on 11 Jun 2010 at 10:32

We managed to catch up with Eee Tablet Project Section Manager Steven Chiang at the launch event last week at Computex for a short question and answer session on the innovative, but questionably named Eee Tablet. Here's a transcript of our brief discussion.

Expert Reviews: Hi Steven, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to answer some of our questions. Can you tell us why did Asus decide to make an upgraded eBook?

Steven Chiang: The current products on the market are not interactive, so the student will have difficulty in adding their own thoughts to the notes they have in front of them. We use the passive TFT LCD without backlight under a very high sensitivity touch screen because it's faster than e-ink so it's both comfortable to read and have a much faster page turning and hand writing response. It's perfect for mobile business, teaching and student use.

ER: Are you not afraid people will confuse the term "Tablet" with other pad/tablet-style products on the market, considering it's more akin to an e-reader?

SC: I don't think so. The term "Pad" has been taken for a touch-screen device without a keyboard so we are now using 'Eee Tablet' for our product that's far more functional than just an e-reader. You can create media on this, not just consume, and it'll even do web-browsing like other portable touch-screen products.

ER: What powers the Asus Eee Tablet?

SC: It's a 624MHz Marvell ARM processor with a customised Asus operating system.

ER: How much storage space does it have on it?

SC: 2GB internal, and there's an additional micro-SD slot in the bottom too.

ER: What about WiFi or 3G?

SC: Yes it has WiFi, we are only focusing on this for now because 3G requires additional contracts which is not suitable for this kind of device.

ER: Have you had any interest in it already from academic institutions?

SC: We've been in contact with libraries already and we will support the Adobe DRM standard for e-books.

ER: Is it connected with the recently announced Asus Cloud?

SC: Yes, it will include the Asus Cloud service and we have an e-book portal too.

ER: What is the evolution for future Eee Tablet products?

SC: I think colour will be the next step - now the power saving colour panels without backlight are very limited: the technology is not very mature and even the colour e-ink is not that good so we are still studying the options.

ER: What about AMOLED for colour (such as the one used in Microsoft’s Zune HD and some smartphones)?

SC: AMOLED has very high power consumption because even a black or white background (like paper) consumes power. Plus, emissive displays are not suitable for long term reading, we have avoided it in the Eee Tablet because it strains the eyes.

Author: Richard Swinburne in Taipei