China ZTE to launch Android tablet

ZTE, the fast-growing Chinese telecom equipment maker, has introduced its first tablet PC, in a sign of further competition in the growing new market segment. The company said it would start selling the ZTE Light, a device with a seven inch touchscreen, before the end of the year.

The device runs on Android, the open source software platform created by Google.

ZTE plans to sell the tablet through retail channels as well as in partnerships with telecom operators. All of the devices will carry the ZTE brand, but some may be co-branded with mobile operators, the company said.

So far the bulk of ZTE�s revenues come from the sale of telecom infrastructure equipment such as routers. But its shipments of handsets and other mobile devices are growing fast, and the company has said it aims to expand this segment to match revenues from the network gear segment.

ZTE said last month it sold 28m handsets globally in the first half of this year, 40 per cent more than in the same period in 2009.

Related articles

• "ZTE Light, a 7-inch Android tablet" and related posts (androidauthority.com)
• ZTE joins tablet PC bandwagon with Android offering (reuters.com)

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Dell CEO Flashes 7-inch Android Tablet Computer

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) � Dell is working on a 7-inch tablet that runs Google's Android operating software.

Not much else is publicly known about the computer. Dell CEO Michael Dell flashed it briefly Wednesday at Oracle's annual conference in San Francisco, but offered no hard details. Dell spokesman Matthew Parretta declined to say when the prototype would go on sale.

Dell is just one of many consumer electronics companies scrambling to crack the computer industry's most compelling new niche. Apple's iPad proved consumers are interested and willing to pay � the company sold 3.3 million in the first quarter iPads were available. Some analysts say iPads have already started eating away at laptop sales.

Just as Apple's iPhone set the bar for the smartphone industry, the iPad, with its 9.7-inch screen, is now the reference point for future tablets, making it harder for companies with a different vision to compete.
Dell's first move in the modern tablet space was a much smaller gadget called the Streak, which went on sale in August. It has a 5-inch screen and runs a version of Android; it can also make phone calls on AT&T's network.

The Streak got a chilly reception, with critics saying the device was too awkward to use as a giant phone and too small to use as a computer. The response highlights another of the industry's biggest challenges: resolving the identity crises that crop up when devices try to do too many things at once.

  

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