While everybody is all doe-eyed over the iPad, thinking that this is the future of mobile computing, Intel says otherwise. Instead of the ultra-sleek touch screen tablet being the future, Intel believes that swivel tablets are what mobile computing will be focusing on in the coming years.
The Intel Developer Forum, set to take place next week in San Francisco, is said to house more details about ultrabooks, Intel’s keyword for ultrathin laptops that come complete with swiveling touchscreens, as well as details about new chips for laptops and tablets.
According to CFO of Intel Stacy Smith, “Form factors in the notebook market have been somewhat stagnant over the last several years. New ultrabook designs coming over the next 18 months should change that.” However, the idea of a swivel tablet is not a new concept.
PC manufacturers have been dipping their toes in these waters since the Windows XP era with computers like the Acer TravelMate 100. In more recent days, however, Fujitsu’s Lifebook T580 tried to bring about the best of both the tablet and laptop worlds with a $1000 swiveling netbook. Dell also took on a slightly different approach with the Inspiron Duo which has a touchscreen that flips down along an outer frame.
The sad part is that none of those products really caught on like the iPad did. That may be due in part to the fact that Windows has never really been designed to work on a touchscreen or the fact that the hardware for such devices is bulky and, more often than not, more expensive than modern tablets.
The upcoming Windows 8 may solve the first issue though hardware may be an ever-burdening threat. Non-touchscreen Ultrabooks displayed by PC makers so far are still rather expensive costing around $1000 on average for basic configurations.
Source: PC World – Intel Pushes the Swivel Tablet
